Harvest for Hope: CCFC’s Farm to Table initiative

The Coral Coast Foundation Corp. held a fundraising dinner for the non-profit’s Farm to Table initiative last Oct. 31 at Morae Kitchen and Bar.

According to the CCFC director Eleanor Alinas, their organization won a bid and received a $20,000 grant last year

“The Coral Coast Foundation won in a competitive bidding process, the one who evaluated our proposal, I believe was in Hawaii. We presented the whole concept like growing lettuce and providing, selling it to like a third party, and that’s Kalayaan, Inc. Our goal at CCFC was to provide, hopefully 1,000 lbs (net weight) of lettuce a month. The amount we received was $20,000 so it’s good enough,” she said.

Kalyaan Inc. partners with CCFC to grow hydroponic lettuce to fulfill its dream of a farm-to-table program.

“At Kalayaan, we have always wanted to do a farm-to-table program where as soon as we harvest it, we serve it to the kids. That’s been our dream,” said Alinas.

After receiving the grant, CCFC started a pilot hydroponic farming project under the guidance of Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Service.

“From that that we were exposed to the idea of a hydroponic farming in our facility right in that area (Agingan farm site), we started working with NMC-CREES immediately, we started with what we call static system, most inexpensive system that one can do in your backyard,” she said.

Alinas added that the initiative is to promote consumption of locally grown, ripe vegetables and that it will address their challenges in serving fresh lettuce to children because lettuce that’s coming from the U.S. mainland often arrives wilted and rotten that resulted to 30-45% wastage.

She added that the nutritional value of the lettuce is significantly reduced due to the long transportation time. The delivery and spoilage timeline of lettuce must be considered to ensure freshness.

Moreover, Alinas discussed that the produce vegetable loses nutritional value during transportation and storage wherein washing, spraying, packing, storing, and shipping processes contribute to the loss of freshness.

Alinas said that the fundraising aims to raise money for exploring options for purchasing greenhouse and vertical farming systems, including an experiment with drip irrigation using coco peat instead of soil.