Ebon focuses on local food

Students from Jaluit High School, Marshalls Christian High School at Rongrong Island and the College of the Marshall Islands in Majuro are currently on Ebon Atoll for a summer program. Photo: Ione deBrum.
Students from Jaluit High School, Marshalls Christian High School at Rongrong Island and the College of the Marshall Islands in Majuro are currently on Ebon Atoll for a summer program. Photo: Ione deBrum.

A group of 40 students is spending part of their summer working on Ebon Atoll.

Ebon Mayor Ione deBrum organized for the group of students from Jaluit High School, Marshalls Christian High School at Rongrong Island and the College of the Marshall Islands to engage in a summer of “learning and earning.”

“They have just completed a survey on breadfruit trees and taro patches to aid in our planning for agriculture, including food preservation projects,” said deBrum. The RMI government, through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Commerce, is supporting the summer youth project financially.

The other purpose of the project is to plant more food to feed our students in the long run, said the mayor. “I don’t intend to have government — the Public School System — continue to feed our students,” she said. “I requested this feeding program for our students, but only for the purpose of my study to show that local food is the only answer to RMI’s growing non-communicable disease problem.”

DeBrum said she’s currently planning with the Wellness Center and the Ministry of Health and Human Services to conduct pre- and post-height and weight surveys among students related to the school lunch program starting in August.

Read more about this in the July 13, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.