Vegetable Garden in the Time of Pandemic: The Light at the End of the Tunnel Among the Malnourished Children

In this time of the pandemic, food shortage and poverty have increased its impact in the different aspects of human life most especially among the nutrition of young learners in our country. A lot of studies have looked into the effects of malnutrition to the academic performance of learners in schools making us make a study about the impact of Vegetable Gardens in schools to the overall development of our young learners, giving emphasis to the malnourished ones. This study used Heideggerian Phenomenology as the research design. Purposive Sampling was used to qualify the selection of the participants which is the 10 elementary school’s vegetable garden coordinators from Dumanjug II District. Three themes surfaced the responses in this study such as; (1) perceived usability, (2) sustainability and (3) enjoyment. These attests the benefits and advantages that we can get by utilizing vegetable gardens in each school. This study recommends: (1) all schools should have their own vegetable garden to supplement the learners’ physiological needs specifically targeting the malnourished children, (2) vegetable gardens in schools must be given more support from the government, (3) parents and other stakeholders must be involved to create camaraderie among the school and the community; and a greater height in community involvement and cooperation, (4) learners must be involved also because it promotes physical ability, responsibility, self-accountability and independence and (5) the advantages of vegetable gardens in schools must be spread and explained to the community and to authorities in order to gather more support.