The Department of Horticulture recently held its market day at the DUT Nursery to inform students and staff about the nursery and raise funds for their student feeding scheme.
The market day is an initiative aimed at raising funds for Horticulture students, who are not financially able to access food on campus and also assist with student’s fees where possible.
In attendance were DUT staff members, students, and community members. There were representatives from the department of horticulture and students who had stalls with different kinds of flowers that were on sale.
Horticulture students demonstrated to possible buyers, the knowledge they have gained in understanding the knowledge of flowers throughout their course of study.
Head of the department, Lucy Karuiki, said as a department they have noticed students are struggling on campus and a lot of people are not informed about the nursery so as the department they wanted to showcase the department of horticulture to staff, students, and the public.
“I get people in events asking me about my department, so this is a great way to let people know about our department, but most importantly, our purpose is to raise money for students as it came to our attention that the feeding scheme was not funded this year,” said Karuiki
Horticulture student, Noluthando Dladla, said as students they were grateful for what their department was doing and being part of the market day also taught them how to market themselves and their product when they get into the professional field.
“Not all departments do this for their students, so for us, we are thankful to our lecturers and staff for starting this initiative and this is also teaching entrepreneurial skills and how to market and interact with customers.
The horticulture department has funded two students already and is hoping to raise enough money to fund more students.
Pictured: Nomfundo Ndlovu (junior lecturer), Beato Zwelonke ( lecturer assistant), Minenhle Mdunge( student), Noluthando Dladla (student), Mandisa Ndlangisa ( department secretary), Dr. Karuiki ( head of department), at the function.
Nomfundo Ngcobo
