Harvesting with Purpose

Jan’s Garden at the North Texas Food Bank grows fresh produce for neighbors visiting The Storehouse Community Center.

What starts as a seed in the greenhouse of Jan’s Garden ultimately ends up in the hands of a neighbor being served from the nearby Seven Loaves Pantry at The Storehouse Community Center in Plano.

“All of our crops are influenced by the neighbors we serve,” says Karen Gilboux, North Texas Food Bank Garden Specialist. “We are always trying to plant crops that are culturally relevant and that our neighbors want to eat.”

A year-round learning and production garden located at the NTFB’s Perot Family Campus, Jan’s Garden volunteers, led by Karen, plant and cultivate fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Most Tuesdays, they harvest produce that’s ready to eat and deliver it to Seven Loaves Pantry.

There, volunteers sort it and combine it with produce donated by a retail partner to create a bag of produce for each family that visits the pantry on Wednesday afternoon.

“That means it’s in neighbors’ hands basically 36 hours after it’s harvested,” said Josh Stevens, Director of Seven Loaves Pantry.

And it’s something Josh says families are happy to receive. A survey of neighbors in 2021 found that fresh produce was one of the most important items to them, along with frozen meat and fresh milk/cheese.

^{Volunteers sort produce and other items at Seven Loaves Pantry.}

At Seven Loaves, many of the neighbors served are from Central and South America, which means volunteers and staff work to provide foods that families are used to eating and cooking with.

For produce, Karen and Josh say that means as many greens as possible—things like Swiss chard, spinach and kale—as well as peppers, cucumbers and other veggies.

Along with a bag of produce, each family visiting the pantry goes home with two bags of dry goods, a bag of canned goods and a variety bag that can include pasta sauce, canned or dried fruit and other goods. Josh says it typically adds up to between 75 and 90 pounds of food, 25 pounds of which is fresh produce.

Along with food, neighbors at The Storehouse Community Center can visit a clothing closet and can participate in The Academy, which provides ESL, job training and other classes. Like the NTFB, the Storehouse believes in supporting neighbors with food and access to wraparound services that address the underlying barriers to food security

And while Jan’s Garden’s harvest all goes to Seven Loaves, it’s a model that’s replicated throughout NTFB’s partner network.

Karen works with 16 partner gardens to provide produce to pantries in their neighborhoods. In some cases, like at Metrocrest Community Services, the garden is on-site at the pantry. In other instances, it is nearby, like the Temple Emanu-El Jill Stone Community Garden, which donates its harvest to the nearby Vickery Meadow Food Pantry.

Interested in learning more? Learn more about Jan’s Garden or register for a volunteer shift here.

^{Jan’s Garden volunteers and staff drop off produce each Tuesday at Seven Loaves Pantry at The Storehouse Community Center.}