Good Food Community is a Filipino social enterprise that practices Pamayanihan, an alternative distribution based on community-supported agriculture, where the organic production by smallholder farmers is supported by a community in the urban area through prepaid subscriptions, and in turn eaters receive a weekly share of the harvest. There are five farmshares to address the different needs and lifestyles of eaters in the city. As a solidarity economic model, Pamayanihan CSA allows Good Food Community to make regular purchase and price commitments with our farmers to ensure food security and income stability, while also transforming consumers into co-producers who share the risks, rewards, and responsibilities of food production with the farmers. Good Food also has a vegan Sunday market in Mandaluyong City, which offers the produce at retail prices, and where community-building initiatives are undertaken such as educational discussions on the state of food and agriculture in the country. It is a member of the Food Today Food Tomorrow coalition, which allows eaters with the financial means and social safety nets to subsidize the rice and vegetable supplies of low-income communities in Quezon City through solidarity shares, which its partner people’s organization uses to mount weekly community kitchens that also serve to organize the urban poor in their struggle for housing rights.
Crops, animals found in the site (if farm) and methods, techniques applied: Good Food works with independent smallholder farmers’ cooperatives and associations practicing agrobiodiverse production guided by the Philippine National Standard for Organic Agriculture. The model emphasizes diversity, and maintains around 70 varieties of crops to promote food and nutrition security for both farmers and eaters, and protect the different ecosystem services at the farms such as soil nutrient cycling and pest management. Partner farmers in Central Luzon grow a variety of lowland fruits and vegetables, such as native tomatoes, eggplants, pechay, squash, okra, root crops like cassava and taro, avocados, calamansi, bananas, mangoes, etc. and pigmented rice, while those in the Cordillera highlands of Benguet and Mountain Province provide upland and specialty fruits and vegetables such as pears, different varieties of lemons and oranges, wild berries, root crops like yacon and sweet potato, cucumbers, cabbages, and a variety of herbs and aromatics like leeks, ginger, turmeric, thyme, rosemary, oregano, etc. The model seeks to protect culturally significant crops. Food reflects the land and culture from which they came and are integral to the life in those locales. Pamayanihan promotes their consumption and provides them with a stable demand, otherwise a lot of these varieties will disappear.
Activities, including trainings offered: Good Food is guided by a farmer development plan that is based on its participatory consultation with the farmers to understand their needs and support them. It provides training workshops on crop production planning, women’s economic empowerment, community-based climate resilience planning, and seed school. Good Food also supports the coproduction journey of eaters by providing educational discussions and hands-on workshops on cooking plant-based dishes using agrobiodiverse produce and fermentation.
