NUAGKC PROJECT

SCHOOL NUTRITION GARDENS (SNG) PROJECT

The School Nutrition Gardens (SNG) project aims to promote healthy eating habits among children by encouraging schools to establish organic vegetable gardens. Students will learn how to grow food and how to incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables into their daily diets through the SNG project. This project teaches students valuable problem-solving, teamwork, and responsibility skills in addition to promoting healthy eating habits. In addition to promoting a healthy lifestyle, it is a great way to create a sustainable source of fresh produce for the school community.

The SNG project in Morogoro region in Tanzania aims to implement organic farming in 41 primary schools and 41 villages. Because organic foods are free of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that could accumulate residues, they are considered healthy and environmentally safe. According to some consumers, surveyed, poor eating habits are causing an increase in non-communicable diseases. This strategy aims to increase access to diverse organic foods that are affordable and reliable for consumers.

This project aims to prevent children from attending school hungry; the project will provide food for 123 primary schools in Morogoro, Tanzania to feed their students. Secondly, the environmental degradation that the Morogoro region is facing will be solved by planting fruit trees to be used during hunger times and prevent hunger; when the fruit trees are planted, the fruits will be used to prepare food, allowing the community to overcome its hunger.

As fruits and roots are used as food by the community during dry seasons, we need to prepare the community by planting 100,000 fruit trees in each district. By doing so, the community will be able to get rain, water plants, and other crops during dry seasons, and also preserves the environment. Local communities rely on crops for survival, so the loss of woodlands, forest cover, and other trees is devastating. Especially noticeable is this in Morogoro, which has a significant percentage of youths under 35, as over 75% of Tanzania's population is under 35.

As a result, school children and young adults struggle to eat. A vast biodiversity loss is underway in the mountainous ward of the Mgeta Mountains, where all crops and forests are degrading. As a result, we see an environmental degradation-led reinforcing loop where youth's opportunities for better life are greatly reduced by environmental degradation.