MANILA — Food gardening can help ease the burden of Filipino families amid the rising cost of basic commodities in the market due to the implementation of Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law.
“It (food garden) is important especially now that prices of some basic commodities are high,” Milagros Federizo, Regional Nutrition Program Coordinator of National Nutrition Council (NNC) in National Capital Region, told the Philippines News Agency (PNA) on Thursday.
Federizo said since the purchasing power of consumers is usually affected when prices are high, the budget for food will be reduced.
However, she said the high prices of food items should not be a reason to deprive the families to still have nutritious foods which can be sourced-out from food garden.
“By having a food garden, they can plant fruits and vegetables which they can harvest and include in their meal,” she said.
Federizo said organizing a food garden is an easy and inexpensive project that a family members can do.
“All they need are recyclable materials, empty containers, cans, pots, and old tires,” she said.
She added since the spaces in Metro Manila are limited, vertical garden or arranging the plants vertically is recommended to maximize the space where they could grow the vegetables.
Some of the vegetables that can be grown in a typical food garden are pechay, okra (lady finger), eggplant, camote tops, saluyot (corchorus), sili, tomato, calamansi, among others, Federizo said.
The NNC is encouraging families and communities to engage in food gardening in line with this month’s celebration of National Nutrition Month, with the theme “Ugaliing Magtanim, Sapat na Nutritisyon Aanihin“.
The celebration was highlighted by different activities such as conduct of on-the-spot poster making contest among students in the schools in NCR; forum on proper nutrition; healthy lifestyle and other programs in cooperation with the Department of Education and local government units (LGUs).
The National Nutrition Month celebration will culminate with the awarding of LGUs and Barangay Nutrition Scholars that are implementing nutrition programs and promoting healthy communities. (Leilani Junio/PNA)
