The Anglican Diocese of Zululand held its Environmental Indaba on the 24th of February and aims to set up a Diocesan nursery to supply seeds so that there can be a food garden at every parish
The Archdeaconry Environmental Chaplains and reps per Archdeaconry came together at KwaNzimela Diocesan Centre in Melmoth.
The Diocesan Environmental team, aims to establish a vegetable garden at each of their parishes across the diocese . Once the gardens have been set up, the team would monitor it as to how will it benefit each parish. And once parishes benefit from gardening, then, the diocese has less parishes that struggle to pay diocesan shares. This vision comes at the right time as the Diocese already hosted vegetable gardening trainings between September and August of 2023, these would then be the main pioneers intrusted with taking this vision further.
Towards the end of the 2023 trainings there was a vision that was born out of it. The Diocesan Environmental team met with the Diocesan Bishop, the Diocesan coordinator of Masinakekelane ,as well as the Diocesan Youth Chaplain in which a proposal to partner with the diocesan youth was made. The aim of the proposal is to construct a Nursery to supply seeds to those wanting to have vegetable gardens, this proposal has been welcome by all stakeholders within the Diocese including the youth . The plan now is to choose the right location to setup the nursery.
During the meeting one of the Archdeaconry Chaplain’s shared that last year he made more than R34 000 through planting. He supplies vegetables to such supermarkets as Spar and Boxer. In return one of the supermarkets gave back some pairs of shoes and school uniform. That emphasised why our focus is more on gardening since the diocese is mostly rural
Rev Nkosi, Diocese of Zululand
