Ssamba Foundation’s schools kitchen gardens project supports schools to improve their health and wellbeing through edible gardening and healthy eating activities. Schools kitchen gardens are a wonderful way to use the school yard as a classroom.
Feeding the increasing number of children attending our local schools and those who just find their way to the schools is overwhelming to school administrators. Coupled with the pandemic which has devastated the economy in Uganda, the challenge will be bigger than before.
Ssamba Foundation is looking at empowering local schools through our the Schools Kitchen Gardens project. The project will cater for over 10 schools in Kyampisi Subcounty which support orphans and vulnerable children living in very poor households, living on less than $1 a day.
The Schools Kitchen Gardens Project is a fun, hands-on learning program delivering pleasurable food and environment conservation education. With strong curriculum integration and a focus on student wellbeing, collaboration and leadership, students learn to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal, delicious food – forming positive food habits for life.
THE SCHOOLS KITCHEN GARDEN PROJECT
The schools kitchen gardens project is an innovative curricular program based on school children planting a garden and then learning to cook with the foods they grow. The program teaches students many life skills, along with teaching them about nutrition, the environment, sustainability, and almost every school subject.
The Ssamba Foundation will facilitate the development of schools kitchen gardens to primary and secondary schools wanting to start a kitchen garden. Our plan is to offer a nutritious lunch program to 100% of all vulnerable children attending these schools and eventually become a model in the community.
CHILDREN INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROGRAM
The children will help with the different tasks, each choosing the activities they like best. The children will get the opportunity of learning all the varieties being grown and how to save seeds from each one. Inter-cropped will the gardens be with varieties of green amaranth, eggplant, cabbages, gooseberries and carrots. All of the harvested vegetables and foods will be used for school meals.
We also plan to develop a community participation model where local people work with the school children and administrators to help the schools kitchen gardens project be successful. Nevertheless, the students will be required to work in the gardens as part of their school curriculum.
In fact, it is impossible to keep them away, because students love to work in the dirt, and it is a pleasure for them to watch seeds sprout into plants, and ultimately into food they can enjoy. One innovative aspect of this program is the incorporation of the gardens into the school curriculum, so that kids learn concepts by using the garden as a laboratory. Learning-by-doing is wonderful, because it reinforces the lessons by making them real.
THE BENEFITS OF THE PROGRAM
These schools kitchen gardens initiative is a win-win situation because it will allow the children to enjoy a more nutritious and varied diet as well as a badly needed support the school. Ssamba Foundation is running this project through Education and Family support services to orphans, vulnerable children and low-income families living in Kyampisi Subcounty.
We believe that the children and families we serve need not only the programs that we offer, but the support to develop the tools to become self-sufficient when they are no longer enrolled in our programs. We are dedicated to enhancing families’ self-sufficiency and providing children with a foundation to be successful.
As well as instilling positive food habits in students through growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh produce, a school kitchen garden program offers:
- life and practical skills
- student wellbeing and connectedness
- alternate ways of learning for increased engagement
- investigations into sustainability and food security
Our goal is to empower communities and reduction of poverty through a combination of education, nutrition, healthcare and income generating activities.
To Support this Project, please Donate Here
Thank You!
Ssamba Foundation Communications Department