Hope and Community in a Garden
- Wits University
The launch of the Wits Food Sovereignty Hub strengthens the drive to reclaim food production and increase community gardens.
Located at West Campus, the Hub opened on 22 May 2025 is a multi-purpose site for food production, knowledge sharing and experimentation that will benefit both students and communities around the Wits University.
Food insecurity continues to be a concern in an economy marked by job losses, high unemployment among other factors that make food inaccessible for many individuals and households.
In May 2025, Johannesburg was once again named the most expensive city in South Africa when it comes to groceries, followed by Cape Town and Durban, respectively.
Building food systems that are independent of financial input is key to solving hunger, with community gardens being at the centre of viable solutions.
The Hub aims to fill the gap by building on existing knowledge and tapping into partnerships.
A localised food system
The first food garden on the Braamfontein Campus at Wits University was started in 2015 under the leadership of Prof. Vishwas Satgar, working with students, and the Wits Citizenship and Community Outreach (WCCO), to alleviate food insecurity among students.
“Its success demonstrated that we could build a localised food system on campus and flip the problem by having gardens and fruit trees on campus,” says Satgar.
Since then, several gardens have sprouted across campus leading to other initiatives such as gardening workshops led by small farmers, attracting communities from around the city. Many of these participated in the Farmer’s Market on campus giving them direct access to the Wits markets while also helping Witsies to purchase responsibly produced fresh produce.
The spirit of collaboration and sustainable farming lies at the heart of the Wits Food Sovereignty Hub, a partnership between Copac and WCCO. The Hub has been designed to accommodate indoor training workshops, a seedbank, a nursery and compost site.
Qhawe Mahlalela, South African Food Sovereignty Campaign, stressed that the solution to hunger doesn’t only lie with big business.
“We are keen to test zero-input farming at this site. Whatever we learn at this site will be rolled out to communities.”
She added that gardens are revolutionary, empowering and decrease reliance on aid. “Donations are dependent on external factor. Gardens are our own.”
Karuna Singh, Manager 雷速体育_雷速体育直播 Support and Community Outreach at the WCCO reinforced that the partners have a shared purpose to create sustainable communities as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The gardens on campus help to support food insecure students by providing fresh vegetables. Furthermore, they also bring a sense of community and promote mental well-being as students get to work alongside staff members.
Garden volunteers can get in touch with aqeelah.hendrickse@wits.ac.za
#Nutrition #FoodSecurity #SustainableDiets