Jala Peo "Plant a Seed"

The Jala Peo ("Plant the Seed" in Sepedi) School Food and Nutrition Garden (SFNG) Initiative is a Department of Basic Education (DBE) project. The seeding is funded by WesBank Fund, managed by Tshikululu Social Investments & the implementation of the project is managed by JET Education Services. The vision of the “Jala Peo Initiative” is framed within the context of the National Develoment Plan (NDP) and the DBE’s Action Plan to 2019: Towards the realisation of schooling 2030.

The WesBank Fund dedicated its support annually to food security through agricultural livelihood programmes. The Fund seeks to grow inclusive participation in South Africa’s green economy and endeavours to achieve this by helping people to help themselves.

When reviewing its Food Security and Agricultural Livelihoods Programme (FSALP) strategy in 2014, the Fund took the opportunity to invest in the future by helping to grow learners’ interest in careers related to agriculture, nutrition and natural sciences. The DBE and WesBank partnership agreed on a new Initiative called Jala Peo (plant the seed), which will focus on schools food gardening and nutrition.

The Jala Peo Initiative is additional to the Fund’s Masilimeni (let us cultivate) initiative focussing on community micro-farming and a change catalyst initiative (research), called Khano (harvest).'