Parish of Umhlali – All Souls’. Anglican Church of Southern Africa Diocese of Natal
Food security and Agricultural development are two things that are close to my heart.
There are major challenges to overcome in the South African Context, around the stigma of being involved with Agriculture, (especially vegetables) and the lack of resources, access to markets and the ability to develop markets. A complete paradigm shift is required to adequately address these challenges.
The All Souls’ Anglican Church, (Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Diocese of Natal), Soul Foods project, aims to work at understanding and addressing the real issues and building capacity to develop this change of mindset.
Farming God’s way is a Gospel tool, not just a farming method, and so is ideal for our purposes. Soul Foods was blessed to receive various funding to re-establish our Garden and conduct training during 2023.
Two three-day training workshops were held, and 180 people received training in the Farming God’s Way methodology. Participants saw a working garden in production as well as “Gardens of faithfulness” and active compost making facilities.
Learning about soils and how to improve them is a key component of the methodology. Using natural processes and crop rotation, and soil can be built up to produce good quality vegetables.
It is our intention to establish a better follow-up system with ongoing support for projects in our area. Identifying execution gaps can only be effectively done with a well- organized /funded follow up program. The project has been successful, with a lot of learning taking place.
Challenges with weather and pests is an ongoing aspect of farming. We are hopeful for 2024 and look forward to training more people and getting more people into the food security mindset.
A drip irrigation system has been put into our main garden and a Jojo Tank was installed (funded by sales). Training is an expensive venture when travelling and catering are accounted for, but well worth it. We firmly believe that this project is worth investing in and are grateful to all our supporters, and the Farming God’s way Trainers. Love and peace.
Ven Andrew Manning
We are grateful for the support of the United Thank Offering for the training for this project
