NEPA Partners With Mico Primary & Junior High School On Vegetable Garden Project

December 8, 2014

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has joined with the Mico Practising Primary and Junior High School to re-establish a vegetable garden at the school.

The partnership is part of the strategic objective of the Agency to build stakeholder awareness and support for NEPA's functions and programmes.

The project includes planting of vegetable crops to support the school's meal programme and teaching students how to recycle organic materials through compost. NEPA has also donated a water tank that will be used for rainwater harvesting to provide water for the garden.

Dionne Rose, Manager of the Public Education and Corporate Communication (PECC) Branch at NEPA said that the project is funded under the Agency's operations for environmental education programmes.

"The project, which is managed by the PECC Branch selected the Mico Practising and Junior High School because of its proximity to the Agency's Headquarters," she informed.

"It is hoped that this project will inculcate environmental awareness practices among the student population at Mico Practising Primary and Junior High School and to show how gardening can contribute to a sustainable environment," she said.

Geraldine Allen, Acting Principal has welcomed the partnership with Agency and noted that "the project is a good idea and will benefit the school when it is fully implemented."

Melissa Plunket- Mills, teacher at the school and co-ordinator of the Health and Environment Club said the programme is very interactive and uplifting to the students and the school.

"The project is practical, particularly the compost training sessions, which are meaningful and easy to understand," she said making reference to the training in Takakura Composting method, which was administered by Kenta Morishima, the Japan International Cooperation Agency Intern, who is assigned to NEPA.

The first crop of callaloo and pak-choi will be reaped in January 2015.

Ava Tomlinson (right), Senior Public Education and Community Outreach Officer at NEPA and Mellisa Plunkett-Mills, teacher at Mico Practising Primary and Junior High School rake dried trash at a clean-up exercise recently.

Dionne Rose (centre), Manager of the Public Education and Corporate Communication Branch and Leonard Hylton, a member of staff of NEPA participate in a clean-up exercise at the Mico Practising with assistance from a member of Mico Practising Health and Environment Club.