Female teacher’s efforts to support improved school feeding
“Before this project, we were always encouraged to grow vegetables but we didn’t know how”
Among the 31 teachers at Groupe Scolaire Kiizi in Nyamagabe District, is one Anathalie Mukankundiye who also doubles as an Agronomist. The school started it’s partnership with World Food Programmes’ Home Grown School Feeding Project implemented by Gardens for Health (GHI) in 2018.
Anathalie attends to one of the creative school gardens
Kicked off with training and providing seeds, GHI’s partnership with the school not only improved both teachers and student’s nutrition but also changed their perception about growing and eating enough vegetables with their meals and it’s value.
Whenever the school would receive seeds, they would make it a point to make their own seedlings that they would later transplant to different parts of the school garden.
For the very first time, the school received carrots, Amaranth, onions Spinach and Sukuma wiki from GHI. That was also the time they learnt that cabbages are not as nutritious as they always thought.
It was an exciting moment for many of the teachers and students; they got to learn about some new vegetables including Sukumawiki and Spinach. Unlike the first time they tried any of these vegetables, they now love them.
Before working with GHI, the school used to have a minimum amount of food each day to prepare for the students so that they could have enough for the following days.
Because they now grow their own vegetables, most times they go beyond these measurements and are able to share their harvest with children and teachers so that they can take home to cook and share with their families.
Anathalie is not worried about the continuity of the school’s farming activities. All students are able to participate in all the Agriculture activities. Besides, the school also formed an Agriculture club that follows up with most of the activities and allows students to practice everything they learn about vegetable growing.
