A health-centered expansion of Joy is a Farm, now Happiness is a Farm

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INTRODUCTORY LEAD

At Quezon City University, we define health as a farm: it must be nurtured, protected, shared, and sustained. Health begins with access to sufficient and nutritious food, but it also grows through safe and green environments, meaningful learning, productive livelihoods, emotional well-being, and strong relationships.

Health is a Farm is the health-centered expansion of Joy is a Farm, now Happiness is a Farm. Building on more than two years of urban agriculture, research, innovation, and community extension, the initiative transforms farms, gardens, hospitals, campuses, and community spaces into places that support whole-person and community health.

SECTION: WHY HEALTH IS A FARM

Food insecurity is a health issue. When individuals and families do not have reliable access to affordable and nutritious food, the effects are felt in physical development, learning, productivity, emotional well-being, and household stability. Health is a Farm responds by bringing food production, health promotion, environmental care, and community support closer to where people live, study, work, recover, and connect.

The initiative goes beyond the idea of a farm as a place that produces crops. It recognizes every farm and green space as a possible setting for prevention, healing, learning, livelihood, reflection, and social participation.

SECTION: FIVE DIMENSIONS OF HEALTH

Dimension	How Health is a Farm Responds
Food and Physical Health	Produces and promotes fresh, nutritious food; strengthens food literacy; encourages movement and active participation; and supports safer, compost-assisted and climate-smart growing practices.
Mental and Emotional Well-being	Uses gardens and nature-based activities for mindful gardening, journaling, affirmation planting, stress management, reflection, resilience, and calming spaces.
Economic Health and Resilience	Develops urban agriculture, livelihood, entrepreneurship, and practical skills that can supplement household income and improve the capacity to meet food and health needs.
Social Health and Cohesion	Creates shared spaces where students, families, patients, caregivers, PDLs, persons with disabilities, volunteers, and community members learn, work, and support one another.
Environmental Health	Converts underutilized spaces into productive green areas, recovers organic waste through composting, supports biodiversity, and develops climate-responsive gardens and green infrastructure.

SECTION: THREE PATHWAYS

Health is a Farm follows a simple pathway that begins with education, improves the environment, and produces community benefit.

1. Education

NSTP provides a common entry point because all QCU students participate. Regular classes, health and nutrition education, research, capstone projects, and field learning build the knowledge and skills needed for action.

2. Environment

Students, faculty, QCU units, and partners establish or improve urban farms, greenhouses, composting systems, hospital gardens, medicinal gardens, accessible planting areas, calming spaces, and other green learning environments.

3. Community Development

Classroom learning becomes service-learning. Research and student outputs are translated into training modules, sensors, dashboards, irrigation systems, site designs, wellness activities, livelihood support, and community-managed spaces.

SECTION: GROWING WELLNESS — WHEN A FARM BECOMES A SPACE FOR MENTAL HEALTH

The Growing Wellness Program, implemented by the QCU Guidance and Counseling Unit in partnership with the Center for Urban Agriculture and Innovation, demonstrates how an urban farm can also become a setting for preventive mental health promotion. QCU’s garden spaces are used for mindful gardening, mindful journaling, positive affirmation planting, peer wellness volunteer activities, and a Calm Corner for reflection.

During Academic Year 2024–2025, the program recorded 120 student participations. Participants reported feeling calmer, less stressed, and more connected to their peers and the campus community. Mindful Gardening received ratings of 4.9 to 5.0 out of 5 across major evaluation items. In Academic Year 2025–2026, the program expanded access to preventive wellness activities and recorded 116 participations in its listed scheduled activities, in addition to the year-round Calm Corner. Evaluation results remained positive, with activity ratings generally ranging from 4.45 to 4.75 out of 5.

Growing Wellness shows that health promotion does not always begin in a clinic. It can also begin by planting, pausing, reflecting, caring for living things, and reconnecting with other people.

“The farm is not only where food grows. It is also where resilience, mindfulness, belonging, and hope can grow.”

SECTION: WHERE WE WORK

The initiative is implemented through a growing network of education, food, health, and community sites:

• QCU campuses and the Center for Urban Agriculture and Innovation;
• 146 community farms reaching all 142 barangays of Quezon City;
• seven climate-smart demonstration greenhouses;
• Quezon City General Hospital, Novaliches District Hospital, and future local hospital sites;
• the Quezon City Kabahagi Center for Children with Disabilities;
• BJMP facilities and the No Woman Left Behind education and rehabilitation platform;
• schools, barangays, OSY and ALS communities, and partner organizations; and
• forthcoming medicinal gardens, calming spaces, and the SB Park of Indigenous Trees.

SECTION: IMPACT AT A GLANCE

146 community farms	Healthy food access and green community spaces across 142 barangays
7 greenhouses	Climate-smart learning, production, research, and demonstration facilities
50+ partners	Government, academic, civil society, community, and private-sector collaboration
30% increase in vegetable consumption	Reported among participating households
21% increase in average daily income	Reported among selected livelihood beneficiaries
6,643 kg of organic waste processed	Converted into compost within one year
30+ student and faculty innovations	Technologies and practical solutions for food, health, and the environment
236+ recorded wellness activity participations	Across the two Growing Wellness academic-year reports, excluding uncounted year-round Calm Corner use

SECTION: FROM RESEARCH TO SERVICE

QCU serves as the lead implementer and convenor of Health is a Farm. Research and innovation are designed for use, not only for presentation. Faculty studies, student capstones, NSTP outputs, and regular-class projects are translated into practical solutions such as sensor-assisted monitoring, automated irrigation, hydroponic controls, composting systems, dashboards, training materials, accessible garden layouts, and wellness-oriented site designs.

Monitoring is likewise used to improve implementation. Beneficiary profiles, surveys, attendance records, harvest logs, composting data, activity evaluations, interviews, partner feedback, and technology reports inform training, site improvements, service-learning, and expansion decisions.

SECTION: PARTNERSHIPS AND POLICY ALIGNMENT

Health is a Farm is QCU’s contribution to a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to health. The initiative supports Mayor Joy Belmonte’s 14-Point Agenda, particularly Agenda 3 on providing better healthcare and Agenda 10 on building a livable, green, and sustainable city.

It works with Quezon City offices, city-operated hospitals, barangays, the Kabahagi Center, BJMP facilities, national agencies, schools, civil society, industry, and community partners. It is also connected with institutionalized programs such as Kabahagi and No Woman Left Behind and contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 17.

SECTION: WHAT COMES NEXT

The next phase will deepen the health dimension of the initiative by:

• expanding food and wellness gardens in Quezon City General Hospital, Novaliches District Hospital, and other local hospitals;
• developing medicinal gardens and more calming spaces for patients, personnel, students, caregivers, and communities;
• establishing the forthcoming SB Park of Indigenous Trees and additional green learning areas;
• deepening mental health, nutrition, and wellness integration in NSTP and regular classes;
• producing more usable research and community-ready technologies; and
• sharing the model with interested schools, local governments, and institutions, including learning exchanges with Ateneo de Manila University and replication interest from Pasig City and Kidapawan City.

SECTION: GET INVOLVED

Every green place can become a healthy space. Through Health is a Farm, QCU invites students, communities, health institutions, government offices, schools, researchers, and development partners to grow food, nurture well-being, strengthen livelihoods, and build healthier communities together.

VISIT AND LEARN

PARTNER WITH QCU

SUPPORT A HEALTHY SPACE

CONTACT INFORMATION

QCU Center for Urban Agriculture and Innovation (QCU-CUAI)
Office of the President, Quezon City University
📧 Email: center.urban.agriculture@qcu.edu.ph

🌐 Contact Number: 0905 512 3253 (look for Justine Sanchez)

📘 Facebook: www.facebook.com/qcu1994

3. Optional Homepage Teaser and News Blurb

SHORT HOMEPAGE TEASER

From Joy is a Farm to Happiness is a Farm—and now Health is a Farm—QCU is expanding the meaning of urban agriculture. The initiative grows nutritious food while also supporting mental well-being, livelihoods, social connection, environmental health, and community resilience. Explore how farms, hospital gardens, calming spaces, service-learning, and usable research are creating healthier spaces across Quezon City.

BUTTON LABEL

Discover Health is a Farm

LAUNCH NEWS BLURB

Quezon City University has expanded its Joy is a Farm platform through Health is a Farm, a health-centered initiative under Green Places: Healthy Spaces. Building on more than two years of Happiness is a Farm, the new subsite highlights how QCU’s urban farms and green spaces support food security, physical health, mental and emotional well-being, economic resilience, environmental sustainability, and social cohesion. It features the Growing Wellness Program of the Guidance and Counseling Unit and QCU-CUAI, service-learning through NSTP and regular classes, work with hospitals and the Kabahagi Center, research-based technologies, and forthcoming medicinal gardens, calming spaces, and an indigenous trees park.

4. Suggested Images, Captions, and Accessibility Text

Use authentic QCU photos. Avoid including visible attendance sheets, signatures, or identifiable student records on the public website. Secure appropriate consent for photographs showing students, patients, children, PDLs, or persons with disabilities.

Section	Recommended Image	Suggested Caption	Suggested Alt Text
Hero	Wide photo of QCU urban farm with students and greenery	Health is a Farm: growing food, wellness, and stronger communities.	QCU students participating in an urban farm surrounded by vegetables and green spaces.
Growing Wellness	Mindful gardening activity	Students use gardening as a nature-based wellness and reflection activity.	Students planting seedlings during a mindful gardening session at QCU.
Growing Wellness	Journaling or Calm Corner	A green space for pausing, reflection, and emotional well-being.	Two students journaling at a table in a shaded QCU garden.
Mental well-being	Positive affirmation planting	Planting positive messages and cultivating hope.	Students holding affirmation flowers during a wellness activity.
Hospitals	QCGH and Novaliches District Hospital gardens	Green spaces support food, recovery, and well-being in health settings.	A garden area established at a Quezon City-operated hospital.
Education to service	NSTP or class field activity	Learning moves from the classroom into community health action.	QCU students installing or maintaining an urban agriculture system in a community.
Innovation	Sensor, greenhouse, hydroponics or irrigation project	Student and faculty research translated into usable community solutions.	A QCU student demonstrating a sensor-assisted urban farming technology.
Circular systems	Composting facility	Organic waste is converted into compost for healthier production spaces.	QCU personnel processing organic waste using a rotary composter.
Way forward	Medicinal garden, calming space or indigenous trees site plan	The next phase expands restorative and health-promoting green spaces.	Concept or early site development for a medicinal or calming garden at QCU.