Nine staff from Project Concern International (PCI) took part in a week-long intensive training course on vegetable production and utilization from 7-11 May 2018 at WorldVeg Eastern and Southern Africa in Arusha, Tanzania. PCI operates a school feeding program that aims to improve literacy outcomes through the provision of school meals. The meals provide the nutrients and energy hungry students need to better concentrate on their studies, and also increase enrollment and attendance.

No meal is complete without vegetables, so the PCI team dug into the topic of vegetable production. The group learned how to manage vegetable seedling nurseries, plant and manage various vegetable crops in a garden, save vegetable seeds, harvest vegetables, and prepare tasty, healthy recipes using traditional African vegetables. PCI staff will use their new gardening knowledge and skills to implement a feeding and gardening program in more than 200 schools with the help of farmers’ groups in four districts.