Though our visit was only a couple of days long, we were able to engage with several different community members during our stay which allowed us to grasp the incredible work being done at the GK Enchanted Farm. We started our visit by speaking with founder Tony Meloto about the vision and journey of how the GK Enchanted Farm came to be. He inspired us to think about entrepreneurship though a social justice lens in order to empower the people of the Philippines. Our schedule included tours of different social enterprises such as compost fertilizer with Tito Jun, making organic peanut butter with Tajen, and Plush and Play with the titas (mothers of the community), who are the backbone of the stuffed animal making business.
Our trip was tied together with the cultural immersion experience of getting to know the titas and University students by sharing a meal in their homes. The women and men of the community have various roles and share responsibilities like working for the different enterprises and growing the organic ingredients that made each meal at the farm fresh and delicious. These hardworking individuals had to earn their houses at the farm by giving 1,000 volunteer hours of their labor in order to contribute to the community. We had the honor of sitting down to a traditional home-cooked meal in their homes and hearing their stories. After this home visit we walked away inspired and humbled by the titas’ hospitality and their resilience overcoming the challenges of poverty. Getting to know the titas put a face to the work that it is being done at GK Enchanted Farms and makes this place somewhere we would like to come back to someday.