Guåhan Sustainable Culture (GSC) and AmeriCorps GSC are bringing weekly educational outreach to the Guam Green Growth Community Garden with the launch of weekly community workshops.  

The activities are free to the public and aim to encourage participation and sustainable development amongst families on Guam.  

The weekly schedule includes Monday’s HomeGrown Giving and Seeds Giveaways, Garden Tour Day every Tuesday, Container Gardening Workshops on Thursdays, Seedling giveaways every Friday and special Neni Activities on certain Saturdays. 

According to Guåhan Sustainable Culture president Michelle Crisostomo, teaching the younger members of the community about food security and farming can help prepare them for a healthier lifestyle.  

“One of our goals is to help teach people about healthier lifestyles and that is important at an early age,” said Crisostomo. “People have a lot of health issues including high blood pressure and diabetes on Guam and we want to teach people to eat healthier and eat local. We want to teach it to them at an early age and make it fun and enjoyable.” 

Crisostomo says the lessons learned in the garden go further than just the time of the visit. 

“The garden itself serves as a demonstration garden for people who want to grow their own food at home,” explained Crisostomo.  “The garden gives people inspiration for projects they want to start at home so they can incorporate what they learn, take it back and teach people in their families how to do it. It helps in the big picture of food sustainability.” 

No stranger to using her hands in the dirt, mother of seven, Eunice Aflague, brought her two sons to the Neni Garden Activities held on December 11 at the G3 Community Garden for some exposure to farming. 

“I brought my younger kids because my older kids were never exposed to programs like this and I grew up planting and farming and I wanted them to get exposed to that too,” said Aflague. “This (community garden) is very beneficial and I wish there were more of them, because in the future, a lot of this generation will not know what planting is, not like we did.”  

Aflague says she hopes that the lessons her children learn at the G3 Community Garden will be applied at home.  

“I started a little garden, and I want my kids to be more enthusiastic so that on the Homefront, they will come out and help me expand our home garden,” said Aflague. 

The activities are facilitated by the Guahan Sustainable Culture Americorps members and include gardening, recycling, and sustainability lessons for children of all ages.  

Members of the community are welcome to visit the garden in Hagatña, across the street from the Post Office and Skinner Plaza at any time during the week. 

Registration and the full schedule of events can be found online at https://www.gusustainable.org/americorps as well as on the group’s social media pages. 

The G3 Community Garden is a project of the island-wide Guam Green Growth (G3) initiative, a public-private partnership facilitated by the Center for Island Sustainability at the University of Guam and supported by the Office of the Governor that creates solutions to sustainability challenges and fosters the island’s alignment with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).  The community garden addresses SDG #2: Zero Hunger, SDG #3: Good Health and Wellbeing, and SDG #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and is maintained by Guåhan Sustainable Culture.