THE Jeffreys Bay Dorp van Drome, a local organisation dedicated to cleaning and beautifying the town, has joined forces with the Co-op Community Trust to transform the nursery and vegetable garden along Felix Street in Humansdorp, to assist with employment and share surplus produce with local soup kitchens.
Loulita Vosloo, a member of Jeffreys Bay Dorp van Drome, said that they began their Panorama Nursery Initiative across the road from the SAPS K9 Dog Unit along Felix Street in January this year.
She said that the nursery was in an abandoned state.
After working at the nursery for the past few weeks, Vosloo mentioned that it is now covered with cuttings and shade cloth, generously sponsored by citrus farmers.
Further elaborating on the nursery, she said that through the partnership they have formed with the Kouga Municipality Parks and Co-op Community Trust, they will be distributing the plants to beautify various sections within the Kouga area.
“Many beddings will be open to sunlight to start propagating flower cuttings to generate plants for our Kouga region gardens,” said Vosloo.
“We are working hand in hand with all involved to get this nursery operating as a full nursery for Kouga Municipality Parks.”
Fortunately, while the Dorp van Drome team worked on the nursery, the Co-op Community Trust, with help from the Social Employment Fund Programme (SEF) and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), was eager to assist 1,000 unemployed people in the Sarah Baartman District and began establishing a vegetable garden alongside the nursery.
Lunga Mlangeni from Co-op Community said they currently have 20 people working in the vegetable garden.
“The workers work daily at the vegetable garden to maintain the beddings, water the plants, and see to the general upkeep of the plants,” said Mlangeni.
He said that through the programme, the workers receive training in plant propagation and regenerative farming to empower them to establish their own gardens where possible.
“The harvest is used for their own consumption and the rest is sold to help develop the nursery,” said Mlangeni.
“The goal of the vegetable garden and nursery is to provide training and a hub of knowledge for the SEF workers and the greater local small-scale farming communities. We focus on developing garden managers who will learn the skills of entrepreneurship, rather than creating dependency on soup kitchens.”
He further said that they would greatly appreciate donations of seedlings and seeds to propagate more vegetables.
While a large focus is on entrepreneurial skills development, Mlangeni said that they donate to soup kitchens when there is a surplus of vegetables.
He further added that they would greatly appreciate a donation of a fridge to store their vegetables, ensuring they remain fresh.
