KINGSTON, Jamaica — A vegetable garden is a gift, wards of the state living at the Nest Children’s Home in Kingston say, they have wanted for a while now.

On National Children’s Day, which was observed on May 21, they received that gift from the Government, through the Backyard Vegetable Gardens in Residential Childcare Facilities (RCCFs) initiative. 

The home received the first set of packages to start their own vegetable garden, following the launch of the initiative by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA).

Agriculture Minister, Floyd Green; State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Robert Morgan; and Chief Executive Officer, Child Protection and Family Services Agency CPFSA), Rosalee Gage-Grey, started the process by planting crops with the children.

Administrator for the Nest Children’s Home, Karen Haughton, said the wards were excited that their home was chosen as the first facility to receive gardening packages and seedlings under the Project.

She said the vegetable garden will offset some of the cost to provide food for the children, while adding that wards are excited to participate in the farming.

“Some time ago last year… after we used the pumpkin, we gave them the seeds and we reaped maybe over two dozen pumpkins here, so when I heard about this [initiative] I said to them, the garden will continue,” Haughton said. 

She said that farming will now be a part of the responsibilities of the 21 wards cared for at the Nest Children’s Home, which is located on the grounds of the Salvation Army along Manning’s Hill Road in Kingston. 

“I know that this will be something exciting for them. Apart from their little duties in the morning, they’ll take it on and nurture it. I see it in them. Some of them love it,” Haughton said. 

Keith Haughton, who is also an administrator for the home, reiterated that a vegetable garden has been an initiative they have wanted for a while to help offset the cost paid for food. 

“At least we know that we will be having some food that we will be producing here at this home. Instead of buying, we will have some vegetables that we can serve our home,” Keith Haughton said.

For her part, Gage-Grey said the project aims to encourage homes to grow their own fresh food for consumption, while teaching the future generation to eat what they grow. 

“The children seem very interested and we want the homes to build them out so that they can contribute to the food in the facilities… The end goal is to have the children understand how to grow food. We are encouraging the children to eat healthy,” she said.

Meanwhile, Green said he believes this initiative will teach the wards the importance of food security. 

“This is part of our drive to get more children to appreciate food security, where food comes from, and the fact that they have a role to play,” he said.

“This is part of our bigger initiative to bring back our Backyard Gardening Programme, and what we will be doing is distributing backyard gardening kits [among homes],” he added. 

Green said the initiative will first take place in 11 homes between May and December 2021, and the other homes islandwide will get their own gardens starting in 2022, until all 52 residential childcare facilities islandwide have their own vegetable gardens.

The other 10 homes that will soon receive vegetable gardens are Homestead Place of Safety in St Andrew; Mannings Child Care Facility in St Elizabeth; Mount Zion House of Refuge and Sunbeam Boys’ Home in St Catherine; Granville Child Care Facility in Trelawny; Glenhope Nursery in Kingston; Gift of Hope and Mount Olivet Boys’ Home in Manchester; Garland Hall and Montego Bay Community Home for Girls, in St James.