“Kumain ng gulay upang humaba ang ‘yong buhay”— a common and famous line of Filipinos when it comes in eating vegetables for a healthy meal.
Health, being one of the major focus of our government, gave way to the issuance and implementation of Gulayan sa Paaralan Program (GPP) through DepEd Memorandum No. 293,s.2007 to support the hunger mitigation and to encourage both public elementary and secondary schools in instituting school gardens to ensure continuous supply of vegetables for the School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP) and other feeding programs as well. This program was sustained in DepEd Memorandum No.95, s.2018 “to address malnutrition and promote vegetable production and consumption among school children” according to Education Secretary Leonor Briones.
GPP’s objective “is to promote food security in schools and communities, through self-help food production activities and values among learners and appreciation of agriculture as a life support system” — Briones said. The said program is a big help in SBFP as the schools does not only depend on the outside market for the food they’ll be feeding to students but rather assure to themselves that they wouldn’t run out of it. Having vegetable gardens within school not only serve as food basket but also became a learning field of students as it may be a laboratory for learners to discover and familiarize themselves with the nutrition and health benefits that it provide.
Vegetables as part of healthy diet, nourishment, and wellness also show-case small-scale food production and inculcate among the learners the values of gardening, good health and nutrition, love of labor and caring for others. As they realize that the food they eat is what they plant themselves, the program does not only feed them with literal food but nourish them with knowledge and good perspective in planting too.
Tomatoes, okra, eggplant, and leafy veggies such as malunggay, water spinach (kangkong), malabar spinach (alugbati), alagaw, sweet potato tops are usually main ingredients in a healthy meal. Vines such as bittergourds, bottlegourds, squash, patola, string beans and winged beans make pretty much of a menu and for a hot healthy soup. Sayote, Calamansi, Chinese Spinach (pechay). Gulayan sa Paaralan helps lessen budget needed to buy ingredients for these could be found in the inside the school premises which is proven more beneficial than buying everything in the market. Squah soup, misua with alugbati, adobong sitaw, and steamed leafy vegetables are only some of the menu that could be offered to the students with these school-planted foods.
In general, Gulayan sa Paaralan plays an important role in the sustenance of School-Based Feeding Program as it provides a reassuring healthy menu for students and help the administration raise nutritional status while teaching values and importance of agriculture in a subtle manner.
Resources:
Miranda, Joan M..(Dec 14,2017).Sustainable Development Through Gulayan sa Paaralan. Retrieved from https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/sunstar- pampanga/20171214/281621010683027
Hernando-Malipot, Merlina.(June 18,2018). DedEd to Sustain Implementation of Vegetable Production Program. Retrieved from https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/06/18/deded-to-sustain-implementation-of-vegetable-production-program/
Bautista, Francesca Dianne D.. (Jan. 31,2018). Retrieved from https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/sunstar-pampanga/20180131/281595240969056
By: Neriza P. Cabreta |Teacher III |Tortugas Elementary School |Tortugas, City of Balanga
