Taiwan Technical Mission(TTM) has been cooperating with Shin Kong Hospital and the Ministry of Education to fight non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by providing fresh vegetables to Meyuns and Koror elementary schools to improve the school lunch diet. Moreover, nine school farms are established over Babeldaob and Koror, giving students an opportunity to grow vegetables hands-on, so as to gain knowledge of healthy food.
In order to increase students' interest in gardening, Mr. Benjamin Tsai of the TTM and Ms. Bernice Sidoi of the Bureau of Agriculture (BOA), started a gardening class for students of Melekeok elementary school. Once a week on Thursday or Friday, they taught students how to grow vegetables and let students to practice in their school farm. In the school farm, students had grown chili pepper, cucumber, okra, corn, Chinese cabbage, green onion, radish and taro. On the first day of educational awareness week, school teachers harvested Chinese cabbage for cafeteria to make school lunch. Staff of school, parents and students all enjoyed the special lunch meal.
Because of the big success of gardening class. A group of 3 teachers, 9 parents and 14 students from Melekeok elementary school arranged a visit to TTM's demonstration farm in Aimeliik state on March 16th. From this visit, they broadened their agricultural knowledge and had more ideas to develop their school farm.
This year, TTM will hold a vegetables and fruits cultivation workshop every month, offering courses regarding farm designing and management, preparing vegetable and fruit seedlings, plant cultivation and management, plant pest and disease control, and organic compost making.
All agencies and organizations interested in farming training are welcome to contact TTM at 4886557, 5441012, 7782318, 7796575, or call Taiwan Embassy at 4888150.
Teachers harvested Chinese cabbage for school lunch
Students loved the taste of dragon fruit and papaya
