From Bolla Tau in Mpumalanga to Gonubie in the Eastern Cape, nearly 600 entries poured in from community food gardens across the country. Following a rigorous judging process, the Top 10 finalists have been announced.
Launched by Shoprite in October 2025, the competition celebrates community gardens that are not only growing food, but also creating opportunity and building resilience.
The top 10 finalists represent a diverse range of food gardens, including rural and township gardens, school-based projects, cooperatives and women and youth-led programmes. Together, the gardens provide thousands of people with access to fresh produce, while creating opportunities for skills development, income generation and environmentally sustainable practices.
“The judging process considered not only agricultural output but also community reach, sustainability, skills transfer and social impact,” says Sanjeev Raghubir, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Shoprite Group. “The top 10 gardens exemplify these criteria, showing how community-led programmes can ensure access to healthy, nutritious food.”
The finalists are (in alphabetical order):
1. A Spring of Hope Community Eco Hub, Acornfield (Mpumalanga) – Growing from a single borehole drilled in 2006, this award-winning hub in Bolla Tau near Acornhoek has become a dynamic centre for water security, food systems and enterprise development. It equips rural women with hydroponics, permaculture and business training, enabling them to grow produce and process it into products to sell. Over 100 000 beneficiaries have been supported to date.
2. ACFS Khunadi Food Garden, Mogoto Village (Limpopo) – This community-driven project is focused on helping children and families in need. The garden supplies fresh vegetables to various feeding programmes in the area while training women and youth in small-scale farming. The garden supports about 50 people every month, but on top of that, it builds practical skills, and creates long-term self-sustainability within Mogoto village.
3. Agrinode Garden, Bela-Bela (Limpopo) – Established by a local non-profit supporting community food security, the garden strengthened access to fresh produce during the Covid-19 pandemic. It now supplies vegetables to about 100 households in need and provides agricultural training to unemployed youth. Recognised in 2024 with the Best Female Subsistence Farmer award, it aims to expand into an agricultural hub to serve more people in the community.
4. Bafepi Mix Farming and Project, Mahlogo village (Limpopo) – Providing fresh, affordable vegetables to the local village, this project trains 25 students in practical farming skills and donates surplus produce to churches and crèches. Women and youth are learning new skills, while the cooperative and training programmes strengthen local food security and inspire residents to grow and share their own produce.
5. Food Security Project, Gonubie (Eastern Cape) – Tackling hunger at its roots, this garden serves the Mzamomhle community, supporting 162 women who tend their own plots. Founded 11 years ago, the project provides seedlings, tools and ongoing training in organic farming, water preservation and waste recycling. Harvests feed the women working in the garden, while surplus produce generates income for the project.
6. Hope Park Children’s Health Campus Garden, Krugersdorp (Gauteng) – Established in 2018 in Munsieville, this community garden combats poverty and promotes food security in the childhood town of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It feeds more than 350 learners from four local schools and supplies fresh produce to 27 households each month. Using organic and water-wise practices, the garden helps families grow their own food, improve nutrition and generate income.
7. Ngxanga School Garden, Libode (Eastern Cape) – Between the tomatoes, spinach and other nutritious vegetables, learners are not only taught to grow their own produce, they learn to enjoy the goodness from nature. The garden was started to create food security and address unemployment through agroecology training, affordable seedlings and food donations. It supports 243 learners every month and five households.
8. P Agricultural Group, Soweto (Gauteng) – Every Christmas this Tladi-based garden provides vegetables to more than 150 families. It started as an informal project in 2018 but expanded to a structured food garden that offers agricultural training and hosts regular farmers markets. It encourages young people to see farming as a leadership opportunity.
9. Plenty Green Africa, Tsakane (Gauteng) – In this youth-led garden, “reap what you sow” isn’t just a saying, it’s a daily reality. Serving around 20 households, including women, youth, and local chefs, the garden encourages participants to harvest what they planted themselves while improving access to fresh, nutritious food and tackling youth unemployment in Tsakane. Underused urban spaces are transformed into community hubs and the garden provides fresh produce, skills training, and various volunteering opportunities.
10. SMU Community Garden, Ga-Rankuwa (Gauteng) – At the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, this garden is providing free produce to students in need. Within three years it has evolved into a skills-development hub, training over 20 students in composting, planting and biodiversity management while fostering leadership and interdepartmental collaboration at the university.
A diverse panel of guest judges, including agricultural entrepreneur Masimbonge Vuma, gardening advocate Mosa Seshoene, urban farming pioneer Ncumisa Mkabile and comedian and broadcaster Angel Campey, will now work on selecting six finalists from the top 10 gardens. The winning gardens will be announced on 10 March at a special awards ceremony in Cape Town and will receive prizes valued at R1 million, tailored to their specific needs to help them grow, expand their reach and sustain their impact over time.
“Through the Act for Change Food Garden Project, we are reinforcing our long-term commitment to sustainable interventions that help communities thrive,” concludes Raghubir.
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