Reddam House launch the Sustainability Project with Love our trails.
Love our trails is excited to share the Reddam House College sustainability project with you. This is our second school sustainability project and we are sure it’s not our last.
In 2019 we piloted a school sustainability project with the French School of Cape Town.
This project included a number of elements.
School Talks. Each team we focused on a new topic. What is waste, Where does waste go? Single use plastic, Bio products, recycling, Reuse or repurpose, Circular thinking, Composting and vegetable gardens.
This was supported with a hiking program that connected students to nature, and indirectly taught leadership and teamwork.
We started a composting program that worked with Bokashi compost bins and worm farming. This was not a smooth process with lockdown and we have learnt lots from this but I still believe this is an important part of our sustainable journey.
Lastly we planted Vegetable gardens, each class planted their own vegetables and maintained it. Originally the idea was to use the vegetables in the school canteen for the students lunch. Lockdown meant homeschooling and so the students opted to make soup for the homeless. It was really amazing to see how the students valued the food they had grown and how rewarding it was to help someone in need.
I am really excited to see the French School of Cape Town continuing with the composting and vegetable gardens now that students are back at school.
It was this success that made me realise how important sustainability and environmental education is in schools.
The good news is that lots of schools are interested and the Department of Education is introducing agriculture into the education system amongst other subjects that will help protect this planet.
In November 2020 we launched the Reddam House Sustainability Project.
We look at environmental education is different for each school depending on age and resources, making sure we keep it fun, relevant and accessible in their households and communities.
Reddam House College in Constantia started a social entrepreneur program that students will work together to come up with solutions to address social or environmental challenges and then create a micro business. This teaches them the importance of People, Planet and Profit.
The Love our trails Sustainability Project fitted in perfectly kicking off with a talk before giving each class a garden that they will be responsible for.
The goal was for each class to work in groups to plant, maintain and harvest their vegetables. Oh and they had to turn this into a micro business that can self sustain itself.
It was inspiring to hear the ideas these young minds came up with.
Some of the ideas included making smoothies to sell at after school sports and extra murals while other classes looked at opportunities to feed people in the surrounding underprivileged areas.
Love our trails partnered with Reel Gardening who have amazing solutions for homes, workplaces and schools.
Reel Gardening ensured each class had a box with labeled seeds, composting sticks and labeled seeds for each team. What excited me the most was including Reddam House into the Reel Gardening network and app that will allow Spaza shop owners to buy fresh organic vegetables for the school to sell on.
The App officially launches this month, December 2020.
This is an amazing way to support micro farming, bring down our carbon footprint on food and fight world hunger as many South Africans go to bed hungry every day all while teaching the youth about sustainability, social impact and entrepreneurship.
If you are interested in environmental education, sustainability or hiking at your school please reach out. I would love to share what I have learnt.
