Which Dong Community Center Practiced Sharing by Growing Rooftop Garden Vegetables for Elderly Living Alone?

Eco-friendly Wrap Vegetable Cultivation on Rooftop of Banpo 4-dong Community Center in Seocho-gu: Delivering Wrap Vegetables to Elderly Living Alone and Senior Centers, Utilizing as Nature Experience Learning Site for Daycare Children

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The Banpo 4-dong Community Service Center in Seocho-gu is utilizing the rooftop idle space of the community center to cultivate an eco-friendly vegetable garden, planting leafy vegetables (such as lettuce), peppers, eggplants, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and delivering the harvested produce to senior centers and elderly living alone through the ‘Banpo 4-dong Rooftop Vegetable Garden Project.’

Started in 2019 and now in its fourth year, the ‘Banpo 4-dong Rooftop Vegetable Garden Project’ was established with the purpose of promoting a healthy life for Banpo 4-dong residents and creating a village community through meetings and communication with neighbors, mediated by environment and ecology.

Additionally, it has encouraged residents exhausted by COVID-19 to find idle spaces within the urban area to chat and engage in community activities.

This year, the Banpo 4-dong Residents’ Autonomy Committee members delivered the leafy vegetables harvested from the rooftop garden to about 10 elderly living alone and senior centers, becoming companions for the elderly and actively listening to their concerns, thus playing a significant role in communication.

Moreover, the garden is used as a natural learning experience site for daycare children, where they water the vegetables and pick lettuce, providing a living ecological education in the city.

Cheon Jeong-wook, Acting Mayor of Seocho-gu, said, “I am pleased to be able to practice sharing happiness, even if just a little, for marginalized neighbors together with the residents’ autonomy committee members, and we will continue to pursue administration that provides help and happiness to residents.”