School vegetable gardens as a site for reciprocity in food systems research : an example from Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

The garden creates a space in which to “talk around” the problem of diet-related non-communicable disease, and allows for the co-construction of “food choice.” In the school context, and at home, food is about labor: the same women hauling water were cooking food at school and at home. On the other hand, teachers and students discovered that spinach tasted noticeably better when freshly harvested, even when there was insect damage. The consumption of greens at school was inevitable rather than shaped by willpower or desire for health. The children did not have to disavow their appreciation of pizza. This research stumbled upon the tenets of “slow research.”