On 18 April, M-Powerment Care – a non-profit organisation that focuses on education, health and wellness, and outreach programmes – launched their Shared Table Initiative. It is a student-led movement based on the belief that no student should have to go hungry. The initiative brought students together for a campus-wide donation drive, the planting and harvesting of fresh produce, and supporting local communities with school gardens and tree-planting initiatives.
Part one of the initiative was a donation drive with nearly ten large bags of clothes being donated, as well as over sixty non-perishable items being collected. Additionally, volunteers ventured to Laudium Primary School for garden maintenance, a continuation of the organisation’s tree-planting initiative started back in October 2025.
Part two of the initiative had volunteers planting over 900 vegetables in M-Powerment’s “Roots and Rise Garden”, an initiative that was launched in collaboration with UP’s Joint Community-Based Project (JCP) module for students that are part of the Engineering, Built Environment, and Information Technology (EBIT) faculty. The garden was started in June 2025 and is based on UP’s Future Africa Campus. Soon after, volunteers gathered to plant cabbage and onion and harvest corn and potatoes that were pledged to UP’s Student Nutrition and Progress Programme (SNAPP).
PDBY spoke to M-Powerment Care Founder and CEO Similo Siyenga to gain further insight into the initiative, particularly regarding what inspired the idea of combating student hunger through the production of fresh produce. Siyenga shared that a large benefit of cultivating fresh produce is the aspect of sustainability. He explained that although donations, sponsors, and food drives are effective methods in alleviating student hunger, people may get tired of just giving. Farming initiatives circumvent this issue by empowering students to combat student hunger and support student beneficiaries who are now able to contribute towards the production of their own food, as opposed to simply receiving donations.
Regarding the impact of the initiative, Siyenga explains that the organisation has produced enough food to feed 400 students bi-weekly with SNAPP distribution. Additionally, they have produced an excess of food that can be sold to UP community members and within the Hatfield retail market. The proceeds of these sales can be used to financially sustain the initiative. Siyenga further details the organisation’s long-term plans for the garden, hoping to develop the entire two hectares of land they have available. With 30% of produce being given to students through the SNAPP programme and another 30% being given to Eat@UP, who want to develop items that can be sold back to students, this expands the distribution of produce to consumers beyond SNAPP beneficiaries. The remaining 40% will go to retailers, allowing M-Powerment Care to reinvest funds into the project in order to produce more food, process it, and still feed students. Their ultimate goal is to be able to sustain the project without donations.
As an organisation that focuses on community wellness as well as student outreach programmes, Siyenga explains the importance of supporting the surrounding community, detailing the “symbiotic” relationship between university students and the nearby community. He explains that when students take care of the community, the community takes care of the students. Because many UP students are from Pretoria, a struggling community (such as students experiencing difficulties with household finances) consequently results in a struggling student body.
Siyenga provides that the organisation has an additional role of inspiring people to help one another, saying, “Everybody has a responsibility to help out the next person.” Aiming to inspire those that hold power to amplify the positive impact that individuals have on one another, Siyenga concludes, “It’s always going to be a small solution until the big guys are involved”.
In terms of future plans for M-Powerment Care, Siyenga shared that the Shared Table Initiative will continue. Additionally, he wants to begin engagements with the university in order to kickstart the aforementioned garden programme and to expand the shared table to universities and schools throughout the province. Another long-term goal for the organisation is the establishment of a sustainable food system in most South African universities by the end of 2032, alleviating period poverty and eventually expanding to other education sectors. Finally, Siyenga explains that M-Powerment would like to enter the education space, particularly in assisting high schoolers with university applications and admission where possible.
PDBY also spoke with Lesedi Padi, a Student-Life-Intern at Hatfield Studios who volunteered in part two of the Shared Table Initiative. Padi speaks on his positive experience volunteering at the garden, highlighting the importance of organisations such as M-Powerment Care in assisting disadvantaged students, and how volunteering allows more privileged students gain insight on how their peers may be struggling. Padi concludes by providing that volunteering not only assists beneficiaries, but widens the volunteers’ perspective and promotes community building.
M-Powerment Care is a reminder of the importance of community, helping one another, and giving back. M-Powerment’s ambitions open a bright path for the future of student outreach.
