Learning About Sustainability with Plant Kits
By Guest Writer Eleazar Gutierrez, Sr. Community Affairs Specialist, Office of Social Impact & Inclusion, and Carolina Quintero , SEEDS Coordinator program
The Panasonic Office of Social Impact & Inclusion (OSII) and our Panasonic Environmental Group joined our community partners at Friends of Puerto Rico in celebrating National Volunteer Week and Earth Day in learning about the history of Earth Day in the U.S. and Canada.
Volunteers built cilantro plant kits from Harvest Your Way, a business founded by Puerto Rican youth entrepreneur Janneliz Hernandez to create gardens at home in limited space.
Harvest your Way, led by Janneliz (11) and her business partner Jebdriel (12) is a company aimed at creating urban gardens in limited spaces. Urban gardens help reduce negative environmental impacts by promoting sustainable agriculture; reducing food transportation costs and reducing water runoff. Humans, plants and animals can all benefit from urban agriculture since it creates habitats and ecosystems beneficial for our health and the environment.
For this incredible event we sent 50 kits of Harvest Your Way home garden tools which included soil, fertilizer, cilantro seeds and a flowerpot along with some delicious Cafe Ama Love coffee to Panasonic employees. On Earth Day we all connected online to learn more about sustainability and the importance of protecting the world we inhabit.
Janneliz as the founder of Harvest Your Way presented a video showing how to plant the cilantro SEEDS, the first step in starting to build our own personal urban home gardens! Everyone was really excited with Janneliz and she answered some questions regarding her business and gardening (some people were confusing the cilantro seeds with fertilizer lol).
"More than a volunteer activity, in commemoration of Earth Day this was a Wellness project to encourage employees to take a moment to unplug from working virtually and connect with nature.” said Eleazar Gutierrez, Sr. Community Affairs Specialist, Office of Social Impact & Inclusion
Overall it was an amazing event where not only did we celebrate Earth Day by starting our urban home gardens, but Harvest your Way was able to introduce her SEEDS business to a new market as well and continue to practice the skills she has learned in the program. With your continued support we can continue to help children create their ideas like Janneliz and Jebdriel with Harvest Your Way. If you want to contribute please consider being a mentor to our SEEDS students or buying or social impact coffee Cafe Ama Love.
Corporate Social Responsibility and support the next generation of entrepreneurs is a great way to build the future together. Contact us at info@friendsofpuertorico.org to develop initiatives for your company.
