Siparia Deltones Launch 'Railway Pizza' Garden

WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024, PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO – The Deltones Panyard on Railway Road, Siparia, is drawing visitors with the sweet sound of pan and some of the freshest pizza ingredients in the country. Dubbed the ‘Railway Pizza Garden’, the youth at the Siparia Deltones Institute recently launched an agriculture initiative to grow vegetables and herbs for freshly made pizza at the panyard’s Railway Pizza outlet, part of a community effort to reduce unemployment in the area.

With TT$100,000 in funding from The Digicel Foundation and Shell Trinidad and Tobago, the Siparia Deltones established a hydroponic greenhouse powered by solar energy to grow high-quality, pesticide-free pizza ingredients, including tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and herbs such as parsley, chive and basil.

President of the Siparia Deltones Akinola Sennon said that the direct impact of the garden project has surpassed their original target and expectations. He shared, “So many people have benefited directly from this set up.  We have an Easter Camp here at the panyard and the children were all involved, even their parents came around to put their hands in the dirt and check in on the progress.”

Digicel Foundation’s Head of Operations Cindyann Currency said, “This past year the EPIC programme has been really interesting.  We had about 4 applications to install Drip-to-Waste Hydroponics, but each has been slightly different.  This one stands out because of the use of pallets and tyres in the infrastructure – they are incorporating reusable materials as a medium for this farming innovation and that’s pretty exceptional.”

Launched at the end of April 2024, the ‘Railway Pizza Garden’ is the 150th community project funded through the Digicel Foundation’s ‘Extraordinary Projects Impacting Communities’ (EPIC) programme since 2016. The total EPIC investment has been 7.2 million TT impacting over 88,000 persons.