2019-09-01_Fairlady

PHOTOGRAPHS:

LIZA

VAN

DEVENTER,

THEANA

BREUGEM;

HAIR

&MAKEUP:

NICCI

ALLEN

OF

ONE

LEAGUE,

CARMEN

THORNE

OF

BIRD

ON

AWIRE

SOCIAL

ENTREPRENEUR

‘I

was a school librarian

for six years but then

I was told that the school

couldn’t afford my services

any longer,’ says Renshia

Manuel. ‘I was desperate to find

employment to feed my four

children.’ Literally to put food on

the table, Renshia began planting

vegetables in her backyard. She

remained unemployed for two

years – until 2016, when she

cameacrossaninitiativebythe

Cityof CapeTown,

#YouthStartCT,that

wasonthelookout

forsustainable

businessideasand

aimedat empowering

underprivileged

communities.

That’swhen

Renshiadeveloped

theideaforGrowBox:‘making

urbanagricultureavailabletoall,

rightontheirdoorsteps’.

‘I wantedtohelpotherfamilies

tostartgardeningforthetableand

helpmycommunityof Hanover

Parkinthatway,’shesays.But

shehadtoconsiderthatmanyof

herneighboursdidn’thaveenough

landspaceandalsofacedchallenges

suchas vandalismandtheft.

Renshiawonthirdplaceinthe

2016 #YouthStartCT,andusedthe

prizemoneytoregisterGrowBox

as a businessandacquirethetools

and skills to further develop the

company. She’s been acknowledged

elsewhere too: in 2017 Renshia

was a finalist in the Pitch &

Accelerate competition hosted by

the Africa Women Innovation &

Entrepreneurship Forum and came

third at the 2018 Samsung Global

Start-up Acceleration Awards.

GrowBox operates as a wholesale

nursery that grows vegetables and

herb seedlings to supply farms

andretailnurseries. They also

encourage community

members to grow their

own food, making it

easy and accessible by

manufacturing and

selling wooden veggie

boxes, and running

food gardening

workshops.

The company has

alsofacilitated programmes at early

childhooddevelopment centres and

communitysupport initiatives,

reachingmore than 400 kids and

200 beneficiaries. ‘We teach people

thebasics,from making fertiliser

togrowingfood from food waste

andsustainable food gardening

methodology,’ Renshia says.

Sheplansto use the Social

Entrepreneur prize money to

takeGrowBox’s flat-pack product

rangetomarket, and to increase

productionat the nursery in order

toimpactmore households. '

ENSHIA MANUEL

OWBOX

wbox.strikingly.com

GRO

grow

62 Fairlady/September 2019

❛I wanted

to help other

families

to start

gardening for

the table.

❜