Comida Resiliente is a grassroots movement uniting local communities in Costa Rica to reclaim and restore local food systems.
The Challenge:
- Costa Rica is one of the world’s top users of pesticides, poisoning soil, water, and people.
- Schools have abandoned agricultural education, the young generations grow up disconnected from nature and from their food sources.
- Global industrialized agriculture is threatening Costa Rica’s wild diversity, beautiful cultural roots, and long living healthy families.
Our Response: Mobilize & Empower Communities
Two communities in Costa Rica, Nuevo Arenal and Atenas, are building school-based community gardens. By pooling their resources, they are educating, inspiring, and equipping children, families, and neighbors to grow and harvest clean, healthy food.
Community Builders
Our community teams are as diverse as the seeds we plant — activists, educators, farmers, artists, scientists, and more — all united by a shared vision.
- Build Community: forming cooperative teams and taking action together.
- Educate: hands-on workshops in growing and harvesting, composting, seed saving, soil restoration, nutrition, natural pest management, pollinators, and medicinal plants.
- Empower Projects: support school and community vegetable and flower gardens and agroforestry plots, chicken coops, and seedling nurseries.
Case Study: Nuevo Arenal, Costa Rica – The Asentamiento School Community Garden
In January 2025, the Asentamiento School community, local volunteers, and members of the Arenal Christian Church came together to create a community garden.
What began as a small effort to grow fresh, healthy food for children and families has blossomed into a bigger vision — now including a greenhouse, chicken coop, and an emerging agroforestry system.
Already, vegetables are being harvested, 20 fruit trees are growing, and a chicken coop is nearly complete.
This is more than a garden. It is a living example of what’s possible when a community unites around a shared purpose: cultivating food security, ecological learning, and resilience for generations to come.
Our hope is for Asentamiento School to become a model for schools across Costa Rica.
Case Study: San José Sur, Atenas Alajuela – A Small Garden with Big Impact
In the heart of a small barrio in San José Sur, a school with limited outdoor space found room to grow something meaningful. With just a few open corners to work with, teachers, neighbors, and local volunteers gathered materials, built raised beds, and transformed the space into a thriving school garden.
Today, students visit regularly — planting, watering, learning, and harvesting with visible joy. What began as a simple idea has become a hands-on classroom where children reconnect with nature, discover where their food comes from, and experience the pride of growing it themselves.
This little garden is proof that you don’t need much land to cultivate something big: curiosity, nourishment, and community.
“Food is more than nutrition. It’s a pathway back to ourselves and to the relationships that give life meaning.” – Talia Arnow