In recent years, farming and agriculture are no longer seen as lucrative professions, especially by the young. However, many groups such as the 3-year-old non-profit startup organization, Kids Who Farm, have found it necessary to start a shift in the mindset among the youth by creating various innovations to strengthen their participation.

Farming is not only for adults--even small hands can participate in making the world food secure. This is the advocacy furthered by Kids Who Farm, which was formed by co-founder Raaina Hinay, then 9 years old.

Raaina, who had a vision of putting up a micro-urban garden in her school, Catalina Vda de Jalon Memorial School in Barangay Tumbaga, Zamboanga City, saw the need to have a communal source of fresh produce for the school canteen’s supply and to be able to conduct feeding programs for the young learners.

Kids Who Farm attracts the youth into farming by designing a “Grow House”, which enables small-scale production via Hydroponics technology, producing vegetables with minimal need for pesticide and soil.

“Unlike traditional farming, this method enables young farmers to grow their own food without spending much time under the sun and getting their clothes stained from laborious farming. We want to make farming more engaging to shift the mindset among the youth. We need more of them to participate in making this world food secure,” said Maydene Demesana, Grow House Officer-in-Charge of the Jesuit Bukidnon Retreat House.

The Jesuit Bukidnon Retreat House is among the thousands of beneficiaries of PLDT and Smart’s livelihood program that aims to encourage Filipinos to start planting their own food supply by giving them #PlantSmart kits containing vegetable seeds, loam soil, and fertilizers.

Kids Who Farm has helped the Jesuit Retreat House to build their own Grow House, which now houses PLDT and Smart’s plant kit donations. Now, the retreat house is able to produce its own food supply for the retreat participants and at the same time, earn from the extra harvest.

The support of PLDT and Smart through the donation of PlantSmart kits is geared towards helping the Philippines attain the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #2: Zero Hunger and Goal #5: Gender Equality.