The purpose of the cooking contests is to gather and compile local, indigenous, but more importantly, acceptable recipes to pupils using the crops produced from the school gardens. The events will also showcase the participation of parent and student tandems in planning, marketing, preparation, and serving of nutritious, delicious, affordable, and safe recipes. The participants of the contests will prepare a one-dish meal recipe with ingredients from the school garden.
One of the outputs of the School and Home Gardens Project is the development of a recipe book. While there are a number of vegetable recipes compiled in several recipe books to be used in the school-based feeding program, this project hopes to contribute to the compilation of pupil-acceptable local recipes, which utilize the produce from the gardens in the five pilot elementary schools.
The events are being coordinated with the Department of Education - Division of Laguna, as well as heads of the following schools: Labuin Elementary School (Pila), Majayjay Elementary School (Majayjay), Crisanto Guysayko Memorial Elementary School (Nagcarlan), San Andres Elementary School (Alaminos), and Cabuyao Central School (Cabuyao).
The Participatory Action Research on School- and Community-based Food and Nutrition Program for Literacy, Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development project is implemented by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the Department of Education (DepEd)-Laguna, and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). (Anna Gale C. Vallez)