Though community gardening has taken root in Waco, some urban gardening leaders say not enough people are exercising their green thumbs.

More than a dozen community gardens have sprouted in Waco in recent years, spearheaded by churches, schools or other organizations. But it is sometimes difficult to retain volunteers who will continue to maintain and develop the gardens long-term.

“It’s definitely something that we are concerned about and addressing to encourage people to help out with the gardens that are around,” said Matt Hess, education director for World Hunger Relief Inc., an Elm Mott nonprofit organization that has championed local gardening as a means of addressing hunger for about 30 years.

Mountainview Elementary fourth-graders Beyonce Glenn (left) and Mikayla Salazar help tend the community garden at Lake Shore Baptist Church.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Bethel Erickson, an Americorps volunteer with the Heart O’ Texas Urban Gardening Coalition, said community gardens play an essential role in helping educate people about eating healthy, fresh foods.

“At schools, a lot of the food is sent home with the kids in the garden clubs,” Erickson said. “There’s usually a cooking component to it as well, because we’ve found that that’s one of the best ways to get kids interested in gardening, to show them that this is actually food and not just a colorful plant out of the ground.”

Erickson said for a garden to flourish, it requires a steady supply of volunteers who can dedicate time for maintenance, such as daily watering in warm seasons and weeding.

For example, Erickson said, Carver Park Baptist Church started a garden in 2007 that was spearheaded by a teenage member. Now that the student is away at college, it has been difficult to sustain momentum for the garden.

Seeds of faith

Erickson cited Lake Shore Baptist Church as an example of renewing a community garden. The church began a garden about 20 years ago with great enthusiasm, but it withered away as members lost interest or had less time to tend to it.

About 18 months ago, the church planted a new garden, maintained by a core group of volunteers led by youth minister Charles Conkin.

“The hardest thing to do is to combat that attitude of, ‘I don’t want to get involved because it’s not going to be here in six months,’ ” Conkin said.

“We’ve found that a minimal amount of people who can dedicate a minimal amount of hours a week is what keeps it going, as well as positive energy and enthusiasm.”

Conkin said the key to sustaining the garden this time around has been in building relationships with other groups that can lend manpower and support.

Students from the Mountainview Elementary Garden Club work in the garden every Friday, while youngsters from the Methodist Children’s Home volunteer on Mondays.

The produce helps support the church’s food pantry, with the rest split between the student volunteers and the congregation.

Hess said he is encouraged by the ongoing local interest in community gardening. The city of Bellmead dedicated its new community garden Sept. 17.

Jo Campbell, chair of the city’s parks and recreation committee, said the garden includes 28 spots that residents can reserve for their personal gardening. The city purchased a lot across from the police station for the garden, and soil and beds were donated by Bonnie’s Greenhouse.

Green Dreams

Erickson said maintaining community gardens long-term eventually will increase the availability of nutritious food to the city’s poorest residents. Often, operators of the gardens donate produce to local food pantries.

Charles Conkin, youth minister at Lake Shore Baptist Church, shows Mountainview Elementary fourth-grader Paige DuPuy how to use a hoe while working at the church’s community garden.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

“It’s about creating access to healthy foods in communities known as food deserts that don’t have traditional access to grocery stores,” Erickson said.

“So rather than having to drive great distances to go and get fresh food, we can begin growing stuff in the neighborhood that can then be distributed to neighbors around the garden.”

The gardening coalition is in the process of organizing a gardening day of service for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in January to help teach residents basic gardening skills on sites throughout the city. The organization also hopes to establish a farmers’ market in downtown Waco.

Erickson and Hess are part of the Food Planning Task Force. The group’s goal is for all McLennan County residents to have sustained access to three nutritious meals every day by 2015.

Ashley Weaver, co-chair of the task force and director for community affairs and community development for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, said teaching gardening skills can help residents avoid the hardships of hunger and also provide opportunities to earn money through selling their surplus produce.

“We definitely want to help move people from dependency, which is the food pantry model, and take them towards self-sufficiency,” Weaver said.

rdennis@wacotrib.com

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