Kang Kung - The King of All Vegetables

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition is the single biggest contributor to child mortality. Statistics from the United Nations has placed the number at roughly 10 children dying every minute.

This number is staggering! How can we address such problems, especially when we are globally suffering from an economic crisis?

Feed the World - Educate and Feed

The key to successfully tackling world hunger in poor nations is through education and food supply. While we understand there needs to be a comprehensive approach to fixing world hunger, such as clean water supply, appropriate waste management -- we would like to tackle the food security issue for now and to keep it simple.

First, our plan to help fight against world hunger starts at education. We must educate at a grass roots level, to families and individuals on how to eat properly.

Second, we must secure food supply that can continuously feed the family and their communities. Preferably we utilize a crop we can plant easily, that has appropriate nutritional value, and can withstand severe weather conditions from flooding to dry spells.

Kang Kung is the Vegetable King!

Kang Kung (or Kang Kong, scientific name Ipomoea aquatica), often called the "swamp cabbage" or "water spinach" is a leafy vegetable closely related to the sweet potato. It is one of the easiest leafy vegetables to grow with little or no inputs, with high nutritional value, and has high tolerance against dry spells or wet weather. In our opinion, kang kung (kang kong) is the king of all vegetables and the main crop we will be promoting!

Nutritional value

kang kong per 100 g serving
30 kcal
2.7 g protein
60 mg calcium
2.5 mg iron
2.9 mg vitamin A
45 mg vitamin C

(Source: Kasetsart University)

Aquaponics and Kang Kung (Water Spinach)

Kang Kung growing on an aquaponics growthbed (rocks) along with okra.

Kang Kung can work really well with aquaponics.

• First, it loves water and the seeds can germinate and grow from water and the vines will spread out.
• Second, fish like tilapia naturally eats kang kung.  Though if you don't first let kang kung grow, the fish could essentially stagnate the growth of your kang kung crop.
  

Check out this link on how kang kung was used in an aquaponics experiment in the Philippines.

How to Harvest Kang Kung (Kong) Seeds

Picture: (1) Seed pods, (2) inside the seed pods, (3) seeds.

Kang kung is usually planted by the stem's nodes which in time grows roots. But did you know, it can produce seeds as well? If you let kang kung mature, it will grow flowers, which in turn will form seed pods, which then produces roughly 3-4 seeds ready to be planted.

Kang kung seeds are fairly easy to harvest. First you let the kang kong plant grow 2-3 months and let it flower. Once the flower is fertilized, it will form seed pods. Once the seed pods turns white -- it is ready to be harvested. You can pull it apart and you should find 4 seeds in the pod. Those 4 seeds can then be stored and planted for future use.

What You Can Do

This is the world hunger map, yellow and reds are bad, while greens are good. As you can see, Asia and Africa are the two regions that needs the most help. We have connected with volunteers in Asia and we will be pursuing to feed 1000 families in 2009.

When we say "feed", we are not talking about one time soup kitchens. These families will be taught how to start their own farms so they can continuously feed themselves!

Our Mission!

Starting in Asia, we are going...

1. To teach poor families how to eat properly, by eating vegetables like kang kung.
2. To provide seedlings for families to start a small kang kung farm and guide them how to take care of it.
   

What You Can Do?

There's no free lunch! You can donate your time or money (or both)!

1. TEACHING. If you know a foreign language used in Asia or Africa (our second target region), we would like for you to help us with translating our guides on how to plant kang kung. We will print guides to send to them.
   
2. TARGET. We need to know individuals and community organizations that needs our help in starting their own kang kung farm. We need names, and postal addresses that we can start sending seeds and guides to.
   

Disclosure

1. You are not donating to a profit or non-profit corporation that has overhead.
2. Your donation is not tax deductible, sorry, when you give, it comes with no tax benefit to you.
   
3. The web site domain name is donated and Google's Blogger hosts our web site for free. We try to be cheap.
   
4. So when you send money, it helps us buy or grow more seeds, it buys postage, and it allows us to print more guides.
5. We help people regardless of their religious beliefs.