For those who have been following Slow Food for some time, our commitment to creating a network of African food gardens is nothing new. We started at Terra Madre 2010, sharing our new dream and taking the first, small concrete steps along the path towards the right to food and food sovereignty. This dream is called A Thousand Gardens in Africa and involves schoolyards, village plots and urban corners in 27 African countries.
So far this dream has involved a huge number of people: 50 coordinators ready to pass on their knowledge, along with 30,000 African men, women and children who have re-established a relationship with local food – sowing seeds, watering seedlings, caring for them as they grow, harvesting their fruits, learning how to prepare these local varieties of fruits and vegetables, and of course, eating them! It has also involved many donors who have chosen to support the project with different amounts. Some have helped buy tools such as trowels or hoes, while others have helped to set up seedbeds or install innovative irrigation systems. Others have taken on the responsibility of an entire food garden, covering all of its necessary expenses.
We have decided that now – three years since the project was first launched, with 850 gardens adopted – is the time to go against our “slow” nature, hit the accelerator and give the African food gardens project a big push. We have set ourselves a very specific objective: to fund another 100 gardens, and a deadline: December 29, exactly 100 days from the launch date of the campaign. At Cheese, we saw the first clear results of this crowdfunding initiative, with a peak in donations. Today, 86 days from the deadline, the total stands at €15,000. This is 16% of our €90,000 target. As crowdfunding tends to imply a sharing of knowledge and information, the project has now become shared property, shared on hundreds of Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and Google+ profiles. This is the beauty of social media; it acts as a sounding board, and is the ultimate word of mouth.
Funding from the crowd and knowledge for the crowd: The first steps of the 100 days for 100 gardens campaign are showing us that we can achieve our goal, and that all together, euro by euro, we can contribute to constructing a richer, more beautiful and more participatory future. For Africa, but also for ourselves.
To learn more about the project, to donate or to find out what you’ll get in return visit: www.100x100orti.org
Do you have a Facebook profile? Then share this great dream with your friends.
Do you have a Twitter account? Then tweet about the project: #100x100slow