By Stephanie Logsdon | Project Coordinator
Vegetables are growing! The gardeners are forming alliances to cultivate together and are exploring innovate ideas! We are happy to say that a lot of progress and changes have been made since our last update.
Emerging urban gardeners are half way through a 6-month horticultural training course with SENA, the official government technical training entity in Colombia. Based in La Comuna 8, an area of Medellín with 69% of the population reporting to have no income, the course is providing the participants with hands on experience and a practical classroom education to grow a productive vegetable garden. Given that cultivating a garden takes time and commitment, we’ve seen our core gardener group size down to 30 dedicated gardeners. They are a diverse mix of people from La Comuna 8, other neighborhoods of Medellín and even a few that live in towns surrounding the city. They bring a wide range of experiences and interests to the table, from the younger gardeners who are actively collaborating together in projects that use urban gardening techniques like hydroponics, to adults from 50-70 years of age that are utilizing family terrace or patio space to propagate plant starts and grow vegetables.
We’ve expanded the project to include individuals and families from other areas of Medellín because of the interest we’ve seen in this project. Although there is a higher rate of unemployment in La Comuna 8, the city as a whole still struggles with employment with a significant number of families not earning a minimum monthly wage, which in Colombia is only $266 US. We continue to work with other NGOs, such as World Vision, in the city to identify new families that could benefit from this project in La Comuna 8.
Weekly produce sales have been happening between the gardeners and local gastronomy entrepreneur, Pedro Fernández, Founder of The Chef is Back, who purchases the garden harvests at a fair, fixed price. We have sold Organic Pearl Tomatoes, Hydroponic Basil, Organic Lettuce, Organic Kale, Chard, Onions and Broccoli too. If the produce is not certified organic it is grown with organic practices.
Once the gardeners have established gardens that produce high quality produce in high demand from buyers, they will generate positive cash flow and will not require any further investment after an initial donation.
Thank you for your continued support to these urban gardeners. We hope you’ll reach out to us to learn more and we welcome anyone to come for tour in Medellín! Send us a message at huertas@fundacione2e.org.
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