Social Change Assistance Trust (SCAT) – Northern & Eastern Cape

For over 37 years, the Social Change Assistance Trust (SCAT) has focused on vulnerable communities providing funding, field support and capacity-building programmes to small, community-based organisations (CBOs).  As part of its programmes, SCAT provides support to community food gardening projects in Danielskuil and Pampierstad in the Northern Cape and Alicedale in the Eastern Cape, which are lacking the resources to expand and upscale their projects. As a beneficiary of the Woolworths Christmas GIVE campaign, SCAT continues to invest in these initiatives and empower communities. 

Dr Joanne Harding, SCAT’s Executive Director says, “This intervention will prioritise women and children who are the most vulnerable to food insecurity in South Africa. While ensuring every South African’s constitutional right to food requires multiple strategies, home and community food gardens have stood the test of time in their role of providing food and income for families. They are a vital strategy to increase the availability and accessibility to a healthy variety of fresh food, and there is a direct link between successful home gardens and households’ nutritional status.”

The main objectives of SCAT’s Programme are: 

• To increase the capacity of the identified CBOs to run effective communal and household gardens in communities. 
• To improve the nutrition for individuals and families in these communities. 
• To bring social cohesion through working together to increase food availability in communities. 
• To reduce dependence on industrial agriculture and supermarket-bought food. 

The achievements of the SCAT Programmes include: 

• At the start of the Programme, SCAT worked with already established food gardens - Care Alicedale (Eastern Cape) and Kgatelopele Social Development Forum (Northern Cape), providing much needed additional equipment and training. They have now started a third one in Pampierstad in the Northern Cape.
• SCAT has, through the support of a grant, enabled the three CBOs to have access to 13 master gardeners who have been working at the three food garden projects. 
• A 5-day basic food gardening training has been given to the staff and master gardeners working in the three food gardens. The training covered topics such as correct planting, irrigation and maintenance practices for high-quality produce and long-term sustainability. To date, 41 beneficiaries have been trained and empowered to work at the communal food garden as well as start their own food production units in their households.  
• The Care Alicedale and KSDF food gardens have been successful in distributing food to 194 households in the community, including Early Learning Centres, the elderly, orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) and members of the community receiving treatment for chronic diseases in local clinics. These food gardens are also producing and sharing their seedlings with at least 100 household gardens.

We are proud to be associated with SCAT in in their journey to empower their communities to increase local food production and create livelihoods. Congratulations, SCAT!