Small plants, big impact

KWS has set itself the goal of investing one percent of its annual EBIT in social projects worldwide. An example of the wide range of initiatives we support includes school gardens in Brazil and Berlin.

Our latest project in Brazil focuses on growing plants under special conditions and seeding the future. In the megacity of São Paulo, we have established 10 school gardens in collaboration with Cities Without Hunger (Städte ohne Hunger e. V.) to give children who live in precarious circumstances access to fresh vegetables. Salads, peppers, cabbage, red beet, tomatoes, onions, parsley and coriander are now grown there over an area of 100 to 3,000 square meters. In future, fruit trees will also provide shade on hot afternoons, inviting the pupils to linger or play.

“Poorer families in particular often eat one-sided, carbohydrate-based meals because fresh vegetables are very expensive,” explains Bettina Haussmann, who is responsible for our social projects outside Europe. “The school gardens give the children access to completely different vitamins and nutrients, as the vegetables grown there are used in the school canteens.”

Digging the soil, planting seedlings, harvesting their own vegetables as a team – all the children do the work in the garden themselves. “In this way, we can perhaps also inspire more interest in agriculture and get children excited about plants and nutrition,” says Bettina. Around 5,000 of them already have access to fresh vegetables. They include children who have either been orphaned or have fled to Brazil from other countries. This project exemplifies KWS’ social purpose: “Provide expertise, resources and inspiration to generate a social impact from science to farm to fork.”

“We can inspire an interest in agriculture.”

Bettina Haussmann

The association Cities Without Hunger is a very experienced partner for school and urban gardens and works on the ground professionally and with great enthusiasm. “We’ve signed a five-year contract with Cities Without Hunger so that both of us have the security to plan ahead,” says Bettina. In the long term, for example, teachers should become so experienced in working with the gardens that the schools can take over the project themselves – and we can expand the idea to other schools to reach even more children.

Thanks to the school gardens, around 5,000 children now have access to healthier food.

From planting to harvesting, the children help out in the school gardens in Brazil.

Seeds from KWS Vegetables in the future

At present, the plants for the gardens are still supplied by an external partner, but in the future the seed will mainly come from our Business Unit Vegetables. KWS employees could also give short talks on agriculture in the schools or help out in the garden – like our colleagues from KWS Berlin. In March, they helped dig a garden that had been established by Acker e. V. in Berlin (more information can be found on the intranet). A similar approach might also work in Brazil. Together with Acker e. V. we are planning four school gardens in Berlin within the next four years.

Eduardo Albonico from our Latin America Sales Team has already visited some of the gardens in São Paulo together with Bettina – and is considering whether our watermelons could also grow well there. “That would be a great dessert for the children,” says Bettina.

"the vegetables grown there are used in the school canteens"

Bettina Haussmann

These and other plans are discussed with each other, as the gardens are run according to a participatory concept: All stakeholders engage in active dialogue and discuss what works well and where there is still room for improvement. The data from Cities Without Hunger also helps here, showing how many children are participating or the amount of vegetables produced. If there is a surplus in the garden, the children can take the vegetables home with them – meaning that even more people, especially those in need, are given access to them.

There is no lack of enthusiasm: Many parents and neighbors have already visited the gardens and helped out. But it’s the children who are the happiest, says Bettina: “One teacher told me that when a class is particularly restless, she tells the children that they have to quieten down, otherwise they won’t go to the garden afterwards – then the whole room suddenly falls silent, because nobody wants to miss out on that.” |

This article is from insideKWS, the employee magazine of KWS. If you are an employee of our company, you have access to all other articles and previous issues. |

Dieser Artikel stammt aus der KWSintern, dem Mitarbeitermagazin der KWS. Wenn Sie Mitarbeiterin oder Mitarbeiter unseres Unternehmens sind, haben Sie Zugriff auf alle weiteren Artikel und auf frühere Ausgaben. |