We are in an important month that is perhaps more relevant now than it has been in a very long time. Mandela month. Mandela month is the month we celebrate his impact and fight for social justice. My friends and I wanted to make an impact that is long-term and sustainable, so we started an NGO.

Our NGO is called Grow Community Food Farms and we registered the organisation in 2018. We help build food farms and grow beds in less fortunate communities. We also partner with corporates to run special events and food kitchens with a focus on the youth.

But, it has been an interesting journey and we learnt many lessons along the way.

We are 6 good friends at the core of this operation. My best friend, Steffen Olivier, the brains behind this idea approached our friend group one day and simply said: “I am going to build food farms at schools. Who is in?”

Steffen is an entrepreneur. The rest of us have construction, legal, finance and marketing skills, plus we have someone who is a horticulturist. Coincidentally, all the skills you need to start this type of NGO. 

Originally, we were a much larger group of mutual friends. We were about 15 people and we all had to work after hours once our day jobs were done. Our first objective was to build a business plan which took us more than a year and half to complete because we were trying to build a plan that would be revolutionary.

Truth be told, we had little understanding of this new world. The expectations we had on ourselves were unrealistic. There were many public outbursts and several participants walked away from the project.  

This was very frustrating. Who knew building an organisation to do good in this world was so annoyingly difficult?

Then something happened and we started to see light at the end of the tunnel. We got a designer to develop our logo and corporate branding. To all of us, it was… beautiful and inspiring to see our idea manifest visually. This was our first win in a sea of frustration.

Then came the next big challenge to take this brand and tell the world: “Hey world, here we are!” At this point, we were just an idea with a logo. The challenges we had with IT, website hosting, invoicing, etc, became laborious.

Then came the real breakthrough. In Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plein, a community leader asked us to join forces with his local team of volunteers to build a food farm. We built a quick and small grow bed in this community and planted some seeds.

Today it’s our flagship community food farm, which is about 12m x 12m in size, providing fresh vegetables to the community. Managed by New Horizon Community Food Scheme, this farm is our pride and joy.

We have gone back and expanded this farm four times. A proud moment was when we had a big event where politicians shook hands and joined our little community party. We had a food kitchen, jumping castle, local DJ, an education bus and live demonstrations on how to plant veggies! That day we fed and educated more than 500 kids.

To date, we have built three food farms that support communities in dangerous areas around Cape Town. A few weeks ago, we distributed sugar-free drinks, water and essential foods donated by Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages and Pioneer Foods to 200 families in Mitchell’s Plain, Delft and Dunoon.

Our latest achievement was realised when we raised enough donations to begin the process to build a big food farm for an Edu Centre for kids in Delft, Cape Town. We are gearing up to build this in the next couple of weeks. Follow our progress on Facebook @growfoodfarmsZA.

If you are thinking of starting an NGO, here are 6 key lessons from our journey:

1. Don’t over complicate your big idea. What is the smallest version of your idea? Do that first. It will grow from there.

2. Focus on the small wins. Small wins can be plentiful, whether it’s your social media handle, your first partnership, or a small proposal. Don’t build a 30-page business plan. Do a 2 pager.  

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3. Don’t give up on the team. Building something from scratch can sometimes feel like manoeuvring an oil tanker. Stay the course and support each other.

4. Don’t think your new venture is going to change the UN. Learn from what others are doing in your immediate vicinity. Really do your research and learn the basics from them.

5. Don’t overcompensate with your flashy new brand. Create your brand identity but keep it basic in the beginning. People care about what you do, not the colour of your logo.

6. Create a central location for everything admin related. You need a one stop shop from the beginning. Don’t let members hold important information. They will lose it.  

Think big. Begin small. Grow with us.