LA LIBERTAD, NEGROS ORIENTAL - Enabling communities to provide well balanced and nutritious food for their children while enticing the youth to continue their education is the core strategy of the Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK). This is a social impact organization that first started by co-investing in school lunches that got students back to school, made them healthy and became a source of income for the community since all ingredients were sourced from the residents.

Having started three years ago, ARK was able to give birth to Feed Back – a community wide vegetable exchange that invites families to farm in their backyards and contribute three (3) of their favorite vegetables in exchange for their fair share of over 20 vegetables given by their neighbors. The municipality of La Libertad in the Province of Negros Oriental has the largest number of partner communities for ARK which is a testament of the strong municipal and barangay partnership and the “tunga-tunga” spirit that fuels Wave 5 and 7 in La Libertad.

In the municipality of La libertad, Wave 5 Barangays and its Barangay Councils including Barangay Cangabo, Elecia, Kansumandig, San Jose, South Poblacion and Talayong lead the charge towards food security. Wave 5 triumphed over the pandemic and typhoon Odette and finished strong. They secured 1,933 families or 97% of their target and 100% of at-risk families in their communities. Not lagging are the 9 Wave 7 Barangays and their Councils including Barangay Aniniaw, Aya, Busilak, Cantupa, Eli, Guihob, Manghulyawon, Maragondong and Martilo. These nine (9) barangays created diversity and abundance in their communities as they exchanged over 97 thousand kilos of vegetables and fruits worth P2.3 million.

Beyond the numbers and data, what is truly inspiring in ARK is the transformation witnessed on various levels. At a time of scarcity during the pandemic, there is evidence of generosity and compassion among neighbors who share not only their vegetables but also their time and skills in agriculture. At a time of contagion and post-calamity recovery, malnutrition rates have decreased, and kids are enjoying the vegetables on their plates. // NGS