Division of Agriculture staff mix soil medium prior to placing them in raised garden beds at the Center for Living Independently
CLI consumers and the mayor inspect the raised garden bed after soil was placed in it.
THE Mayor’s Office of Saipan and the Division of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program donated eight raised garden beds to the Center for Living Independently on Tuesday, Dec. 19, on Capital Hill.
Present at the donation ceremony were CLI consumers and staff, as well as representatives from the Division of Agriculture and Saipan Mayor RB Camacho.
The beds are fashioned out of plastic pallets with 2×6 lumber forming the legs. The pallets are drilled to create a place to drain water, and a sheet is placed atop the pallet to keep soil from draining out every time a consumer waters their plants. The soil is placed atop the cloth.
Camacho said his office donated the reused lumber, pallets, and cloth for the garden beds. Gardening items such as perlite, potting soil, and mulch were provided by the Division of Agriculture, which also provided crops to plant.
Camacho said after his staff prepared the materials, it took around one hour to assemble the garden beds.
That same day, the CLI consumers were able to plant pechay in two of the donated garden beds.
Susan Satur, CLI executive director, was grateful for the donation.
“We really appreciate the mayor — he’s always thinking of us. Right now, our focus is on the garden,” Satur told reporters.
She added that CLI consumers already have an in-ground garden that they continue to manage.
The garden beds will add to the amount of crops they can produce and are high enough so that wheelchair-bound consumers can reach in and care for plants.
She said one of the consumers, Ignacio Leon Guerrero, is a chef and graduate of the Northern Marianas Technical Institute. The plants grown in the raised beds will be used by Leon Guerrero and other consumers in the daily meals they prepare.
“It’s really amazing that we have all this pechay to start making soups and things like that,” Satur said.
She said this will also help them keep food costs down because of their increased ability to grow produce.
Mayor Camacho said he started the “Farm to Table” program, which provided the raised garden beds, amid the rising cost of commodities and a clear need for food sustainability.
“We want to start doing sustainability here,” Camacho said. “Inflation is already increasing here on our island. So we got to do something to survive. This is the importance of this thing.”
Camacho noted the island’s reliance on imported food and said the CNMI’s supply chain faces disruption due to external economic forces, including limitations on imports.
“That’s how important farming is…Let’s stop this relying [on imports]. If there’s a conflict in the world, we might not be able to receive commodities. [In that case] what are we going to put on the dining table?” the mayor asked.
He now plans to bring raised garden beds to the Manamko’ Center and elementary schools.
CLI consumers plant pechay in one of the raised garden beds.
The Mayor’s Office of Saipan and the Division of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program donated eight raised garden beds to the Center for Living Independently on Wednesday, Dec. 19, on Capital Hill.
Ignacio Leon Guerrero, a NMTECH graduate and chef, shows the media what plants grow in the in-ground garden at the Center for Living Independently.
Saipan Mayor RB Camacho’s office donated the garden beds while the Division of Agriculture donated the gardening medium.
