Cape Town - Lufefe Nomjana believes in dreaming big. His vision of steering township residents toward healthy lifestyles is gaining traction through his health bakery, Espinaca Innovations.
As the name suggests, all of his goods – such as bread, muffins, ruskotti and even smoothies – are spinach based. He doesn’t use any artificial additives.
“I’m taking over Popeye’s spinach legacy. I’m the Popeye of this generation,” he says.
Nomjana, 26, and his wife Matsidiso, 24, start baking at 3am.
At 8am he loads the last batch of breads into a basket on his bicycle and rides to the local supermarket to have them sliced. Then he does the bulk-order deliveries on his bicycle. The rest of his customers come to the window of the green-painted container bakery, in Spine Road, Khayelitsha.
He’s been operating out of the two-room container, which is fully kitted out with industrial ovens, for little over a month now. And it’s been quite a journey, he says.
When he started out two years ago, Nomjana says residents weren’t interested in his products. Mention of the words spinach or vegetables made them recoil.
He wasn’t surprised. “I grew up eating unhealthily. My meals were unbalanced, had a lot of meat and not much vegetables. There’s a perception in the township that meat is our culture and vegetables are for other people from other areas,” he says.
His change of attitude came in 2011 when, presented with a buffet, Nomjana was told about the health benefits of the various vegetables. His interest in how diet could improve quality of life was piqued. So much so that he became a vegetarian.
But it wasn’t enough for him to change his own eating habits, he wanted to find out how he could help others do the same.
While he has no formal training in nutrition, Nomjana volunteered at the Mapongwana Community Health Centre in Khayelitsha for six months, as the assistant to the nutritionist’s assistant.
This is where he learnt about the effects – and dietary treatments – for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
“The greatest enemy people are facing is food. It can lead to their deaths. But a solution can also be found in food,” he says.
He found that spinach was among the most nutritious, cheap and also easy-to-grow veggies. While people are advised to eat low GI, and many other health foods, it’s not always cheap or easily accessible in the township.
His dream was to open an organic bakery and specialise in affordable, spinach-based products. But finding financial backing proved difficult, so in June 2012 he decided to use the resources he had.
“I had R40 in my pocket, some ingredients in the house and my intellectual resources. I had no ovens or even a space to bake,” says Nomjana.
Times were tough in the beginning. For the first three months there was no income and no money for food. Everything went into the business. The couple often visited their parents for meals.
He lived with his wife in a shack in Ilitha Park, but these were not suitable premises to bake in. Nomjana and his wife would knead the dough in buckets, and bake in his neighbour’s kitchen. They started off with only four small loaves a day. Eventually, they started working in the local supermarket’s bakery section. And now, he finally has his own premises to work in and sell from.
But he doesn’t just sell bread. “Before they buy the bread, I talk to them about food and healthy lifestyles. Education is a big part of what we do,” he says.
The business also works with local early childhood development centres. Nomjana provides them with spinach seedlings, they grow the plants, and Nomjana buys them back from them. He sells bread to the centres at a reduced rate.
Slowly but surely, people are warming up to the idea of healthy eating.
Nomjana and his wife still live in the same shack but at least they can afford to cook their own meals now, he jokes. “For me, what’s more important is to invest in the vision, rather than lifestyle.
“It’s business first.”
Nomjana believes his business can be franchised, and the model would have appeal in any community, anywhere in the world.
“I started with nothing, only an idea. But I dreamt big and standing here feels amazing.”
Cape Argus