Moshi, TZ – Commercial Banana & Crop Garden is a step on the Grow your Own Breakfast (GOB) program’s path to sustainability – June 2023

It is one year now since the collaboration between the Mwangaria Community, Tupendane team, Richard Challoner School students and teachers from UK built up both the commercial and feeding gardens of banana trees and vegetables at Mwangaria Primary school farm.

Children and teachers from Mwangaria have been able to feed themselves from their harvests, a success that has created a more enjoyable and energetic teaching and learning atmosphere at the school and a huge relief and appreciation for the parents and the whole community of Mwangaria Village.

During this June month of schools holidays, the commercial gardens were able to sell banana bunches and gain enough money to purchase bean seeds for the volunteer parents who will do the land clearing and planting for about 1.25 acre of beans.

The beans harvests will play a major role in the daily school breakfast servings ingredients and also reduce the amount of parents contribution to the school. This saves resources as an important step towards the school feeding program’s sustainability. Tupendane will continue reducing its investment in the program and allow it to move towards a self running sustainable program.

Tupendane is hoping to keep building these wonderful collaborations of different stakeholders by improving the quality of self-supervision and upgrading water and facilities infrastructure to facilitate smooth operation of the program.