Harvest Day at Yomelela Primary School was something special this month. Learners from the Eco Warriors and Yoga Clubs, teachers, Principal Dlaku, the kitchen team, and our Garden Champions harvested baskets of carrots, greens, and herbs alongside our funders Nevermined and mandana; Christine and Michael Marhofer, Silvia Matthäus, and Hannah Flick, who flew in from Germany just to experience the harvest with our children and team. This flourishing garden was created in partnership with Urban Harvest, whose expertise helped transform the school grounds into a thriving, sustainable food garden.
For us at Earthchild Project, gardens are about cultivating change, putting nutritious food on children’s plates, offering hands-on lessons in environmental stewardship, and creating a community space where learners discover that they can shape a healthier, more sustainable future.
This is exactly why our partnership with Nevermined and mandana feels so meaningful. Nevermined is deeply passionate about sustainability, and together we share the belief that impact should last longer than a single season.
Principal Dlaku underscored how the garden is now part of the curriculum, teaching planting, care, and harvesting as real-world skills for learners who thrive with hands-on work. This Harvest Day was a working blueprint for how classrooms, kitchens, and communities can grow meals, minds, and long-term opportunity together.
Earthchild Project Director, Janna Kretzmar, spotlighted the cross-continental partnership that built Yomelela’s 96m² classroom in 2023 and its new food garden in 2025, making Yomelela Primary School the first site where one donor family powers both a learning space and a living food garden right next to each other.
“Having all of us here today, Nevermined and mandana, our principal and teachers, the kitchen team, our four gardeners, our ECP team, and our beautiful Earthchildren…, reminds me that even when we don’t see each other every day, we are one team working together. What’s especially meaningful about Yomelela is that it’s the only school where the same donor family has supported both a classroom and a garden, and you can see the impact immediately: everything we grow goes straight into the kitchen to feed the children, while the garden and classroom together are used every day for learning. Earthchild Project’s vision is for all eight of our schools to have thriving gardens like this, and we are so grateful for your support and that you even travelled here to celebrate with us, because one of our core values is to build meaningful relationships and long partnerships, and they’re only possible when we can meet, connect, and grow together.”
— Janna Kretzmar, Earthchild Project
At Yomelela, the impact is already clear:
- Nutrition: Fresh, local produce now improves meal quality for more than 1,100 learners daily.
- Education: Learners gain hands-on experience in sustainability, organic gardening, and teamwork.
- Community & Employment: Built with help from local community members, the garden sustains jobs for a Garden Champion, and cultivates shared ownership across the school and ECP.
- Sustainability: Yomelela uniquely hosts both an ECP classroom and garden supported by the same donor – a replicable, long-term model for meaningful impact.
- Zero Waste: Plate leftovers are collected by an external recycling team to feed local livestock, while unused surplus is shared with learners to take home.
As spring welcomes in new growth, the garden at Yomelela is celebrated as a living, breathing classroom that nourishes bodies, minds, and hope. And with partners like Nevermined, we are truly on the way to a more sustainable future.
