Food Lover’s Market, though Earth Lovers, has partnered with Reel Gardening, an incredible South African social enterprise helping to reconnect people with food. The Reel Gardening Planting Revolution Garden in a Box is exclusively stocked by 58 Food Lover’s Market stores and this box empowers anyone to plant a 2m2 food garden.
Each box comes complete with five vegetable or herb varieties packaged in biodegradable seed tapes that hold non-GMO organic seeds. It’s also worth noting that in these times of drought, the seed tapes save 80% water in the germination phase! We asked Claire Reed, Founder and Director of Reel Gardening, about the incredible journey she has been on since founding the company.
Here is her story…
Where did it begin?
Reel Gardening began its journey 14 years ago when I was a 16-year-old trying to start a small vegetable garden at my family home. I soon discovered that growing your own food is more difficult and expensive than you might think. In conversation with my family’s domestic worker, I discovered that my struggles were shared by many people of all demographics. So to address these challenges and enable anyone, no matter education level or gardening knowledge, to grow their own food, I founded Reel Gardening.
Who do you employ?
The Reel Gardening team comprises nine people, eight of whom are women. Four previously unemployed mothers make the seed tapes by hand in a very simple process that uses no water or electricity. Reel Gardening is passionate about people and it’s the reason why social impact is so important to our identity.
What is your mission?
The Reel Gardening ethos can be summed up in a single phrase, ‘The Planting Revolution’. To us ‘The Planting Revolution’ represents a drive to get people to reconnect, be authentic, get grounded and grow.
What’s different about `The Planting Revolution’?
To support people through their growing journey, Reel Gardening has developed The Planting Revolution mobile application. This app guides users through their planting revolution journey by providing essential gardening and lifestyle information across 13 levels over 13 weeks. It is free to download through the Apple Store, the Play Store or through The Planting Revolution website.
Why Food Lover’s Market?
Reel Gardening is very excited to partner with Food Lovers Market as our messages are so wonderfully aligned. We believe in the value of food and provide an experience for customers that allow them to reconnect with their food. Reel Gardening is passionate about enabling people to get grounded through growing and reconnecting with the earth and their food, and we believe that we can do this through Food Lover’s Market.
Each box from the Reel Gardening range comes with a free Virgin mobile SIM card so that growers can interact with The Planting Revolution app once they’ve redeemed their data rewards. In addition, R10.00 from the sale of every box will be donated back to Reel Gardening to develop fun learning guides for children on the importance of eating healthy food.
