Harvesting Hope: How One Garden is Feeding Futures

Ruth picking vegetables at the school garden

Ruth is a small-scale farmer whose life has been transformed by the feeding program that Made With Hope have implemented at Umoja Primary School, in the village of Msitu wa Mbogo, located in the Arusha Region. 


Ruth*, a Maasai woman, blessed with three young girls;

  • Christine* -  aged 11, preparing for her final year at primary school;

  • Bridgit* - aged 9 who will be sitting her first National Exams this year;

  • Prisca* - the youngest who will be joining her two big sisters at school in the coming years.

Having a big family to feed and managing her children going to school is very stressful for Ruth.

Like most of our partner schools, Umoja Primary urges parents to contribute maize, beans and cooking oil to the school so that the children can get lunch at school. With two children attending the school, Ruth is required to contribute approximately 20kg of maize, 8kg of beans, cooking oil and £2.50 for each child. With most households in Umoja surviving on £1 a day, this is a staggering amount to find.

Given Ruth’s situation at home, with no stable job, she depends entirely on manual labour in order to earn a living. Since these jobs are unreliable, providing meals for her and her children twice a day is not difficult and not always guaranteed. Additionally, due to changes in weather conditions, agriculture has been difficult to provide a regular income for Ruth’s family.

Ruth has said, “With the late rains this season, there’s been scarcity of food, and since it is compulsory to contribute to school meals, I have to sell a goat to earn a few shillings that I split between paying school contributions and also cover to house necessities,”. At other times, when Ruth is unable to contribute food for her children in school, she would turn to her relatives for help and loans. Ruth and her husband have to do everything within their means to contribute food for their children. Failing to provide this may lead to being singled out in public meetings, which is seen as shameful in their community or may even result in legal implications. So far, they have only managed to contribute half of what is required. They are working hard to ensure that their children can eat at school.


In 2023, the school feeding program arrived, in the form of a climate-smart school garden. Implemented by Ndoto in Action and partnering Made with Hope, the newly developed one-acre farm now comprises several crops and fruits such as bananas, avocados, papaya and various vegetables. The crops are watered by drip irrigation systems flowing from 10 rainwater harvesting tanks (storing up to a total 50,000 litres!) and a 400,000 litres underground water pond. The new school garden has brought high spirits and immense relief for many parents like Ruth.

Even though women were not directly involved in the preparation and gardening stages because of cultural norms, Ruth and other parents are actively involved in gathering food. She sees the amazing impact of the garden on herself and her children.

Ruth said “During the planting stages, women were not allowed to enter the garden because such work as digging holes was considered men’s work, but now we can get much more food than we could get from the sellers outside”.

Our 1 hectare school garden full of growing fruit and vegetables

Harvesting food from the school garden not only provides children with much improved levels of important nutrients for better growth and brain development, such as vitamin A and other essential nutrients, but also provides classes for children to acquire hands-on training in agriculture.

Furthermore, the garden has also helped provide improved stability for parents. Produce from the garden lowers the pressure of having to worry about providing food for school lunches. When there is a surplus of harvest from the school garden, it is sold in the local market, providing additional benefits to the wider surrounding community and bringing further much needed money to the school. Ruth says with relief, "I am glad that I don't have to stress anymore about my children’s lunch because I know they will be provided for at school. I can focus on building our lives better”.                                                                                                         

So far, we’ve completed 3 of these school crop gardens across 3 schools in rural Arusha. We still have 6 schools that need these gardens, so if you’d like to help make this happen, donate today or get in touch.

Students at Umoja Primary enjoying lunch

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Eleanor Riley