Max Carasig and Eric Alvarado describe their meeting as serendipitous because this started a partnership, and friendship, between them that linked the strawberry farmers of Benguet to a market in Metro Manila.
THE STORY OF HOW THEY MET
Both Carasig and Alvarado were volunteers for Feed Philippines, a non-profit organization with a mission to feed and nourish every Filipino child. But due to the COVID19 pandemic and the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ), the organization began holding food drives for frontliners as a way to show gratitude to the modern-day heroes.
While Alvarado supplied the drive with vegetables from his farmer community in La Trinidad, Benguet, Carasig was on the receiving end and made sure that these goods were donated to the non-profit organization.
“After spending some time talking to each other, we realized that we have the same goal for farmers: to provide them with their needs during this trying time,” Carasig said.
Prior to meeting Carasig, Alvarado’s neighbor asked if he would be able to sell 500 kilograms of strawberries in the metro. He managed to do so by sending the product via a provincial bus line before the ECQ was implemented throughout Luzon.
The next time around, he told this dilemma to Carasig, who decided to help out by shouldering the delivery fee for the strawberries.
They eventually realized that doing this once won’t be sustainable so they decided to establish a platform where customers from the metro can order from them.
This story is from the July - August 2020 edition of Agriculture.
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This story is from the July - August 2020 edition of Agriculture.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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