Due to the rising cases of the Coronavirus Disease or COVID-19, the World Health Organization encourages the public to eat healthy and nutritious food to help boost the immune system not just for COVID-19 but protection for other diseases as well.

With the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) restrictions, many families are faced with the challenge of meeting their food needs. So how can these families eat healthy and nutritious meals with limited or no money to buy food?

In Muntinlupa City, household and community vegetable gardens provide additional food for the families. During this COVID-19 crisis, families are thankful for heeding the advice of the National Nutrition Council and their city nutrition office in putting up vegetable gardens in their backyard and vacant lots in the barangay.

Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNSs) visit families and encourage them to use their vegetable garden’s produce in preparing vegetable-based dishes. Vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals necessary for a healthy immune system. By using fresh and healthy ingredients grown from the vegetable gardens, households can minimize their consumption of processed foods that are high in salt, sugar, fats and low in essential nutrients.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar also encouraged the public to engage in urban gardening especially now to address the problem of food security amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “We need to promote urban gardening in the metropolis so that when there is tightening of food supply, we’ll have no problem in getting them, even at the comfort of our own home,” Dar said.

Following the recommendation of Secretary Dar, the City Government of Muntinlupa continues to engage families in vegetable gardening to help them and their communities thrive not only during crisis but also during normal times. Home and community vegetable gardens make fresh vegetables available and accessible to families as additional food supply. This way, families can extend their food budget allowing them to buy additional food for the family.

The National Nutrition Council-NCR encourages the public to engage in vegetable gardening as an effective strategy to improve household food security and prevent hunger and malnutrition. (TAR/NPC MEVF/NNC-NCR)