Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien invites seniors to come to Jiangjun Village to be urban farmers!

Hsinchu City - Since 2016, it has established Taiwan, China's first food forest built by citizens with their own hands. Recently, in the 600-ping area of Jiangjun Village, it launched the "Food Forest Harvest Feedback Mechanism." The city government provides the land and widely invites citizens to serve as volunteers and become "urban farmers." The harvested food can be given to shops and communities for use, and volunteer service hours can be exchanged for products from the shops, forming a friendly circular mechanism. Yesterday (the 3rd), Mayor Lin Chih-chien personally harvested and experienced the joy of being a farmer for a day, and handed the harvest to shops in Jiangjun Village for on-site cooking. He said that in the past, the food forest beside Mackay attracted many seniors to participate in planting and growing, treating daily vegetable growing as exercise. Therefore, the city government continues to invite seniors to join the largest food forest in all of Hsinchu, the Jiangjun Village Food Forest, to "replace trips to the hospital with trips to the vegetable garden" and live to 120.

The "Food Forest Friendly Cycle" feedback mechanism is that the city government provides the site free of charge, volunteers contribute their time to assist with the daily maintenance and harvesting of the food forest, and part of the harvest is given back to community shops. With their service hours, volunteers can go to the shops to redeem related products as feedback. For example: 3 hours can be exchanged for Houshi Settlement grass jelly tea, 5 hours plus 10 yuan can be exchanged for a jade crescent bone noodle at Zhai Jiu Noodle House, and 20 hours allows free participation in the floral art course at Shimifeng Bottle Elementary School, etc. Citizens are welcome to consult the Wutong Foundation online or on site and join the ranks of volunteers.

In recent years, Hsinchu City has completed two food forests, including the Hsinchu City Food Forest Demonstration Site beside Mackay Memorial Hospital and the Jiangjun Village Food Forest. A third, the Hsinchu City Zoo Food Forest, is currently under construction and is a very important venue for promoting environmental education in Hsinchu City. It is hoped that while caring for plants and learning fun environmental courses, the public can also improve their environmental literacy. Those interested in joining the Jiangjun Village Food Forest volunteers are welcome to visit the Wutong Foundation website (https://www.wutong.org.tw) for details.