The UMAsenso: Fill Your Box event is a project of the organization in partnership with Ayala Malls, Centrio Mall and Alagang Ayala Land, wherein for P499, customers were given a box to fill with fresh vegetables and fruits produced by various farmers in Talakag, Bukidnon. These include bananas, tomatoes, sweet corn, Chinese cabbage, sweet potato, sayote, carrots, eggplants, onions, garlic, and ginger.
“[With Fill Your Box event,] what we did is we eliminate the middle man. It means the vegetables are really straight from the harvest of the farmers,” said Kitty Tiukinhoy-Piol, the 2022 president of JCI Kagayhaan Gold.
According to Tiukinhoy-Piol, the Fill Your Box project was launched when they heard of the overproduction of vegetables in the farms in Talakag, Bukidnon.
“The project started when of our JCI members, who also owned a farmer in Talakag, met some of these farmers and the cry there was nobody will get their produce sometimes or overproduction sa vegetables and they need a place to market them,” Tiukinhoy-Piol said.
“This time, we created the demand for them and then automatic na diretso we purchased their produce,” she added.
JCI Kagayhaan Gold was able to sell over 200 boxes, amounting to around P15,000 to P20,000. The proceeds from this event will go to the organization’s “Bags to School Project,” a national project of the JCI Philippines conducted annually.
According to Tiukinhoy-Piol, JCI Kagayhaan Gold will provide school bags with school supplies inside to 200 students under kindergarten and grade one in Talakag, Bukidnon.
“When we knew that we are getting it from the produce from the farmers, we decided as a chapter where the prceeds would go to. We decided to make it a full circle. We give it back to the community kasi most likely these are kids of the farmers already that we got the produce from,” Tiukinhoy-Piol said.
JCI Kagayhaan Gold is a non-profit organization composed of young professionals and businessmen in Cagayan de Oro City.