SM Foundation promotes urban gardening

SM Foundation recently launched the Urban Edible Garden training under its Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan Farmers’ Training program to impart simple and doable techniques in growing vegetables at home.

Participants were 120 beneficiaries of the government’s 4Ps program who attended the launching ceremonies in Barangay Marilag, Quezon City.

The program was also launched in Graces, former site of Golden Acres, that has been converted into a diagnostic and processing center for abandoned, neglected, and lost elderly.

They are housed in Graces before transferring to residential care families or to the Tanay Haven for the Elderly.

Participants of the KSK in Graces were 140 Pantawid Pamilya from Barangays Basra, Sto. Cristo, and Ramon Magsaysay. Notable in this group were 60 able elderly who can participate in the program.

Staff of Graces will likewise be included in the program.

Partner in the program is the San Francisco High School where a 588 square-meter lot will be used as demo plots. However, the participants will be taught how to plant in pots as home edible gardening.

While they will be tending the garden plots, they will be asked to take home seedlings.

The training will be conducted for 12 continuing weekly sessions, each session lasting for two hours. Crops to be grown are salad vegetables, Chinese leafy greens, beans, cucumber, herbs, ampalaya, and okra, among other vegetables that are staple in every family’s meal.

Trainors from Harbest Agribusiness Corp. will share their knowledge on vegetable farming using Harbest training module on organic vegetable gardening.