LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines — The province-wide “Gulayan sa Paaralan”, part of the Developing Agriculture thru Vegetable Production Integration Drive in School (DAVID S) program initiated by Quezon Governor David Suarez and provincial legislative executive Vicente Alcala was launched recently at the Queen Margarette Hotel in this city. Inspired by the concept, the launched was attended by representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Education, congressmen, municipal agriculturists, and local officials.
The program aims to contribute to the development of the province with schools as the best avenue to disseminate information on the importance of producing and eating vegetables to children which will be carried on as they grow up. The knowledge learned and the skills obtained can be extended in their households and into the community where the different children belong.
It is also very timely that the Department of Education (DepEd) included vegetable production tagged as “Gulayan sa Paaralan” in their curriculum to mitigate hunger and malnutrition in the country.
This project became a school-community food production project which seeks to raise public consciousness on the health and nutritional dimension as well as the economic benefits of establishing schools, households and community gardens. The schools or community gardens shall serve as the main source of commodities to sustain supplementary feeding.