The SEED Project

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Leigh Brown from the SEED Project, based in Mitchell’s Plain, visited David Krut Projects Cape Town (DKCT). Leigh is a good friend of Regina Broenner who lives in Stanford near Hermanus. Regina runs Stanford Creative Works (SCW), a project supported by David Krut.

Leigh shared with us what her project is about: she works at the Rocklands Urban Abundance Centre in Mitchell’s Plain which aims to teach communities necessary skills that will allow them to live in a sustainable and effective way. SEED runs a number of ventures in this community, including assisting with the building of sustainable gardens at community member’s homes and teaching the owners how to maintain and develop their vegetable gardens. SEED invites schools to come and visit Rocklands where the learners are taught valuable skills about living sustainably. SEED also runs community enterprises, an example being Gourmet Mushrooms: these mushrooms are grown at Rocklands and are sold to various food supermarkets such as Pick n Pay.

So much of what is taught at SEED can be transferred to other communities in South Africa and abroad. There is a huge need for community-based living and sharing that can combat the effects of Capitalism and western modes of thinking, that in essence teaches there is only so much for a select few rather than a broader and more diverse group.

DKCT aims to work with SEED in raising awareness of their fantastic work, such as through social media, as well as incorporating SEED into the presentations given by DKCT to various schools around the Western Cape.

SEED has also been selected to be a World Design Capital Project for Cape Town in 2014.

Daniel Hewson