Earth Day: Hotel in Mumbai encourages kids to grow vegetable patch

One of the best ways to connect with children is by sharing your love of nature with them. Given the opportunity to experience nature, children have an innate sense of wonder for the earth and living things. The Resort, Madh-Marve is making the most of this sentiment that children have.

Ahead of World Earth Day, The Resort held a unique three-day activity #Growyourfood that involved helping children reconnect with nature. Children in the age group of 6 to 15 gathered at The Resort premises where they were taught to grow their very own patch of vegetables. The idea behind the activity was to engage with young children and convey to them the importance of conserving and preserving nature through the vegetable growing activity.

The Resort believes that children should be taught the importance of nature through fun educational activities, hands-on interactions with nature and teaching them about actions to protect the natural world.

Guiding the children was environment expert Mr Hemant Dhavade who has over 10 years of experience in the field of horticulture. Mr Dhavade has been a part of The Resort since long and has been overseeing the maintenance of its beautifully manicured gardens and green patches. He spoke to the children about how to grow organic vegetables and nurture them. He explained to them that growing your own produce is not difficult. You can find packets of seeds or individually potted seedlings in nurseries, and it just takes a small amount of planning to water and weed your garden.

The children were given vegetables like cucumber, Lady's Fingers, Tomatoes, Pumpkins etc which they planted in small patches in the gardens at The Resort under the supervision of Mr Dhavade. Many places these days are largely devoid of nature and children spend more time indoors, hindering their natural connection to the rhythms of nature. The Resort is aiming to bring about a small change by helping children bond with nature.

Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day now includes events in more than 193 countries, which are coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. The goal of the Earth Day Network is to broaden, diversify and activate the environmental movement worldwide, through a combination of education, public policy and consumer campaigns.

The theme for this year's Earth Day is "It's Our Turn to Lead." The Resort's initiative works in tandem with the theme where the young generation is taught to bring about changes in their lives to impact the environment and make the world a better, safer place for all the coming generations.

Around 20 to 25 children participated in the activity which concluded on April 19. Speaking about the activity, Satyajit Kotwal, General Manager, The Resort Mumbai said, "This year on World Earth Day, we wanted to engage with young children who will be our future. Gardening can be a fruitful and fun activity for both parents and their kids. Teaching gardening skills to kids can have many benefits and it is a great learning activity.

It's a fantastic initiative to do as part of World Earth Day and teaching kids how to plant and tend to the garden can have many benefits. If an experienced gardening expert works alongside the kids and guides them in a simple step by step manner it will help them gain confidence as they learn new skills. We are glad Mr Dhavade, who has so much experience in the field, could guide the children."

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