Search
Search

Learning Lunch

The Learning Lunch podcast explores ideas, approaches and social innovations – creating opportunity for non-profit organisations’ teams to discover what others are learning and space to reflect on what these insights might mean for their own strategy and programme implementation.

On the menu

Introduction

Have you heard of a brown-bag-lunch? A brown-bag-lunch is an informal meeting or learning opportunity in the workplace during the lunch hour. It is hosted once a month or every two weeks, and it is called a “brown-bag-lunch” because staff bring their lunches along and have them during the session.

Many non-profit organisations (NPOs) have tried to host a regular brown-bag-lunch series, but while this is always valued, for various reasons it rarely ends up being a sustained practice. The Learning Lunch is a podcast and reflection tool that seeks to help solve the problem of having a sustainable brown-bag-lunch series for NPOs.

Each podcast/learning lunch session is structured as follows:

a 30-minute podcast

instruction for a ±30-minute group reflection

Podcasts

deep-dive_small

Deep dives

The Deep Dive explores a specific topic in-depth and from different perspectives. These topics might often relate to current affairs or pertinent issues impacting the work of NGOs in South Africa.

nourish-flourish_small

Nourish & flourish

Nourish & Flourish explores new ways of doing things as NGOs; it reflects on challenges specific to the sector; or provides inspiration – filling up our tanks – not just as staff, but as people.

nourish-flourish_small

Best bites

Sharing the Best Bites profiles the work of a specific NGO around a topic, allowing a larger NGO audience to learn from their approach and to access the lessons they learned along the way. In doing so, we grow networks and develop best practices as a sector.

plate-how_small

How to host

Congratulations for being chosen or for volunteering to organise your NPOs brown-bag-bag-lunch session with The Learning Lunch! We hope that your efforts will be appreciated by your team!

Tell your colleagues about The Learning Lunch.
Together with the appropriate managers decide on a day for the lunch – Fridays have traditionally been a good day for brown-bag-lunch sessions.
Decide on the date for your brown-bag-lunch session and send out meeting invites.
You will need to book an hour for the session. You also need to decide which podcast session you will use at your session.
If you are hosting the session at your office, ensure that you have a space booked where you can sit together, eat lunch and listen to the podcast.
You will need a stable internet connection (if you have not downloaded the podcast) and good speakers. Make sure that you have downloaded and printed the ‘Takeaways’ reflection points which you should read to everyone again after the podcast. Discuss.

That’s it! Enjoy your meal!

Your hosts

Our podcast presenters are Rahima Essop, Hlumela Dyantyi and Thuthula Mngenela.

Rahima Essop

Rahima is the Communications Director for DGMT and an award-winning journalist. Before joining the DG Murray Trust, she worked in public relations and radio broadcasting.

Hlumela Dyantyi

Hlumela is a Social Activist and Journalist. She is passionate about human-centred stories that dismantle single-story narratives and truly represent the realities of South Africans.

Thuthula Mngenela

Thuthula is an experienced radio presenter and content producer who is passionate about assisting people to transform and evolve on their life journey while finding hope in all situations.