Food is the essence of life and the bedrock of our cultures and communities. Therefore, preserving access to safe and nutritious food is and will continue to be an essential part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for poor and vulnerable communities across the globe, who are hit hardest by the pandemic and resulting economic shocks. In a moment like this, it is more important than ever to recognize the need to support our food heroes – farmers, young people, and workers throughout the food system - who are making sure that food makes its way from farm to fork even amid disruptions as unprecedented as the current COVID-19 crisis. This is the core message for this year’s theme of World Food Day: "Grow, nourish, sustain. Together. Our actions are our future," which is held every 16th of October to commemorate the foundation of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

The ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic made the national government institute nationwide lockdown and LGUs promulgated stricter border control and mobility of its people. Lack of access to resources and lesser economic opportunities have led to serious issues of food security and sufficiency – seriously affected are the poor and indigent families. Youth in school and out of school have suddenly been isolated from their classmates and peers to the confines of their homes.

To address this, the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation of Baybay City under the inspiring leadership of Mark Michael Oracion Unlu-cay has spearheaded the #YouthInAgriculture campaign in order to positively engage the youth of Baybay by providing an avenue to cultivate a healthy and sustainable supply of food in their own backyards that can also be a source of income for their family and contribute to the food security of the community and the city. This project was made possible through the support of various stakeholders coming from the government and private sectors who provided seeds, planting materials, reward incentives, and the motivation needed by our young people to engage in agriculture. The Sangguniang Kabataan of Baybay City continuously supports its SK Councils across the 92 Barangays by collaborating with potential partners such as the East West Seeds Company, Inc. and the Baybay City Agriculture Office by means of providing each SK Council with assorted vegetable seeds in the production of their respective vegetable gardens in the barangay.

Anent to this, as their way of encouraging more young people to engage and be part of our campaign dubbed as “Youth In Agriculture”, they launched the “Vegetable Garden Contest”. It highlights the importance of engaging in agriculture amidst this COVID-19 Pandemic that was published through a video documentary in order to showcase and encourage agricultural production among the youth. The goal is featuring the commendable and sustainable agricultural initiatives, and at the same time, creating influence with the online viewers on how they could also be a part of this campaign by maximizing available resources at home through recycling plastic containers, plastic bottles, and the like. Including the online workshop on the technical support for the easy-to-understand ways and means in planting a seed, and on how to grow a fertile and healthy plant through the City Agriculture Office.

Social Media platform through Facebook was maximized to showcase the video entries as an output of their vegetable garden video documentary. The aforementioned video entries were posted on the official Facebook page of the Sangguniang Kabataan of Baybay City to ensure a wide reach of audience across all the SK Councils and the entire young people in general. Furthermore, to create a much bigger audience and to inspire the children and youth for the adoption and replication of the project, the video entries were also played through TV Broadcast on Channel 43. To foster community engagement and to spur the spirit of Bayanihan, some of the vegetable produce were extended to the Frontliners and indigent families in their respective communities.

The outcome of the Youth In Agriculture project showed that more young people were able to engage in agriculture initiatives and continuing activities were done by the Sangguniang Kabataan Councils of the City were initiated such as the construction of the fence in the garden, planting more seedlings, and the most overwhelming of them all is the harvesting of their garden produce which is now their source of nutrients as food for the body and additional income for the family with the sale of their excess produce. Aside from introducing the young people to engage with agricultural initiatives, they have also spearheaded an extension program by means of extending their harvest in their respective gardens to the Frontliners and to the less fortunate families in their communities.

What makes this project even more rewarding if being able to inspire young people to take up Agriculture-related courses at the Visayas State University, the top-notch higher educational institution on Agriculture which is strategically located in Baybay City. Based on the data gathered from VSU by SK Federation of Baybay City, there is an increase of 10% of student enrollees from Baybay who are taking agriculture-related courses for Academic Year 2020-2021 compared to the previous year.

According to Mr. Unlu-cay, for project sustainability, a portion of 10% from the SK Fund of every Barangays in Baybay City will be appropriated for the implementation of the Youth in Agriculture for the procurement of agricultural materials such as garden tools including seeds as reflected in the Annual Barangay Youth Investment Plan.

The Vegetable Garden Vegetable Garden Contest is in partnership with the Positive Youth Development Network (PYDN) through the Hingyap PH who provided cash prizes that will be given to the outstanding SK Councils, including special awards and consolation prizes. Recently, the Youth in Agriculture Project was awarded #OneVisayas Bayanihan Para Sa Kalusugan Award and is a finalist of Ten Accomplished Youth Organization (TAYO) Awards under TAYO SK Community Service Award category.

The COVID-19 global health crisis has been a time to reflect on things we truly cherish and our most basic needs. These uncertain times have made many of us rekindle our appreciation for a thing that some take for granted and many go without food. #LeoChristianLauzon