PhD Student · Force for Health Fellow · Your Food Guide
This little magazine is for the families of Harlon Schools, and for every family who learns from you. The school gates are closed for now — but the soil is still open, the sun still shines, and your hands still know how to grow. Turn the page, and let's grow health together. 🌱
Feature
When the School Gates Closed
Harlon Schools, Eastern Uganda — turning a schoolyard into a source of food security
When the Ebola outbreak reached the Bugisu sub-region near Mbale, the schools around Mount Elgon shut their doors. Classrooms emptied. The bell went quiet. For many families, school had also meant a meal — and now both were gone at once. But the teachers and parents of Harlon Schools looked at the wide, empty schoolyard and saw something the outbreak could not close: open ground, good soil, and rain.
So they planted. Maize and beans went into the old play-field. Cassava and sweet potato edged the fences. The schoolyard that once held footsteps now holds food. This is the heart of MyHealthy Africa: when the gates close, the garden opens, and a community feeds itself through the season.
"The school gates can close. The garden cannot. As long as there is soil and sun, a family can grow its own security."
— Coach Addison Konlan
🌍 Why a schoolyard garden?
A garden you can walk to is a garden that survives a lockdown. Families do not have to travel to crowded markets during an outbreak — which keeps them safer from the disease itself. The food is fresh, the cost is near zero, and children learn by doing. A schoolyard garden answers two emergencies at once: hunger and isolation.
And it does more than fill stomachs today. A garden plus the skill to preserve what it grows means a family is fed not just this week, but through the lean months ahead. Growing is only half the story; saving the harvest is the other half.
🧭 Our framework: Learn It · Live It · Share It
Every MyHealthy Africa lesson moves through three simple steps. They turn knowledge into food, and food into community.
Learn ItUnderstand how crops grow and how food spoils — the ideas behind every choice.
Live ItPlant, tend, harvest, and preserve with your own hands, at home, today.
Share ItTeach one neighbour what you learned, so the whole community grows stronger.
Coach Addison says
Start small, start now
Do not wait for the perfect plot or the perfect tools. A few rows of maize and beans between the desks is enough to begin. The best garden is the one you actually plant. Start with what you have, and grow it season by season.
Crops Spread
Four Friends for the Schoolyard
Hardy, nourishing, and well-suited to the soils of Mount Elgon
Maize
90–120 days
The staple. Plant in rows in full sun. Must be dried fully before storing — never store damp.
Beans
60–90 days
Intercrop with maize — beans fix nitrogen in the soil, feeding the maize for free. Protein-rich.
Cassava
Leaves ~3 mo · roots 8–18 mo
Drought-resistant lifesaver. Eat the leaves early; leave tubers in the ground as living storage.
Sweet Potato
3–5 months
Leaves edible within weeks. Orange roots are rich in Vitamin A — great for children's eyes and growth.
Coach Addison says
Plant a calendar, not just a crop
Mix fast and slow foods. Sweet-potato leaves and bean pods feed you in weeks; maize fills the store in months; cassava waits patiently in the ground for the hard times. Plant all four, and your garden feeds you across the whole year — not just at harvest.
Preservation Spread
Six Ways to Save the Harvest
No fridge, no power, no cost — only sun, fire, salt, and time
☀️ Sun Drying
Slice thin, spread on a raised, covered mat in full sun until it snaps.
🔥 Smoking
Lay fish or meat over a slow hardwood fire 4–8 hours until firm and dry.
🧂 Salting
Rub salt over every surface to pull out water, then sun-dry to finish.
Dry grain fully, mix in cold wood ash (repels weevils), seal in a tight pot or drum.
🌿 Cool / In-Ground
Leave cassava in the soil; cure sweet potato, then keep in a cool, shaded, airy pit.
⚠️ The one rule you must never skip
Maize that is stored before it is fully dry can grow a hidden poison called aflatoxin — a mould toxin you cannot taste or wash away, and it can make a family seriously ill. Always sun-dry grain until it rattles and snaps before you store or grind it. When in doubt, dry it one more day.
Coach Addison says
The golden thread
Notice how nearly every method comes down to the same idea: get the water out and keep the air off. Master that one thought, and you can preserve almost anything your garden gives you.
Write in these pages — make this magazine your own plan
Workbook · Page 1
My Garden Plan
Walk your schoolyard or yard, then fill this in. There are no wrong answers — only your plan.
What will I plant? (circle or write your crops)
Where will I plant it? (which part of the yard, how many rows)
When will I plant, and when do I expect to harvest?
Who will help me care for the garden each week?
Workbook · Page 2
My Preservation Plan
When the harvest comes in, what will I save and how? Fill one row for each food.
Food
Method I'll use
How long it will last
My safety check: How will I make sure my maize is fully dry before storing?
Workbook · Page 3
New Words
Write each word in your own words. If you can explain it to a friend, you truly know it.
Intercropping (my own definition)
Nitrogen-fixing (my own definition)
Compost (my own definition)
Curing (my own definition)
Fermentation (my own definition)
Aflatoxin (my own definition)
Weevil (my own definition)
Airtight (my own definition)
A last word from Coach Addison
Learn it · Live it · Share it
You have learned it and, with this workbook, you will live it. The final step is the most powerful: share it. Teach one neighbour what you grew and how you saved it. A preserved harvest feeds a family — but a shared skill feeds a whole community, season after season.