At the beginning of December 2023, the Social Enterprise Company Green Journey, along with the Farmers Vietnam Network and Food Bank Vietnam, launched the project ‘Green Community Garden,’ marking a positive step towards the green transformation process and promoting efforts in the sustainable development trend for the community.

Based on the long-standing idea of the ‘Community Garden’ model worldwide, where residents in a community can collaborate, seek unused land to cultivate like real farmers. In these Community Gardens, harmony in nature, education, agriculture, nutrition, and even connections between people, bridging generational gaps and regional differences, are ignited and strengthened. The ‘Green Community Garden’ project will be implemented in various garden areas within the ecosystem of the project nationwide.

In the initial stage, it will play the role of a comprehensive project to enhance community awareness through organic waste classification, kitchen gardening, and environmental protection. Moreover, the project will be directly implemented in some experimental garden areas with various types of green vegetables, roots, fruits, mushroom farms, and fish farming, using officially expired food and organic waste such as bread, unused raw materials from food production and processing partners.

The products made from these gardens, such as fish, vegetables, fruits, etc., will be freely contributed to the Food Bank Vietnam system for transportation and donation to beneficiary facilities such as shelters, open houses, nursing homes, etc. Simultaneously, the products from the Community Garden model will also be launched through a fundraising business model to help sustain and expand the scale of the Garden in the future.

At the launch event of the ‘Green Community Garden’ project, the organizers also distributed 50 mini organic waste bins to 50 households in Block 3, Hiep Binh Chanh Ward, Thu Duc City, to encourage everyone to participate in waste classification at home. At the end of the day, households will bring these bins to the designated collection point in the project’s area with larger waste bins for disposal. Later, the project team will transport these bins to the ‘Green Community Garden’ for composting.

Before the project launch, the organizers also conducted promotion, mobilization, and pilot implementation to households, individuals, and groups to participate in the ‘Exchange waste – Get gifts’ activity in Ho Chi Minh City. This activity, as part of the project, was piloted in the garden area in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, which is part of the project’s ecosystem, with an area of 10,000m2 (1 hectare) and will directly implement activities according to the planned direction. Afterward, the project will continue to develop and expand to the Mekong Delta and provinces/cities nationwide in 2024.

On the same day, the ‘Green Community Garden’ will also place its organic waste bins at various locations such as stores, supermarkets, eateries, apartment buildings, etc., to mobilize individuals, groups, and the community to participate in waste classification. The goal is to move towards waste treatment, carbon reduction, climate change mitigation within the community.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of Green Journey, introduced the project, stating, ‘From the implementation experience of Mr. Nguyen Tuan Khoi, Chairman of Green Journey, who founded and implemented the Clean Vegetable Garden model for community development in many localities nationwide, specifically in 2010, we deployed the ‘project land vegetable cultivation’ model with a total area of 7,000m2, from a piece of uncultivated land, full of weeds. We have developed and formed a green vegetable garden with various types such as melons, pumpkins, eggplants, beans, radishes, lettuce, bananas, papayas, etc.

Additionally, we also dug ponds to implement the fish farming model with catfish and tilapia to support shelters, charity kitchens, and other goals. Focused on these goals, our enterprise has silently deployed this model for years. Currently, we have a nationwide network of Green Community Gardens. The garden area larger than 1 hectare in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City, is the starting point for this project.

Our goal when implementing this project is to collect, classify, process organic waste and compost to plant green trees, clean vegetables, etc. Recognizing that Sustainable Living is an inevitable trend for humanity. Carbon footprint is destroying the earth due to human thinking, exploitation, and food waste. We have transformed, not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity to build a sustainable development strategy through the ‘Green Community Garden’ project with the desire for everyone to think Green, act Green, and more with simple actions like organic waste classification, tree planting, or supporting collective efforts for sustainable Green development.

Communication Department – Food Bank Vietnam.