This Valentine’s Day, get a vegetable bouquet — and help distressed farmers in need

Flower bouquets surge in popularity during Valentine’s Day. But in case you’re looking for something a little more practical, why not consider a bouquet made of vegetables instead?

Community Pantry PH is offering gulay (vegetable) bouquets in honor of the love month, with its proceeds to be used for rescue buy operations from vegetable farmers.

“This coming Valentine’s Day, we can extend our love to others by buying vegetable bouquets from Community Pantry PH,” Non wrote online.

Each vegetable bouquet weighs nearly 5 kilograms, and features an assortment of vegetables, all locally grown in the Philippines.

Non is best known as the founder of the original community pantry in Teacher’s Village, Quezon City at the height of the pandemic, where people give what they can and take what they need. Non’s initiative inspired over 300 community pantries that have since popped up across the country, addressing food insecurity as communities struggled to provide for their basic needs amid strict mobility restrictions, job losses, and rising prices. People donate whatever resources — from small quantities by individuals to bulk donations from groups — they have so that others may benefit.

In May last year, the United States Embassy presented Non with the Ambassador’s Woman of Courage Award for starting the country’s first community pantry.

Those interested in ordering a vegetable bouquet can sign up here.

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