The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is seeking to scale up its community gardening project to possibly include 11 more schools in Rizal.
This, as a scoping activity for the School Edible Landscaping for Entrepreneurship (SEL4E) Project was conducted from January 31 to Feb. 3, 2022 in Rizal. Eleven schools from seven municipalities were visited by key staff of SEARCA's Research and Thought Leadership Department and Training for Development Unit, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist of Rizal and the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division Office (SDO) of Rizal.
"SEL4E is an offshoot project of SEARCA's prior project titled 'A Participatory Action Research on School and Community-based Food and Nutrition Program for Literacy, Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development,' also known as the School-plus-Home Gardens Project (S+HGP), which was piloted in Laguna from 2016 to 2017," SEARCA said in a statement.
"This project aims to scale out the SEL4E model through multi-stakeholder participation in improving the nutrition and health of children and their families," it added.
A scoping interview was facilitated by SEARCA with the 11 schools, namely Malaya Elementary School and Virgilio B. Melendrez Memorial Elementary School in Pililla; Bagumbong Elementary School in Jala-jala; Tanay-Sampaloc Integrated National High School and Sampaloc Elementary School in Tanay; Baras Elementary School and Baras National High School in Baras; San Guillermo Elementary School and Tomas Claudio Memorial Elementary School in Morong; Pantay Integrated National High School in Teresa; and Tuna-Balibago High School Annex in Cardona.
"Project activities are set to start this month with the development of the project's implementation guide, training modules and other learning materials specifically relevant for home and community gardening. SEARCA and the Synergy Group Operations Inc. (SGOI)," SEARCA said.
SGOI provided funds for the project implementation in partnership with the provincial government of Rizal, DepEd SDO Rizal and Pilipinas Shell Foundation Inc.