City officials recently strongly urged the 128 barangays to establish and maintain community vegetable gardens.
Under Resolution No. 686, series of 2023, local legislators stated that the barangay, as the smallest political unit in the bureaucracy, has the mandate to reduce the incidents of malnutrition and promote the ecological well being of its residents.
During the Scout Official for a Day (SOFAD) session held on October 23, 2923, the SOFAD Council adopted the proposal of SOFAD Councilor Jhoanna Mae N. Poquiz that strongly urged the city’s barangays to establish and maintain community vegetable gardens.
The council claimed that barangay community gardens provide for shared responsibility and proprietorship of the land and its produce when collectively developed and nurtured by the community.
Further, the body pointed out that developing community gardens has many benefits such as increasing access to fresh harvest, promotes good nutrition which improves the nutritional status of the community and improves mental health and forges stronger family ties, especially when family members participate in maintaining said gardens.
According to the resolution, having community gardens enables families without land or space to experience the joy of planting and harvesting aside from instilling ideals and deepens the appreciation of gardening and promotes a sense of community.
The council disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic has revived the people’s interest in gardening where people have turned to community gardens, also called survival gardens and container or pot gardens during those challenging days, thus, to maintain one in the barangays is an ingenious way to rise collectively above the crisis and it was seen as a mitigation measure against the impact of the pandemic to food security.
Moreover, the council explained that even beyond the pandemic, community gardens will surely serve their purpose and for privately-owned lands, an authority from the owner must first be secured before any activity shall commence.
