Author: Victor Yakubu
The main goal of Tamale Food System Lab is to raise awareness about food and nutrition security for innovative food products and for improved child nutrition. This is because food and nutrition insecurity among children remain common phenomena in the HealthyFoodAfrica project communities.
In our Food System Lab, we will establish vegetable gardens in schools and the school children will be involved in the management of the gardens (for example compost making, vegetable bed making, seed nursery) with the support of their teachers. Related to the activities in schools, we work actively with the Ghana Education Service, the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Nutrition Unit of Ghana Health Service, Extension Unit of Ministry of Food and Agriculture and The Tamale Metropolitan Assembly.
Women groups are also one of our Food System Lab’s key activities to reach our goal. We are already involved with Village Savings and Loans Associations women groups where we are supporting them in soya, production, processing and consumption soya recipes. Since women are responsible for the preparation of household meals, they will be supported with skills and inputs to cultivate and process harvested soya into various nutrition recipes for consumption in the household. This way we will be adding value to the processing of soya into indigenous nutritious recipes for consumption.
School gardens and Youth Ambassadors
We vision that our Food System Lab will enhance food and nutrition security among 500 households and their families within the project communities. One school vegetable garden will be established in each school to promote the production and consumption of vegetables in the Government of Ghana School Feeding Programme in the schools. This will benefit over 500 children within the ages of 3-10.
One of the innovative methods piloted in Tamale Food System Lab is the use of Youth Ambassadors. We will recruit two Youth Ambassadors, one female and one male, in each project community. These youth will be well informed of the project to enable them champion the nutrition awareness creation during community meetings and other platforms in the communities. The Youth Ambassadors will receive all trainings together with the project participants.