Garden project uplifts residents

THE project to uplift the Flamingo Heights informal settlement in Lansdowne has launched a new community vegetable garden, championed by one of the residents to ensure food security and restore dignity to the environment.

Food gardens have received a lot of recognition over the past two years for their ability to ensure food security for whole communities that are struggling with retrenchments and inflated food prices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Resident Nigel Africa agreed to champion this community project. Africa has already grown and harvested lettuce, onions, beetroot, parsley, spinach, cabbages, chillies, green beans and chickpeas in the garden.

Ward councillor Mark Kleinschmidt said the general upliftment of Flamingo Heights was ongoing and the garden project was one of many that has been under way since the beginning of the year.

Kleinschmidt said the garden project was a food source and promoted responsibility, pride, respect and dignity in Flamingo Heights and the larger Lansdowne area.

Africa would also be training teenagers in the area on gardening and the security of the garden patches situated in front of the Flamingo Heights informal settlement, which would also enhance the general front façade of the settlement.

The educational component of this garden project was aimed at encouraging teenagers to become custodians and take ownership of their community.

Western Cape Agriculture and Environmental Affairs spokesperson Andricus van der Westhuizen said: “Community gardens form an integral role of social development and food security, particularly in areas in which hunger and unemployment are increasingly prevalent.”