With the rising prices of goods and produce, heads of the Filipino Food Month celebrations have urged consumers to choose local (non-smuggled!) goods and help our farmers in making sure no produce goes to waste.

Rural Rising, a social enterprise that has been helping struggling farmers sell their produce amid the difficulties and restrictions of the pandemic, is working together with Alabang Town Center (ATC) for a three-day event from April 8 to 10 that will allow consumers to buy fruits and vegetables directly.

“We’ll heap mountains of different Rescue Vegetables in the middle of that air-conditioned floor, unwashed and in such glorious bounty. We’ll give you a box to fill to the brim and a little some, pay only one price. The farmers will be there to unload their trucks, to assist you, to have you hear firsthand what we have been saying about the situation in the countryside,” Rural Rising writes on their website.

For P699, mallgoers will be given a 16” x 16” x 8” box which they can fill with as many fruits and vegetables of their choice within a timeframe of 10 minutes. Aside from produce from Rural Rising’s partner farmers, there will also be organic and artisan goods from participating sellers at ATC’s Activity Center, where the event will be held.

To participate in the “Box All You Can” activity, interested consumers must register for a 10-minute timeslot on Rural Rising’s website.