Moshi, TZ – Maendeleo Primary School comes 2.5 acres short of planting target – 28 Feb 2018

Tupendane and the Maendeleo Primary School Parents’ Task Force planted 4 acres of beans as part of the school’s self-reliant school breakfast farm. The beans will be harvested and used to provide sustainable school breakfast for students. Work was hampered by contradicting edicts from the national government and, as a result, the Task Force planted only 4 acres instead of their target of 6.5 acres. They hope they can make up for this shortfall in the second planting season of the year.

Tupendane has been collaborating with students, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders in Maendeleo for months planning to prepare farmland for the first 2018 planting season. The week that work was scheduled to begin the government announced that parents should not be required to make any contributions to schools. This caused confusion about whether they should be allowed to contribute labor to grow food for their children at school farms. The confusion caused major delays and the Task Force was only able to clear and plant 4 acres. Eventually, the government clarified that parents shouldn’t have to pay school fees, but they could help at the school in other ways.

Tupendane and the students at Maendeleo Primary School hope this is just a small headache on the way to many years of nutritious breakfast!