CAY BAY:--- On October 28th the Cay Bay Community Council (CBCC) and Soualiga Social Movement (SSM) met at the Seaside Nature Park to discuss community farming, back yard farming and agriculture in general. SSM is one of the many groups in today's society that wants to bring back agriculture as a way to reduce the cost of living, reduce the flight of monies out of the country and increase the general health of the population on Sint Maarten. The first front runner to get government policies in place pertaining agriculture was Cay Bay's very own agriculturist Mr. Ewaldo Richardson, father of well-known agriculturist Mr. Joslyn Richardson.
A basic plan for a community garden was discussed and several locations were mentioned as to where this community garden can be placed with the help of SSM. The idea is that the community garden will be maintained by residents of Cay Bay collectively and that produce and fruits will be divided among the caretakers of the community garden. The community garden will also be used for educational purposes on agriculture and Cay Bay's history. A "Harvest Day" as a new local festivity was proposed by the CBCC while SSM will be offering free introduction classes on back yard farming to the residents of Cay Bay.
The CBCC gave numerous examples of what role agriculture used to play in Cay Bay and expressed their interest in bringing back agriculture to their neighborhood. Several possible locations for a community garden will be visited in the following weeks and a first draft plan of the Cay Bay Community Garden will be presented to the CBCC for fine tuning.
The CBCC thanked SSM for choosing Cay Bay to start their "Re-introduction to Agriculture Program" and SSM thanked the CBCC for hosting the very informative meeting.