[Good Business] Island Harvest Farm’s kaloob: A gift that keeps on giving

Island Harvest Farm operates through the Panalo sa Tatlo (Everyone Wins with Three) model, built around three pillars: agriculture, technology, and community tourism

There is a saying that goes, no man is an island — and perhaps nowhere is this truer than at Island Harvest Farm, where lives, dreams, and futures are cultivated through the power of community.

The intertwining of two loobs

Before Island Harvest Farm existed, Donna and Lenlie walked different paths that would eventually meet.

On one path was Donna, a 25-year-old mother struggling to survive with her three children, moving from one home to another, never knowing what the next day would bring. Despite facing constant uncertainty, she eventually found success. But a question lingered: Why has God blessed me so much? She felt a deep calling to help others — but didn’t know where to begin.

Meanwhile, Lenlie, a fourth-generation Marinduqueño raised in a family of public servants, felt a desire to give back to their land. But politics didn’t feel like his calling. Like Donna, he was searching — though he didn’t yet know what for.

These were their loobs (inner selves), shaped by struggle, experience, and the longing to create something meaningful. Alone, their loobs carried unanswered questions. But when Donna and Lenlie met, their loobs connected, recognizing a mutual desire to serve others. Together, they created something neither could have accomplished alone.

The Panalo sa Tatlo model

Island Harvest Farm operates through the Panalo sa Tatlo (Everyone Wins with Three) model, built around three pillars:

• Agriculture: Island Harvest Farm equips farmers with the skills and knowledge to grow high-value crops like coconut, cacao, and abaca.
• Technology: Cacao beans are transformed into premium chocolate with processing centers for cacao and abaca through Ani ng Duque Cooperative.
• Community Tourism: The farm hosts panauhins (guests) on their farms, creating additional revenue streams.

Donna believes this approach came as a vision from above, and it’s changing how farmers live and work, bringing better lives to entire families.

Stories of farmilies

The Panalo sa Tatlo approach has changed lives in many ways! You can see the obvious results — better harvests and more visitors coming to the area — but the personal stories of farming families show what’s really happening when their loob is shared openly.

Take, for example, the story of Tilet, whose path with Island Harvest Farm has led to a series of personal breakthroughs. Before joining the program, Tilet and her family lived with the constant struggle of long travel distances to tend their farm and uncertainty about their future. After a prayerful plea for change, she found herself working as a cacao seedling grafter and later as the head cook at the farm’s restaurant.

Tilet says, “Dati po, hindi ko iniisip na magkakaroon ako ng trabaho malapit lang sa bahay, pero nang dumating si Ma’am Donna, doon ko nakita ang mga oportunidad. Hanggang ngayon po, masaya ako sa natutunan ko at sa trabaho ko dito.” (“Before, I never thought I would have a job close to home, but when Ma’am Donna came, that’s when I saw the opportunities. Until now, I’m happy with what I’ve learned and my work here.”)

Her skills quickly flourished, and today, she is the head cook at the farm’s restaurant, vice chairperson of the Ani ng Duque Cooperative, and co-owner of Babaenihan.

Aida Ramos tells a similar story of change. She explains how, before Island Harvest’s intervention, the locals depended solely on copra farming, with limited income coming in only every few months.

Aida shares, “Noong 2014, kumikita kami sa kopra, pero sapat lang yun sa araw-araw na pangangailangan. Hindi tulad ngayon, may trabaho kami araw-araw. ‘Di tulad noon na halos maghintay ka pa ng tatlong buwan.” (“In 2014, we earned from copra, but it was just enough for daily needs. Unlike now, we have work every day. Unlike before when you had to wait almost three months.”)

Since the inception of Island Harvest, Aida and her family no longer need to wait months for an income; they now work year-round in cocoa and coconut farming. More than that, she is also a co-owner of Babaenihan and a member of a cooperative where she sells her produce.

These changes affect more than just the adults. As Donna once asked, “And how can you create progress when the brightest minds and the youngest minds are leaving?” This belief inspired the involvement of Tilet and Aida’s children in the Panalo sa Tatlo model through Gabayanihan. Today, their children help host visitors, guide farm tours, and even manage some of the farm’s operations. Donna’s vision of a self-sustaining, prosperous community where children have the opportunity to stay and grow without leaving for better opportunities is already becoming a reality.

Donna and Lenlie’s kaloob

Island Harvest Farm was never just a business, and Panalo sa Tatlo never just a method. It was an offering, a kaloob (gift) of possibility given not just to themselves but to everyone willing to receive it. Because a gift is not complete without kapwa — without others to take part, to believe, to carry the vision forward.

At Island Harvest Farm, every farmer, every family, and every hand that tills the soil or crafts a product is part of this exchange. Here, loob is not hidden — it is shared and transformed. It emerges in the mother who once doubted her own strength but now leads a cooperative, in the young farmer who learns that his small plot holds infinite potential, and in the community that once waited for change but now creates it. – Rappler.com

Patch Aure, Alexa Abary, Melka Antipolo, Hannah Sharmae Prado, and Sharky Roxas are part of a research team seeking to explain how Filipino values and dynamic capabilities lead to social sustainability outcomes. patrick.aure@dlsu.edu.ph