Several years ago, the Hill Country Bloomers approached us and offered to help us get an HCCM garden started. They created some beds and did some clearing so were able to grow some vegetables to distribute to our clients. Our ultimate goal with our garden is to grow extra produce for our clients, but also allow our community to learn how to grow vegetables to supplement their household needs.
Several years ago, we had the assistance of several Eagle scouts with creating a pathway through our garden and building the garden shed. This has been a tremendous help in maneuvering through the garden, plus having a dedicated storage space for our garden tools and supplies.
This year, we have a volunteer who is spearheading our garden project. Peter Jelito, with the help of his wife, Penny, planted beans, beets, melons and other items, including some flowers. Another volunteer, Wendy Pearson, planted tomatoes and peppers. This produce is normally distributed through the community cupboard and food pantry. Peter has done a tremendous job at keeping our garden beds weeded, watered and harvested! We have recently added Jeanette Cacciola to our garden team as well and she helps with watering and harvesting twice a week. And several additional volunteers help with watering.
In the past, we have held some classes with the support of the Central Texas Food Bank, and one of our clients who attended, though he lives in an apartment, started his garden at his brother’s home! What a great feeling to know that we have been able to supplement his groceries by teaching him how to garden!
We still have a couple of open beds that were built by the Rotary Club. If all goes well this year, we can expand our garden even more! If you have a home garden and extra produce, we can accept those donations at the food pantry too!
