Workshops on Food Preparation and Responsible Consumption
Mothers and pregnant women from the Chugá parish participating in a workshop on food preparation.
Access to rich and healthy food is one of the main objectives pursued by the agroecological transition processes. In this edition we want to share the experience of the workshops on responsible consumption and healthy eating, with mothers and pregnant women from the parish of Chuga.
We developed a workshop with the participation of 20 mothers and pregnant women. The main purpose is to promote a culture of better eating and in a varied way. The workshop includes the analysis of sugar and fat content in ultra-processed foods.
We are also promoting the implementation of orchards with approximately 10 varieties of vegetables and fruits. With this we seek to cover part of the nutritional needs of the participants and their children.
Mother of a family from the parish of Chugá, beneficiary of the implementation of orchards in coordination with the institutions that work in the territory.
Participants distribute the delivered seedlings to sow in their orchards.
So far we have implemented 22 family gardens that are operating with 10 varieties of fruit and vegetables, feeding and generating savings for participating families.
For example, one of the pregnant mothers had problems during her pregnancy, she was in a lot of pain and could not move easily to go to the market to do her shopping. Thus, she took advantage of her garden to feed herself while her gestation period lasted, achieving savings and improving her diet. This is a very good help, she said, my husband was working far away, he sent me money but I couldn’t use it because of my difficulty getting around, traveling by car affected me a lot. I made the most of the garden and now I have a beautiful baby girl who was born very healthy.
Implementation of Peri-Urban Gardens
In the community of Ambuquí there are small spaces that want to be used for food production. This is the case of Aida Almeida, which has a space of approximately 50 square meters. She is passionate about agriculture, and despite her small space, she has several fruit trees such as: mango, lemon, and orange, which have been used for consumption by her home and her children. Aida Almeida together with her husband have been attending workshops that the foundation has given such as: production of bio-inputs, responsible consumption, tomato planting, among others. In addition, they have been benefited from the innovation fund with which they implemented a technical irrigation system to improve the production of their farm.
Mrs. Aida Almeida during the construction of the structures of her peri-urban garden.
The love for clean agriculture has grown since the intervention of Tierra Viva and little by little they required more space since their intention is to continue cultivating for consumption. This is how the idea of implementing a vertical garden was born, for the construction recycled material was used, both for the metal structure and for the wooden boxes.
There is great emotion on the part of Aida Almeida to see that the videos that she watched on YouTube were now being captured in her small space. What she longs for the most is to continue producing food to feed her family.
The next steps to crystallize her idea is to obtain the substrate that will be used for planting vegetables, especially zuccini and carrots, which is a product widely used in her diet. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the family because there are forms of agriculture for her small space, they will continue practicing ways of producing food, food is her priority.