ALESSI ELIZALDE: Young environmentalist creates a food source

Adorable Alessi, 10, is pretty wellrounded, as she engages in various activities such as playing basketball, horseback riding, doing arts and crafts, playing the guitar and tending to the plants in the garden.

Growing up with an awareness and knowledge of prioritizing the environment, she created Sunny Sideup Seeds as part of her school project. In this venture, she was also tasked to cost, pitch and make plans to advertise and sell the product. Alessi shared her creative process: “While I was brainstorming ideas for my company, I wanted to come up with a product that was eco-friendly, reusable, and something that could help people in times of lockdown. That’s when I came up with Sunny Sideup Seeds! It's a planting kit made of an upcycled egg carton, and comes with organic soil and seeds. It is a fun and easy way to start urban gardening since you can do it anywhere, like your backyard, patio, or balcony while helping the environment. Also, learning how to grow your own food is a good way to become more self- reliant, which is needed in these times.” Perhaps, Alessi’s veggies can supply the kitchens of her mom’s Wholesome Table restaurants. This young environmentalist speaks about her hopes and dreams: “In the future, I wish that the amount of pollution and plastic in our world would lessen and that more people would take action and help save the environment. I would like to learn how to be more environmentally friendly, or as my mom calls it, ‘a ‘regenerative human being!’”