The pan­dem­ic has changed our lives a lot, in­clud­ing how we get our food.

Grow It To­day is a move­ment launched by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Guardian in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Na­tion­al Seed Bank to pro­mote the im­por­tance of grow­ing your own food.

As part of this ini­tia­tive, read­ers who pur­chased the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day would have re­ceived a free pack­et of seeds in their news­pa­per. If you missed it, this will be re­peat­ed next week, so you still have a chance to get that pack­et of seeds if you pur­chase a T&T Guardian next Sat­ur­day (No­vem­ber 6).

“Seeds are pock­ets of pos­si­bil­i­ty and po­ten­tial we plant in the world, be it in our gar­den, in the com­mu­ni­ty, or even the seeds of pos­i­tiv­i­ty plant­ed with­in our minds,” said Com­mer­cial Head, Print Di­vi­sion, Steve Dip­nar­ine.

“As we nav­i­gate the tu­mul­tuous tides of this pan­dem­ic that can cer­tain­ly cloud our vi­sion, let us be re­mind­ed of the re­silience of seeds. Let us plant pros­per­ous be­gin­nings. The T&T Guardian is your part­ner in growth, adapt­abil­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty. We hope you plant these seeds with your fam­i­ly and friends and be re­mind­ed of YOUR re­silience and Hope with­in.”

Guardian Me­dia com­mu­ni­ca­tions spe­cial­ist Kristy Ram­nar­ine said pi­geon peas and corn seeds were ob­tained for mass dis­tri­b­u­tion across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Em­ploy­ees vol­un­teered their time to pack­age over 7,000 pack­ets of seeds for Phase 1 of the move­ment. In the com­ing week, an­oth­er 7,000 pack­ets will be pack­aged for Phase 2 of the dis­tri­b­u­tion process,” Ram­nar­ine said.

“It is our hope that cit­i­zens will utilise the seeds to start or add to their kitchen gar­dens.”

Phase one in­cludes War­renville, St He­le­na, Cunu­pia, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas, Fe­lic­i­ty, Long­denville, Tabaquite, Chase Vil­lage, Freeport, Cou­va, Clax­ton Bay, Mara­bel­la, Gas­par­il­lo, Mayo, San Fer­nan­do, Princes Town, Table­land, Rio Claro, Ma­yaro, Moru­ga, Bar­rack­pore, Erin, La Ro­main, Fyz­abad, Point Fortin and To­ba­go.

Phase 2 will in­clude Care­nage, Diego Mar­tin, Pe­tit Val­ley, Port-of-Spain, Mor­vant, Laven­tille, Barataria, San Juan, St Joseph, Curepe, St Au­gus­tine, Tacarigua, Arou­ca, Ari­ma and San­gre Grande.

Deputy Di­rec­tor of the Na­tion­al Seed Bank, Ian Mo­hammed, said the main thrust of the or­gan­i­sa­tion is to im­prove this coun­try’s food se­cu­ri­ty.

“We wel­come the Grow It To­day move­ment, as it goes hand in hand with our goals,” Mo­hammed said.

“A mass dis­tri­b­u­tion ex­er­cise will have a wide im­pact in the coun­try. We want peo­ple to know that it is im­por­tant to grow your own food. It will not on­ly strength­en the coun­try’s food se­cu­ri­ty, but as­sist with the re­duc­tion of our food im­port bill. We al­so want cit­i­zens to know that you can ob­tain seeds lo­cal­ly at the Na­tion­al Seed Bank to grow your own kitchen gar­dens.”

The Na­tion­al Seed Bank falls un­der the Agri­cul­tur­al Ser­vices Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries.

One of its ma­jor ac­tiv­i­ties is the pro­duc­tion of high-qual­i­ty seed ma­te­r­i­al like corn, pi­geon peas, bo­di, sor­rel, pump­kin, ochro and me­l­on­gene.