Belize Community Development Programs, Inc.

Seeds of Promise is a nutrition program designed to address hunger affecting the primary school population in Belize Central America. It teaches children and their communities skills to secure their own food and to understand the value of good nutrition. Eating well balance meals is acontributing factor to educational success. This project is designed to become self-sustaining overtime. Essentially, this means no more relying on donations but attaining true economic freedom.

BCDP intends to create a chain reaction in the communities where we work. First, a participating school will partner with a nearby school to help it establish a garden. Second, promising students will be tapped as leaders and trained. These leaders, in turn, will become teachers. The next primary school ready to install a garden will be taught by these student leaders. The process will continue until all 294 plus primary schools are served. BCDP's long-term strategy for achieving impact, through Seeds of Promise, is to change the minds of Belizean primary school children, improve their nutrition, and promote lifelong skills. Here is how a food garden comes to pass:1. Groundbreaking day requires divided duties. Older children and some parent volunteers, along with Seeds of Promise volunteers,dig and prepare the garden beds on the school property. Younger children, parent volunteers and Seeds of Promise volunteers prepare seedlings to transplant and plant the second round of seeds.2. After the garden is planted, the champion, the ambassadors, the work teams, and volunteers monitor the garden, pull weeds, build shade structures and rain shelters when needed, and protect the plants from pests.3. At the harvest, the same participants on planting day return to the school and help the children harvest their crops. The BCDP team, along with the school administration prepares a harvest feast for the school community to share. The BCDP team may invite special guests to the celebratory meal to promote the school's achievement and BCDP's good work in the community.

What makes Seeds of Promise unique is its scale scope. Other outfits attempt to sponsor a child, a school or aid the most indigent group of the country. Also, most schools here grew out of church ministries. BCDP's food gardens reach across religious affiliations, ethnicities and regions. All primary students, through this project, will have an opportunity to grow fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement lunchtime. The pilot program at Biscayne Government School has been a valuable pilot for Seeds of Promise. BCDP can now make a better determination of what the critical infrastructure needs are and now knows other organizations which may be able to provide equipment (e.g. United Nations can provide electric water pumps). The pilot helped us to identify the key to a successful school garden program, which is consistent in-person communication with the school principal and the garden team.The kids participating in the garden love the work they are doing. They enjoy growing their own food and they enjoy getting out of the classroom to work outside. Teachers and volunteers fondly recall their own school gardens from their youths or earlier in their careers.

As of March 2012, SoP is winding up a pilot year at Biscayne Government School in the Belize City District. The school has spent the past year learning to compost, experimenting with different crops and harvesting some of their own vegetables. The current garden beds include six beds of potato plants, and mixed beds of tomatoes, sweet peppers, cilantro, cassava, and beans. In addition to the garden, BCDP has aided the school with repairs to structures and utilities which make the garden viable. For example, BCDP repaired gutters and the main cistern to enable water collection. BCDP also installed an electric pump and ran pipes to the garden beds to assist watering. The garden at Biscayne is successful in large part to the commitment of the science and math teacher, Mr. Contreras, who has assembled garden teams, started the compost, and provides endless encouragement for the students as they learn to grow their own food.Despite these accomplishments, there is still more to be done. To take the organization to the next level, adequate resources are needed to perfect the pilot-program at Biscayne before moving on to the next school. Our immediate needs are a tractor and plow, fencing ( to keep deer at bay) and additonal garden supplies. Before Seeds of Promise expands significantly, BCDP must have an on-the-ground volunteer or Executive Director dedicated to monitoring the gardens and encouraging their progress.