Plenty Bulletin

Students at Big Falls Village School stake their tomato plants. Photo by Adibe palma

In 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provided approximately US$10,000 worth of tools and equipment to Plenty’s GATE Program. At the time GATE included ten primary schools. Under their Telefoods Program FAO also provided grants in other parts of Belize to assist with school garden projects. FAO representatives visited Belize in 2005 to do an assessment of the school gardens in Belize. We recently received a copy of their report, which stated: “The experience in Toledo, where PLENTY Belize, a locally registered NGO, provided the extension services, working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, is a working model worthy of replication” (Telefood Report, 2005).

In the last few months we have been spending a good amount of time consulting with Ms. Yvonne Codd and Mr. Nelson Longsworth of the Ministry of Education (MOE). The Government of Belize (GOB) through MOE is now looking at integrating agriculture with the national school curriculum, and is indeed looking at Plenty Belize and our GATE Program as a model. We are very happy to share our experiences with the GOB, and look forward to future collaboration.

Students and seed beds at San Antonio Village School.

Garden-based Agriculture for Toledo’s Environment – GATE is now 5 years old. We have accomplished a lot in those 5 years. Half of the Toledo District’s primary schools now have school gardens. Five of the primary schools are running their garden programs without continued support and 40 students at 7 GATE schools have started home gardens. I want to thank the many people that have made GATE possible, including: our staff here at Plenty Belize —your hard work and dedication have been key in the success of the program; the staff of Plenty International – your support and assistance are integral to everything we do; our local partners, especially the Toledo School Feeding Program Committee; and all of our supporters and donors — Thank YOU!

At the same time there is much left to be done! Other schools are asking for our help to develop school garden programs. We want to develop more written and visual resources to make the program easier to replicate. Now is the time to build upon our success.

Plenty Belize booth for World Food Day, 2007 Photo by Tasha Petillo

All the schools in the Toledo District participate in a World Food Day event each year in Punta Gorda Town. This year schools had booths with different displays of cultural foods and clothing. Other booths belonged to different organizations in town and from around the country such as the Ministry of Health, Garifuna Council, Agriculture Department, Barranco Village Council, Mafredi Women’s Group and others. Plenty had an agriculture and nutrition quiz game at our booth (above). Students rolled 2 dice, giving a number from 2 to 12. That decided which question they had to answer. If they got it correct, they won a seedling (we had started tomatoes, lettuce, swiss chard, etc. in plastic cups). If they answered a second question correct, they won a packet of seeds. Every student could play one time for free. We gave out hundreds of prizes!