The actions of a Hanover Park woman to feed her children, has led to an innovative way of growing food and has earned her project global recognition.
Renshia Manuel, 36, started growing vegetables in her backyard because she was unemployed and struggled to feed her children. She realised that this could help other families,but that many people do not have access to land to grow vegetable or herb gardens.
This was when she founded GrowBox — a portable vegetable garden.
Ms Manuel is one of the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy social entrepreneurs of the 2017 programme and is a recognised social entrepreneur in Cape Town. GrowBox is revolutionising food growing — in a community that is most affected by food insecurity.
Ms Manuel first started growing vegetables in her backyard in 2015 to feed her four children, and then invented GrowBox in 2016, a portable wooden box that allows people living in cramped housing conditions to grow their own vegetables.
GrowBox can be used by people living in dense, high rise flats with small balconies, as well as backyard dwellers or residents of informal settlements.
Since it has raised legs, you don’t need to get down on your knees to dig around, which is good for the elderly and disabled, because it doesn’t require backbreaking work to maintain.
As long as there’s sunlight available and you can consistently water it, GrowBox can provide you with healthy, organic vegetables anywhere. The box comes with a variety of vegetable seedlings which the buyer can select, compost, three hand tools and beginners’ manuals.
The idea was so impressive that shortly after rolling it out, she won third place at the 2016 Youth Start Cape Town Entrepreneurial Challenge, and in 2017 was recruited by Red Bull Amaphiko, an international academy that jump-starts grassroots social entrepreneurs who are making a positive change in their communities.
After attending the academy they team up with a one-on-one mentor and together they develop business, personal and strategic development plans that they bring to life over a period of 18 months.
“I’ve rolled out in Hanover Park, Philippi and Manenberg, as these are the communities that need the most help. I want to extend the GrowBox reach to empower communities like Khayelitsha and similar communities where food shortages and poverty are a daily reality,” Ms Manuel said.
Part of her future plans include an educational programme for the communities she serves, and she is also working on a fully functional nursery, which she plans to grow on a piece of land at Mount View High School in Hanover Park, by next year. The nursery will supply retail nurseries with vegetables and herbs.
Ms Manuel recently returned from a trip to Korea, where she was participating in the Samsung Global Start-up Acceleration Programme (GSAP). She was nominated from a group of 19 start-up businesses that participated at the local boot camp in Cape Town during September.
GSAP is supported by the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) in partnership with Samsung to develop local start-up businesses and is held in South Africa, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Last year, Ms Manuel was also placed third in the Engine Pitch and Polish, which is a lateral-thinking business competition and workshop programme.
