In March 2019, Spier celebrated the launch of the Living Soils Community Learning Farm in partnership with the Sustainability Institute and Woolworths.
The Living Soils Community Learning Farm reflects a model for community-based food security using sustainable farming methods, training and developing young farmers in an effort to address local youth unemployment. A core purpose of the farm has been to experiment and explore how to build capacity and know-how through experiential learning for young and emerging farmers and youth in the Cape Winelands area.
From this vision, a Living Soils internship has emerged, providing the opportunity for practical skills development to grow food by receiving hands-on experience on the farm, coupled with the entrepreneurial and management skills required to run a farming enterprise, and personal development such as leadership, facilitation and communication.
Rirhandzu Marivate, project manager of the Living Soils Community Learning Farm, and her team discovered that it was easy for people to learn how to grow food but making a business out of it was the real challenge. Therefore, entrepreneurial skills are an important aspect of the internship, incorporating both personal and business financial management, as well as agronomy, farm management and their associated planning process. It was evident to the Living Soils team that the internship would need to support holistic development by not only providing hard and practical skills, but the soft ones necessary for mental and emotional wellbeing too. In this way, when leaving the internship, individuals are not only capacitated but empowered to carry themselves with confidence and determination.
The Living Soils Community Learning Farm currently offers opportunities for young farmers and the local youth, empowering them with the skills and experience needed to address food insecurity in local communities.
Rirhandzu has overseen the sterling efforts of the farm’s first three interns, all women originally from the Eastern Cape: Phutuma Mgu, Vuyolwethu Zicina, Thandiwe Mtyingizani. After clearing the land and preparing it using agroecological methods to regenerate the soil with beneficial microorganisms and nutrients, the trio planted a wide range of vegetables. The first harvest was in November 2019; by March 2020, an astonishing 1700 kilograms of produce had been harvested – from just under a hectare of land. This bounty was used to prepare meals for approximately 200 impoverished and at-risk children from the Lynedoch community.
Following the successful conclusion of the three’s internships, they have remained to take on leadership positions, mentoring the new interns who join the farm. This year, 16 new interns have started their journey at Living Soils.
The young farmers joining Living Soils know how to farm sustainably, but in the internship, they learn the context for why this is important through an introduction to food systems. Living Soil’s permaculturalist Yoliswa Mahobe guides the interns to a new understanding of the interconnection between nature and growing food, putting ‘heart’ back into sustainable food farming.
Not everyone wants to be a farmer however, so a part of the internship is also to identify other areas for individuals to become change agents, enabling them to work within the food system in more than one way.
Living Soils sets the foundations of what the internships need to cover, but each programme is specifically created for the present group using a design thinking process. This way, the internship never looks the same and caters to curiosities, needs and gaps that the farmers and youth identify themselves. The programme is then structured based on what is generally important to the unique group. Co-creating the process cultivates a sense of ownership and shared responsibility between the facilitators and interns.
The youth unemployment rate in South Africa is currently at 64%; in this context, Living Soils finds it essential to offer an above-minimum-wage stipend for all internships. Like unemployment, food insecurity is persistent and widespread in South Africa where malnutrition, from stunting to obesity co-exist with major impacts on health and wellbeing. The Living Soils youth internship is hoping to address this in the wider Lynedoch community by reconnecting its members to their food system, and empowering them to become change agents for food security, livelihood and a relationship with nature, heritage and self.
The aim of Living Soils in offering internships is to respond to youth unemployment and the need for skills development in the country while making meaningful change in the lives of their interns and their communities. It is fairly new and acknowledged that there is a lot of learning and reflection that needs to be done in order to continue to improve and ensure that what is offered is valuable. Living Soils is looking to partner with other training institutions and bring in more facilitators to contribute to the programme.
There are plenty of good news stories about upliftment and transformation in the South African wine industry. The #wineforgood website, launched by wine.co.za in June 2016, hosts all the positive stories from the winelands, of which there are plenty. wine.co.za has made April a focus for #wineforgood stories. Share them far and wide and spread the good news about South African wine. If you'd like to submit a story, please email editor@wine.co.za.