There’s food on my rooftop

 

Johannesburg’s rooftops will soon be sprouting edible greenery. 

The City of Johannesburg’s pilot rooftop garden has been a resounding success. Now, more rooftop gardens are to be established throughout the city this summer.

 

The pilot, which is linked to the City’s initiatives to ensure food resilience and security, was initiated at a facility run by the Displaced Persons Unit in Kotze Street in the Johannesburg inner city.

 

“We used this facility as a pilot project to assess the concept of using a portion of the available rooftop for food gardening. Our objective, especially in Region F, which is a metropolitan area characterised by high-rise buildings, is to utilise available space optimally as space for conventional food gardening is limited,” says Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Health and Social Development, Councillor Nonceba Molwele. The project is part of the City’s Agriculture and Food Security and Resilience Programme.

 

The City’s rooftop gardens initiative is aimed at increasing access to food for the poor and the vulnerable and to improve nutritional security.

Vegetables and herbs planted for maximum nutritional benefit include spinach, kale/chimolia, beetroot, lettuce, coriander, rocket, baby cabbage and parsley.

 

The project also has an additional environmental benefit in that resources used to establish the gardens include recyclable items such as tyres to create beds, and plastic bottles for seedling trays and watering tools.

Says MMC Molwele“The Food Resilience Programme is aimed at poverty alleviation through food security. It also seeks to feed those who would otherwise go to bed without a meal.

 

“Looking at targets to alleviate poverty and hunger in the city, with many indigent people living in high-rise buildings, the most effective way to achieve this is to utilise available space.

 

“We utilise natural and available resources that are accessible to the poor and have shown that a goal can be achieved at very little cost. The programme is aimed at the poor and this necessitated that the solution be cost-effective.”

 

The gardens will be tended by identified tenants. Produce will then benefit these tenants by being prepared at the facilities’ kitchens to provide a nutritious daily meal. Ndlovu says the gardens also have other paybacks. These include skills transfer as tenants will be able to build up practical and technical knowledge.

 

“A further spin-off of the garden would be the training and education of the young people in the area to ensure youth involvement,” she said.

The rooftop gardens and other food security projects speak to the City’s Growth and Development Strategy 2040 (GDS 2040) in that they aim to substantially reduce non-communicable diseases or lifestyle diseases through the promotion of healthy eating and lifestyle choices, as well as to ensure increased food resilience and security.