Hunger Initiative Invites Locals to Plant and Harvest from Community Garden

The community garden at Fort Concho is bursting with life. Basil, tomatoes and peppers crowd the perfect geometric squares between the Fort Concho Hospital and Rust Street Ministries.

On Thursday, families participating in Kids Eat FREE! were presented an opportunity to grow free, healthy food. Children and their parents gathered on the site to claim a plot in the garden.

“We’re trying to start a community garden so that interested individuals could adopt a plot within the garden,” Regional Director of the Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) Mary Herbert said. “They would just adopt the plot and be able to grow whatever they want to in it. Then they would have that food for themselves and their families.”

Anyone is welcome to choose one of 15 raised beds in the garden in which to plant. Although gardeners are expected to provide their own seeds, the use of the plots and water is completely free. THI encourages anyone who enjoys gardening, fresh produce or contributing to the community to assist with the community garden.

“The Texas Hunger Initiative has the summer project for feeding children, so we thought it was just natural to put the two together and grow some fresh fruits and vegetables,” garden volunteer Cindy said. “[We’re trying] to get kids involved in gardening and eating healthy.”

THI is an organization based in Baylor University that strives to end hunger across the state. THI leads both this community garden project and Kids Eat FREE!, a program that feeds children across Texas. Herbert operates from an office in San Angelo.

According to Cindy, the garden is currently stocked with strawberries, fresh basil, corn, cantaloupe, an abundance of tomatoes and peppers grown by THI volunteers. Furthermore, volunteers also plan to plant okra and squash, as well as pumpkin in two weeks. These are only grown by THI volunteers; seven of the 15 plots garden were open to the public on Thursday.

“We have several volunteers already,” Cindy said. “But yeah, this is just the efforts from several people, so I cannot imagine what we would do if we had more people join us. How successful we could be. “

Cindy said that anyone who works in the garden with the volunteers will be welcome to share in the harvest. People will always be free to harvest from their own plot as well.

“We would love to see members of the community that perhaps live in this area, or even not, come join us,” Cindy said. “[They can] adopt a plot that they can call their own and grow fresh vegetables for their own use to take home to their families. Or [they can] donate to shelters or to children in our community that may not necessarily have access to good food."

Cindy recommended that anyone who wants to participate in community gardening should visit the site on Saturday mornings. She said that interested parties should also check the Texas Hunger Initiative’s Facebook page, as THI is planning on providing a schedule of gardening activities.

According to Cindy, one in four children in Tom Green County do not have enough food.

“I think it’s so important for community involvement, for us to all support each other. I think together we can solve the hunger issue, so it’s important that we all come out and support each other. It’s great exercise, it’s a great stress relief, and it’s a time when people can come and be a community together in support of our children and our families here in San Angelo.”

Cindy made it clear that little water has been used due to recent rainfall, and stressed that THI would be conservative with water.

Herbert said that THI is “all about partnerships.” AmeriCorps VISTA provided the square plots for the garden and Rust Street Ministries helped to install the drip system for watering. Home Depot also provided landscaping cloth to put between the plots and the city donated mulch for the garden as well.

Representatives from Home Depot were present Thursday to help kids construct their own planter boxes. These boxes will hopefully inspire families to produce a garden of their own.

“‘Instead of just giving a man a fish, you’re teaching a man to fish,’” Herbert said. “It’s a little bit the same thing with the garden. Instead of just giving them some produce, we’re trying to encourage them to learn how to do that on their own.”