Plenty Belize is supporting 26 young people to start and maintain organic home gardens, in a project funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives and the Inter-American Foundation.  The project enables students to provide food and income for their families by developing their organic gardening skills and entrepreneurship. Thirteen boys and thirteen girls aged 9 to 22 are participating. Nearly half live in small rural Mayan villages, and nine attend high school.

      To participate, motivated students were selected and attended three gardening workshops, two business and entrepreneurship workshops, and visited other home gardens for inspiration. The students also received tools and materials from Plenty Belize. The project benefits are multiplied because other family members are involved and help, and as other young people see their friends’ gardens, they get excited about the project and want to join. 

With skills learned such as composting, mulching, crop rotation, making soil amendments from local sources and more, the students are learning to improve their soil, food yields, and maintain gardens for the long term. After the year-long project ends, staff estimates that the average yield of fresh produce per garden will be over 400 pounds. This is the third home gardens project to come out of Plenty Belize’s GATE school gardens and environmental education program.