Skip to main content

A Guaranteed Healthy Meal

"By training and demonstrating best farming methods, we are working to fight food security in our region starting with children.”

Community Gardens

What: Demonstration gardens, tree nursery, and environmental clubs for youth that teach sustainable farming methods and promote environmental awareness. 

Why: The Maai Mahiu region is affected by extreme drought and deforestation, which severely limits food production and results in many families having only one meal each day. “We strongly believe that our ‘Each one, teach one’ model is the best approach on sustainability, ownership and development. By training and demonstrating best farming methods, we are working to fight food security in our region starting with children,” said CTC’s Environmental Coordinator Rocky Muuri. Without the school gardens, student lunches would consist only of maize and beans each day. A guaranteed healthy meal each day provides more incentive for students to attend school.

How: 
  • Working in collaboration with Mama Hope and Yes to Carrots, we currently have school gardens and environmental clubs at both Namuncha Primary School and Maai Mahiu Primary School. 
  • The gardens consist of a variety of vegetables including kale, spinach, onions, and tomatoes. 
  • The yield harvested in the gardens supplements school lunches, providing over 1,450 students with healthy vegetables. 
  • Currently 87 students are enrolled in CTC’s Environmental Club at Maai Mahiu Primary and 61 are enrolled at Namuncha Primary. 
  • Our first school garden at Ngeya Primary School, was created in 2009. We have since graduated the program and turned it over to the school to run.
  • A tree nursery located at Ngeya Primary was first established in 2007. Over 5,000 trees have been planted in the community to date.
  • The clubs meet after school twice per week, with one day as theory and learning day and the other as a hands-on work day.
  • We are looking to expand the program and potentially add more gardens at other schools.

Our Newest Endeavor: Now that we have successfully connected to a sustainable water source on the CTC land, we have planted a large-scale demonstration garden. Here we will host trainings for community members on technologies such as composting, bucket irrigation, and bag gardens.

 
      
 

Further Reading: Watch students from CTC's Environmental Club show off their vegetables in this great video from Mama Hope!

 
Partners: