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Place of Hope: How a Community Garden Is Growing Opportunities for Nutrition and Education

on  November 9, 2023

In South Africa, the work to end hunger starts with a meal by ensuring children between ages 0 and 6 have access to nutritious food and a quality education through Rise Against Hunger Africa’s Early Childhood Development Connect (ECD Connect) program. The program focuses on improving food and nutrition security for children attending early childhood development centers (ECDs) and families in the surrounding community. 

As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we are sharing stories of real impact from the ECD Connect program in South Africa — real impact like what Place of Hope is doing to literally grow opportunities to nourish lives. Place of Hope is a community garden in Johannesburg. The garden harvests vegetables that are then donated to local early childhood development centers. Through the ECD Connect program, Rise Against Hunger Africa works alongside Place of Hope to provide nutrition for the children in the ECDs and support the surrounding community. By gardening a range of vegetables, such as carrots, onions, spinach, kale and tomatoes, Place of Hope is helping to reduce food insecurity, improve nutrition for children in ECDs, and cultivate community life and opportunities.  Watch a video about how Place of Hope is supporting ECDs and growing opportunities in the community!

Thompson Ngobeni, program supervisor and owner of the Place of Hope garden

Thompson Ngobeni, Rise Against Hunger Africa program supervisor, shares how the garden produces many positive impacts in the community. Place of Hope donates to nine ECDs, providing many children with nutrition that nourishes their bodies and education. Because of the harvested vegetables, the children are guaranteed nutrition and the ECDs have more opportunities to flourish, grow and expand. “We donate spinach and chomolia for nine ECDs and tomatoes,” Ngobeni said. Ngobeni also shared how the garden extends to provide for the community as well. “And with the planting of veggies, Rise Against Hunger has made a big difference to the community because… instead of going far away to get veggies, they get their veggies here.” As Place of Hope continues to grow, Ngobeni hopes to make an even bigger impact in the community. Negobeni shared, “I wish we could serve more people, we could help more people.” 

Thompson, program supervisor and owner of the Place of Hope garden

Brian Nell, Rise Against Hunger Africa CEO

As the CEO of Rise Against Hunger Africa, Brian Nell shared that the main purpose of the ECD Connect program is to combine quality nutrition with quality education. Through this approach, the program can build and expand to hopefully serve more and help more. “Our core focus is to link good nutrition with education in the early childhood development space,” Brian explained. “So, it’s really important for us to grow the movement within that early foundation phase of the child’s life. And then slowly link our early childhood development centers with our sustainable community farming projects.” 

Picture of Brian Nell, Rise Against Hunger Africa CEO, kneeling in Place of Hope community garden

Place of Hope’s donated vegetables are making a big impact in the community, and this garden showcases just one of the many ways Rise Against Hunger Africa’s ECD Connect program is supporting children’s education and nutrition in South Africa. Learn more about the work in South Africa here. In recognition of Rise Against Hunger’s 25th anniversary, please consider also making a $25 donation to help nourish the lives of children in South Africa and globally. It starts with a meal, and it starts with you! 

About the Author

Audrey Kleiner is the Social Media and Communications Intern at Rise Against Hunger.

More Posts by Audrey Kleiner

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.