The Gracie Love in a Bowl Garden was started by Gordon and Michelle Reid as a way to give back to those in need. Gordon and Michelle live on a smallholding in Hout Bay, near the Imizamo Yethu community.
Earth Kids learned so much about love, generosity, humility and ethical values when they met Michelle. She took them around her glorious colourful and very ethereal space. Each kid felt at home and alive in her kind spirit.
Michelle notes that it was their simple decision to ” never say No to anyone who needed food. Our small veggie patch has kept growing over time and today we are blessed and thankful to provide almost 200,000 meals a year with the help of so many volunteers and kind donors. We now deliver the veggies to 14 food kitchens in the community where the local Mamas prepare the meals and distribute the organic goodness to the most vulnerable.”
Their organic vegetables grow in huge spirals to benefit each other and the soil. Dandelions grow in between the cabbages and rocket, big purple brinjals hang off their plants while gorgeous broccoli flowers feed the bees. The spiral shaped gardens are also great for watering as sprinklers also spray in a spiral shape and this way the water is not wasted.
“Gracie Garden exists to address extreme poverty in the shack community of Hout Bay where up to 15,000 people from 12 different nations live in one room tin structures too small to house a car. Too many residents have to regularly choose between basics such as bread and toilet paper.
Gracie Garden grows organic vegetables to donate to the very young and vulnerable and the elderly who are sick. We currently provide approximately 180,000 nutritious vegetarian meals per year to our precious neighbours.”
The garden sends its produce to various kitchens where meals are made to feed the community. In total, they support twelve community kitchens throughout the Western Cape.
“Gracie Love In A Bowl is able to thrive because of all the wonderful people who help: volunteers from the community and around the world help us plant and harvest; eight community kitchens prepare the meals; restaurants and breweries provide us with their organic waste and malt so that we can build our own soils; horse owners provide us straw and manure and so many lovely people provide us financial assistance, which of course we always need! We are pleased to say that with all this help each bowl of vegetarian stew is lovingly served at a cost of only R4 each.”
