Who are we?

Feeding The Self is an innovative food security, education, and community development project. We started off in university providing student support services and lecturing, before we realised that the problems in education were much deeper down; students were not interested in what they were learning, did not know how to learn, and had serious problems that needed to be addressed before they could concentrate, like not having enough to eat. In response, we developed an integrated course that requires no resources aside from labour, land and seeds, adaptable to any environment it might find itself in. We started from the idea that people need to see quick results, and to be interested and social in their learning, and that without these, no project could sustainably succeed. We provide them with what they need to expand the garden first around the school, then into their homes, then into the community. After all, who needs advisors and experts when youve got an excited (and well trained) child?

What do we do?
We design workshops and courses that find simple, integrated and above all practical solutions to food security, education, community development and environmental problems at schools and workplaces. We believe that solutions to problems should be local and considered, and require no special resources other than those available on-location, and adapt our projects and workshops accordingly. In an environment that often treats the underprivileged like the incapable giving overly lavish encouragement and praise, lowering the bar, giving too much support we treat them as if theyre capable, giving them the minimum equipment and maximum guidance they need, and they rise to the challenge. From our initial success, we realised that the market for these services is broad, and underpopulated; after all, what better way is there to develop corporate culture than to run a project like this for the children of your workers, workers, or at your office location? The core system is designed to operate in everything from one-off workshops for a few people to connecting communities together through networked school gardens and activities. For example, in this workshop, in four hours and by getting a dozen people who were expecting PowerPoint slides and paperwork to do some actual gardening, we got them to change this space

into the one below, after which we chatted about what they could do at home and gave them everything theyd need to start their own permaculture garden immediately.

What makes us different? 1. We teach through activity instead of theory

As engineers are fond of saying; if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Most school, community, or food projects seek to address a single problem without considering the whole context. We show people the need for tools and creative ways of getting around problems so they build their own hammers or garden beds, fences, or class projects, as the case may be. Its about doing what you can, with what you have, NOW, and energising the people around you through your own activity; showing and encouraging people to learn and plan instead of telling them about it.

2. Our success in synergising the school, home, child, teacher and community
We provided garden activities to the children and meet it with lesson plans and support material for teachers. Instead of being extra-curricular, we teach the curriculum with the garden, and show teachers new methods through advice and example instead of listing procedure. In one school, the pilot project led to a class average increase in Natural Science of 34%, from 58 to 92. At both pilot schools, the size of the garden was at least doubled by on-site staff over the course of the project. This doesnt include the area of gardens planted at students homes, with 72% of students starting gardens at home (44/61. At all schools, teachers are often contacted by parents and community members for seeds and more advice without any prompting, willing to look after gardens at home now they know the children are involved; by focusing around the children, the project spreads naturally into the community.

3. An integrated donor model

Rather than seeking donations for operating cost, we propose a new model; companies and donors pay for personal and local services and items, such as running the project in the school their workers children go to, doing environmental regeneration on their property, or building a roof garden and educating their workers in how to spread it into the environment. Its about making it easier to just get on with the job by hitting a lot of targets at once, such as CSI, charitable donations, skills developmentand worker education. We want to suggest a new model, where money is only spent when you can see what weve done with it, unless it changes the lives of people directly around you for the better, in which everything stays as local as possible and is under direct supervision and guidance.

4. The products of our labours are free to use, copy and distribute
The problem is those that need it cant afford it; those that dont, can. We want to put the two together; if your kids go to an average private day school the cost of a years tuition would pay for at least two entire schools to be fed sustainably. We want to show people that, if we work together, we can radically reduce the need for money or external services, and our own contribution to this idea is that everything we produce is available for free once weve made it. All most people need is the encouragement and advice, and weve done the research so others dont have to, whether its on the teaching, the gardening, or even on integrating activities into the community.
Chirag.patel@feedingtheself.org | 0749 031 332 / 0735 578 909 FTS garden & teaching docs | General teaching material | Gardening research | Useful NGO docs | Project data All material free to use, copy or distribute Donate at http://apotheosis.givengain.org Feeding The Self is a trademark of Apotheosis, PBO# 930038248