Zimbabwe has a population of roughly 14 million people, and close to 70% of the population resides in the rural parts of the country. These areas are impoverished and literally forgotten about by those directing the forces of economic growth. People in the rural areas of Zimbabwe rely on subsistence farming. However, the rains are not constant which causes a major problem in regard to food security. During good farming season with good rainfall, families do enjoy the abundance of fresh food. We discovered that not every part of the country is going to have a bumper harvest, and not all the harvest available post harvest. A lot of produce is lost through rotting due to lack of means and knowledge on how to preserve and store it. In 2017, Zimbabwean farmers through a government run program dubbed Command Agriculture saw huge rewards as farmers harvested more than expected. This meant a huge surplus with no means to preserve and store for later use. A lot of farmers watched helplessly as time went by and their grains were rotting and ultimately wasted. 

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Simbiso Food Bank and Cannery will provide education and training on food preservation to reduce food loss and waste. We are starting our efforts in the rural areas of Zvishavane, Zimbabwe. Our approach is one village at a time. Once we give the villagers sufficient training to safely preserve their own crops we will continue to support them with our mobile unit. Our efforts will be to specifically teaching bottling and canning of food and safe food storage. During our our first year we will seek food/grain donations from large scale farmers and use the produce to showcase efficient food preservation methods during our courses. Clients can donate surplus produce in exchange for other food already canned by Simbiso project.

 

Our project will grow to include green house production to fill in the non-farming seasons. Lack of water supply limits the rural populace to only farming during the rain season. Our operation will further expand to providing more boreholes for these villages. Lastly we will obtain a grain fortifying system to address the stunted growth and  nutritional deficiencies that result from a Maize dominate diet.  

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This sounds complex but in reality by providing water, a jar and vitamins we can end hunger for these people. 

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