“Food insecurity goes beyond the problem of not having enough food to eat. It includes aspects of food quality, psychological factors such as worry about food sourcing, and nutritional and non-nutritional consequences of inadequate access to food.” Audrey Pereira for (UNICEF, 2016).

 

The project investigates the influence that spatial design has on feeding schemes in South African secondary schools. It focuses on the intersection of food consumption, as a result of the current school feeding scheme, run by the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) and the architecture of the dated existing government school typology. The research considers Tsako Thabo High school in Mamelodi East, Gauteng as a case study school to investigate the spatial conditions, systems and programmes impacting on food security and sovereignty within this school that presents itself with limited resources.

 

The school’s pupils, staff and community members were crucial role players in the research and design proposal.

 

The research proposal was fostered in 2019 as part of the Urban citizen studio brief focusing on co-design at Tsako Thabo in Mamelodi. The initial data collection and collaboration revealed findings that expressed that although certain programmes and policies are in place in order to feed students in assigned schools, the neglected spatial requirements attached to these are resulting in an unsuccessful implementation of school feeding programmes as well as shed light unto the inaccessibility of school feeding during non-school days and in current circumstances, during a global pandemic.

 

The design development focuses on the restoration of existing classrooms and landscape, the reconfiguration of built space and the addition of a lightweight exoskeleton to the existing school structure. The design informants and generators are a result of practical workshops and investigations done in the existing school and regarding the surrounding Khalambazo communities food culture. The intent is that through the restoration and addition process, programme can meet space seamlessly and that the two may function because of each other. The overall intention proposes the creation of a place of growth, preparation, production and distribution that catalyses its success to its surrounding environment and creates an educational ecosystem that promotes nutritional wellbeing for all.