21 June 2018, 365 Julian Felipe St. Brgy. 8, Zone 1, District II, Caloocan City. From 1PM-3PM, FEED’s VP of Operations, Diane Penales, carried out an engaging and practical talk on urban and edible gardening for the benefit of about 30 community leaders from a major local women’s cooperative based in Barangay 8, District II of Caloocan City, the world’s 7th most densely populated city (27,916 people per km²), and also the fourth most populous city in the Philippines.

The seminar was given in support of the request by De La Salle’s students, in fulfilment of their National Service Training Program (NSTP) requirements. The 30 students sponsored a 120 of the 500 seeds of organic vegetables donated by FEED in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). FEED always encourages particularly youth leaders in the active planting of high nutrition-based local crops, having partnered with and been trained by FEED’s LIVING LEGACY partners the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) – focused on empowering the poor, and therefore emphasising low cost, high impact interventions; and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) – for technical support on agro-forestry driven techniques.

The training of trainers (ToT) is a capacity building approach intended to empower the local community to be able to train others so we can all “pay it forward”, since there are not enough agencies, public, private, NGO or otherwise able to tackle one of the Philippines top anti-poverty challenges: FOOD SECURITY.

Penales’ talk focused on delivering the basics of vegetable and edible gardening in tight urban spaces with limited planting materials, use of recycling or up cycling plastic bottles, and a practical emphasis on organic, fast-growing, high-yielding, particularly high nutrition and climate smart native species, including: tomatoes, pole site and cowpea (beans), okra, kalabasa/squash, upo, eggplant, patola and chillies.

Thank you DLSU kids, here’s wishing you more power in all your eco-advocacies!

Photo Collage

About the Lasallian Mission at DLSU

The Lasallian Mission at DLSU is essentially the mission of the entire University community as expressed in its Vision-Mission Statement. Each member is invited to integrate this Mission with their specific role and expertise; whether in administration, academics or research, contributing their part to the University becoming a resource for Church and nation.

Recognizing that the Lasallian Mission involves all personnel and functions in De La Salle University, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Lasallian Mission and its constituent bodies exist to provide Lasallian formation for all members of the University community.

Ultimately, the goal of its efforts towards faith formation and community engagement is to help DLSU become more and more a school of and for the poor.

DLSU is a school of the poor in as far as the Lasallian community is committed to providing full scholarships to at least 20% of its total population. It means that 1 out of every 5 students will be from the most disadvantaged groups in society.

More importantly, DLSU is a school for the poor. This means that every academic department has to integrate relevant community engagement programs into their curriculum. As an institution for higher learning, academic departments of the university must seek, wherever possible, to use their unique expertise to conduct research on poverty in all its forms and more importantly, develop sustainable solutions towards eradicating it.

More information here: http://www.dlsu.edu.ph

Contact FEED

FEED runs a number of Students and Volunteers for the Environment (SAVE); Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – such as mangrove planting for coastal protection or ridge reforestation plantings; One Child, One Tree; Bio-Intensive Gardens (BIG) for nutrition in public elementary schools and other spaces; Climate Change Survival 101 and other LIVING LEGACY programs – customised environmental engagement activities for individuals and organisations interested in contributing to climate change adaptation efforts and greening critical areas such as watersheds, ridges, and reefs that all require rehabilitation.

Tree-Planting with FEED: Video

Check out the video journey by Clueless Commuter who planted with us last 24th of June 2017 to get a good idea of how FEED plantings go: https://youtu.be/KROn4rjVqBg

Contact us at FEED for more details, to join our regular activities or to design your own CSR Program: info@feed.org.ph or call/text +63 (0)917 552 4722.