Backyard Farming Becomes Lifeline for Belizean Families

For many Belizean families, rising food prices are hitting home and hitting hard. But instead of heading to the market, some are stepping into their backyards. In Belize City, one woman is turning a small space into a steady food supply, growing fruits and vegetables right at home. What started as a way to cope with rising costs has grown into something more, fresh food, lower expenses, and a sense of control. And she’s not alone. From home gardeners to students at Sadie Vernon High School, more Belizeans are digging in, literally, finding practical ways to stretch dollars and stay fed. As Michelle Sampson and Sadie Vernon students show, you don’t need acres of land to make a difference. Sometimes, all it takes is a small space, and a willingness to grow. Paul Lopez has that story.

 

Michelle Sampson, Belize City Resident

“You know that feeling you get when you could just walk out and pull your own stuff? I have rosemary all over the place. I have one there, one back here.”

 

Meet Belize City resident, Michelle Sampson. She has an impressive backyard garden in Buttonwood Bay.

 

Michelle Sampson

“You have sweet pepper, cabbage as well. These are new grapes. These are blossom. From this I will have two new bunch. So this is strawberries. I have some basils in the back and these are new tomatoes that I have set. So by the time these die, those are ready.”

 

And that’s just the beginning. Five varieties of tomatoes, lettuce, sweet peppers, bananas, plantains, and even raspberries.

 

Michelle Sampson

“This ready to eat man, you can try it. That is how you pop it off the tree and you go.”

 

Paul Lopez

“Raspberry. Yeah man.”

 

Michelle Sampson

“With tomatoes and sweet pepper, when you go the market you don’t need to buy that. Right now, those things expensive at the market.”

 

What started as a way to cope with loss has grown into something powerful. Ten years later, she’s turned that pain into purpose, building a backyard garden that now fills her kitchen and cuts down her grocery bill. Even more impressive is the fact that she is doing all of this in the country’s most populated city.

 

Michelle Sampson

“If you keep say, oh I can’t grow this, I don’t have a green thumb. You will never know what you can do. You can start with one tomato tree I have friends that grow them in pots on the verandah if you are renting. You can always take them with you. You have a space on the side, you can just do one little plot.”

 

At Sadie Vernon High, students are making a small space work for them. Mildreth Gonzalez and Joselin Sanchez run a backyard aquaponics system during school hours, monitoring it, maintaining it, and tracking its progress in class, with guidance from their teacher, Malaak Middleton.

 

Paul Lopez

“That is really good. It taste better than green cucumber.”

 

Joselin Sanchez, Student, Sadie Vernon High School

“I think this is a process that could really help people now, because now things are very expensive and this would help them save a lot of money for vegetable and food and this is a process that will never finish. It can go over and over and it keeps reproducing.”

 

The variety of fresh produce that this system grows is numerous. From white cucumber to cabbage, peppers and of course freshwater fish, the possibilities are endless.

 

Mildreth Gonzalez, Student, Sadie Vernon High School

“I have actually eaten the white cucumber that is really delicious. And it feels good, because we grow it and its our achievement and we eat it and it is good.”

 

Malaak Middleton, Teacher, Sadie Vernon High School

“Teachers serve as an inspiration and I am hoping that I have served as one in these kids life. I am hoping this brings value to their life and in turn the community.”

 

For Michelle Sampson, gardening began through grief. For Mildreth and Joselin, it’s part of the coursework. But all three ladies have come to the same realization, a lot of what is purchased for consumption can be produced in a backyard.  Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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