Leveraging skills from the agribusiness, employees helped socially vulnerable children to plant their own vegetable garden.
CEI Irma Ildefranca is a public nursery school located on the eastern edge of Sao Paulo in a socially vulnerable district. The families of the children attending this school have limited resources, and the 100SEED Team from Sumitomo Corporation do Brasil S.A. (SCBR) identified it as an institution in need of support. While our team has previously donated to various causes, in this specific instance, we wanted to do something that would make a more permanent difference than a one-time donation. This led to the idea of creating a vegetable garden on the school grounds, together with the students.
The school is located approximately an hour and a half away from our office in Sao Paulo. During our initial visit to understand their needs and familiarize ourselves with the facilities, we noticed that the students were very enthusiastic about topics related to nature. We also identified a spacious area suitable for the garden. Given SCBR’s involvement in agribusiness, many of our staff are knowledgeable in planting and soil-related matters. By putting the soil and seeds in the hands of the students, allowing them to grow their own plants, and letting them eat the tasty results, we believed that we could give them a valuable biology lesson and potentially even contribute to the autonomy of families in the area.
The volunteers explaining how to plant the seeds
Muddy hands after planting the seeds!
The first event took place on the last day of school for 2022 before the long summer vacation. For this reason, the children’s families were also present to register them for the next school year. Our team of 12 volunteers divided into two groups, holding two three-hour planting sessions in the morning and afternoon. Each group consisted of about 100 children aged two to six. First, to teach them about the growth cycle, we performed a skit. Volunteers dressed up in homemade costumes and acted out a story about a gardener cultivating plants. The session was highly interactive, with the children responding enthusiastically whenever we posed a question to them.
Next, we jumped into the planting itself. A Japanese restaurant near our office generously donated large boxes used to transport fish, which we repurposed as planters. We filled the boxes with an appropriate amount of soil ahead of time, and then asked the children to bury the seeds and water them. The children took to this task with more enthusiasm than we expected, resulting in everyone getting soaked and covered in mud! However, they had a great time, and when it was time to go home, many of them wanted to stay and play. We also gave each student a pot with a bean seed to continue the lesson at home.
After that, we visited the school several times to follow the growth of the plants, and three months later, we returned to harvest the crops. With a little extra contribution from external sources, we managed to create bags of harvested vegetables for each child to take home. We had planted various herbs and vegetables, including parsley, chives, coriander, and tomatoes. Although all the children said they loved tomatoes, many of them had never tasted the herbs, so we encouraged them to try them at home.
The garden with ready-to-harvest vegetables
Children holding the gift bags from SCBR
In SCBR’s 100SEED Team, we understand education in a broader sense than the formal education that you get at school. It encompasses everything including environmental education, social education, mental health, language, culture, arts, music, and communication. That’s why, instead of just providing a biology lesson, we created a hands-on learning experience with a skit for fun, interactive learning, and communication. Social initiatives like this require very little from us—just some time and effort. Yet, the impact on those benefiting is profound. In 2024, we hope to continue holding events that will open young minds to new possibilities.
Thais Nakashima (Accounting, Tax and Treasury Department)
Regina Eishima (Infrastructure Department)
June 2024
