Garden to Market- Helping the poor to grow food!

In these past three months, we have been very busy developing our hydroponics program. Our gardens are not on a large industrial scale, but our harvests are healthy and delicious.

The ‘Garden to Market Project’ is not income-producing for the Hand to Hand foundation and 100% of all of the money raised through the sale of produce goes directly to those who labour in the garden. The project is designed to give people who have no education and often no identification documents be able to develop skills and find employment. Very often people with very poor, educational skills, lack finances, and also suffer from very low self-esteem,. Working together to learn a new skill  encourages them to have a hope for the future as well as discovering a way of earning an income.

We have been delighted to work with the DHL company who came to work with us and helped provide many resources we needed for the hydroponics plant program. We spent a day teaching the staff on how we grow the plants and they were very generous and providing many of the materials that we need. We try to use very basic and recycled items which makes the project reproducible in the poor communities in and around Pattaya.

We also grow many leafy vegetables in our greenhouse, which protects plants from the strong sunlight and several pests and diseases. Our program might be small, but it’s very mighty not just in growing food, but in growing people and I hope for their future.

Links:

• Hand to Hand Foundation