In a dusty schoolyard behind Kanyanya Church of Uganda Primary School in the capital city of Kampala, rows of vibrant green garden sacks are lined up outside the classrooms. The once-forgotten corner of the compound now hosts a vegetable garden that feeds pupils, empowers youth and shows waste can be given a second life.

In a country where 26 percent of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to the Uganda Ministry of Health, the community farming initiative provides a lifeline and brings much-needed work for single mothers and youth.

The movement started in 2021, when Namaganda Annet, then 24, began planting vegetables in empty rice sacks outside her rented room during the COVID-19 lockdown. “I had no land or capital,” Annet said. “Just a few sacks and the will to survive. Then I thought, ‘What if more youth could join me, and we grew food not just for ourselves, but for schools?’”

Today, her initiative, known as Kanyanya Youth Urban Oasis, has expanded to three urban farming sites in the city. Using rice sacks and recycled bottles filled with soil and stacked on tiered shelves, the avid farmers grow tomatoes, local grains known as amaranth or dodo, and a variety of eggplants known as nakati, among other crops. They harvest nearly 500 kilograms of vegetables each month. With that, they generally contribute to two school lunches per week for hundreds of pupils.

Getting Schools on Board with the Youth-Led Garden Movement

In late 2022, the group approached Kanyanya Church of Uganda Primary School with an offer: Give us land, and we will give you food.

“We had our doubts,” said Josephine Nalwoga, the school’s headmistress. “But the students were hungry, it was cheaper [than other alternatives], and the idea was innovative.”

To start, the school gave them a small space to farm, which quickly expanded into a food forest, Nalwoga said.

Now, the school serves vegetables from the farm with its meals twice a week. Hadijah Nakasi, the school cook, sees the difference firsthand.

“Before, we only served posho and boiled beans,” she said. Posho is a mix of maize flour and water, often served as a side dish. “Now, we add greens from the sacks. The pupils enjoy the food more, it’s healthier and they even ask for seconds.”

Read the full article about the Kanyanya Youth Urban Oasis initiative by Nanfuka Fatuma at TriplePundit.