Food Today Food Tomorrow is an informal coalition of small farmers, urban poor growers, community organizers, food justice activists and advocates, and youth volunteers working to help advance agroecology practices in urban poor communities through collective gardening and solidarity kitchens, while supporting the struggle for housing and other economic rights of the poor in Quezon City.
Quezon City is the richest city in the Philippines–but it also has the largest number of homeless people in the entire National Capital Region. Of the nearly 3 million residents, half are located in poor communities with no security of tenure. Eight out of ten people living in poor communities in Quezon City are tenants or renters. Besides them, there are also a large number of those who live only with relatives or sharers.
According to the city government of Quezon City, land with a total size of 22.5 hectares has been purchased and negotiations are ongoing with private owners for an additional 16.4 hectares. It plans to build 187,000 units, and high-rise buildings are the focus of the program to promote relocation and housing within the city itself.
Food Today Food Tomorrow works closely with Pinagkaisang Lakas ng Mamamayan – Payatas. PLM Payatas is a people’s organization of the urban poor that is recognized by the local government of Quezon City for its ongoing efforts since the pandemic to provide food assistance to fellow members of the urban poor under the Food Today Food Tomorrow project. Both Food Today Food Tomorrow and Pinagkaisang Lakas ng Mamamayan – Payatas show the important relationship of the struggle for the people’s right to food and the right to safe, affordable, and decent housing.
A variety of lowland crops like pechay, eggplants, squash, pole beans, alugbati, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, upo, ampalaya are grown using ecological farming practices. It practices composting to improve the quality of land for sustainable and local food production in its partner communities in Bagong Silangan.
