QC project taps open spaces as food source

Before the pandemic, hunger was already a very real and palpable problem.

UN agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) released the first comprehensive report on food insecurity and nutrition since the start of the pandemic, which showed that the rates of hunger and malnutrition in the world increased from 8.4 percent in 2019 to 10 percent in 2020. COVID-19 had a significant share in this increase.

The largest city in the Philippines, Quezon City was hit particularly hard. During a high-level discussion on policies and strategies for COVID-19 recovery organized by the United Nations Philippines, Mayor Joy Belmonte shared the difficulties the city government had faced, most of which came without warning.

For example, upon declaration of the hard lockdowns, local government units (LGUs) had to provide relief through food and cash to residents which immediately had an effect on the city’s resources and stockpile. Quezon City, through Mayor Belmonte, aimed to become more self-reliant, by establishing urban gardens and farms with Grow QC. “We now have 166 sites in different areas across the city that serve as a source of nutrition and comfort and mental relief for many of our underprivileged,” Belmonte enthused.