Caba, PH – SBF family garden – 27 Jun 2014

The SBF family are tenant farmers living near Caba, La Union.  Since they do not own the land that they farm, most of the farm income goes to the landlord and to pay for fertilizer and insecticides.  Sometimes, there is not enough money left over to even provide for all the family’s food requirements,

They have three children who all go to school but it is difficult to consistently pay the schooling costs. The income they earn from the tenant farm is not enough to cover their basic needs every day, let alone money to buy school supplies.  Consequently, the children have to miss school much of the time in order to help their parents on the farm.  As a result, they are not at the grade level that they should be for their age.

When the Flora family learned about the Food Always In The Home (FAITH) Garden  program offered by  Happy Shine Garden Shop (HSGS), they applied because they were interested in provide healthy food to their children and earning extra income for their family.  Their application was approved and the shop helped them build their garden in January this year. 

They were very happy that someone would help their family to learn organic gardening, and mentor them during the entire process. They received tools like a watering can, sprayer, plastic water container, spading fork, shovel, compost, EM1 and organic garden manual. Additionally, they were also given seed and seedlings for Okra, Chili, String Beans, Bottle Gourd etc.. HSGS helped them every step of the process, and now they are able to also apply their learning on the main farm.  In March, they were able to harvest healthy vegetables that they sold in the market. They used the money to buy their children school supplies, and were able to set some money aside.  They hope to continue saving so that they can start a pig fattening business in the future.

The Flora family are very thankful to this program because they are able to earn a more reliable income, but most importantly they have organic gardening knowledge that they can use going forward. This ensures they will be able to provide healthy and safe vegetables to their family in the future!