SACK GARDENS OFFER A CONSISTENT SUPPLY OF FRESH VEGGIES

Participants in our new Strong & Healthy Young Women program recently learned how to build kitchen sack gardens as part of a workshop promoting better nutrition.

The young women start planting a sack garden by inserting sukuma wiki seedlings into holes around the side

These sacks full of soil and manure take very little space and require minimal effort to weed and water yet the technique produces quite a bit of food. With their own multi-story gardens at home, the 26 young women involved and their children will have a consistent and convenient, year-round variety of fresh vegetables for their kitchens.

The young women learned about the importance of different vegetables for maternal and child nutrition in a workshop, and, afterward, they went outside to practice building a multi-story sack garden. KOCC graduate Priscah Chamasia recently completed a diploma in nutrition and a hospital internship advising new mothers, so she was the perfect teacher for the workshop and was happy to contribute.

Following the nutrition workshop, the twenty-six young women and Priscah got hands-on experience by filling and planting vegetable sack gardens on a small strip of empty land behind the Care Centre. Soon, participants will be harvesting their own sack garden produce at home, and the low-cost planters pictured in this post will be producing food for Care Centre children while serving as an inspiration to visitors and passerby.

KOCC graduate and nutritionist Priscah Chamasia instructs participants on the health benefits of eating a diversity of fresh vegetables

KOCC grad Priscah helps separate seedlings for planting

Our farming expert Alfred plants one of many small, moveable sack gardens

Workshop instructor Alfred Kitayi (left) talks participants through the initial steps of building a multi-story sack garden

Participants begin to fill the multi-story sack garden after it is anchored with stones

A young woman punctures holes on the side of a sack, to prepare for planting sukuma wiki (collard greens), nightshade, spinach, and tomatoes

With nearly 200 stems planted, this demonstration garden will soon produce a lot of veggies from a small space, augmenting what the Care Centre buys and inspiring visitors to make their own