Et cetera : FEMA Corp teams assist Harvesting Hope Community Garden in Texas

Brenden & JJ of Hickory 4 make new friends with volunteers at Harvesting Hope Community Garden.

Jenna & Lauren work on frost cover for a vegetables bed at the garden.

By: Brenden Janssen & Bria Rebisa

Three weeks into the second round of service projects for NCCC-FEMA Corps teams from the Vinton campus and Hickory 4 have already been able to make themselves at home. The team has been in Denton, Texas working in the Annex building on electronic filing and record retention for their FEMA project. The work they are doing is important but to give themselves a break from being in an office setting the team has been looking for independent service projects (ISPs) and other activities.

Two members of Hickory 4 stumbled across Harvesting Hope Community Garden located in Arlington, Texas and reached out to them to do an ISP on MLK Day. This church program strives to teach people how to grow their own produce and eat healthier in doing so. They also donate portions of this organic produce to local food banks.

Once the team arrived on site, they were put straight to work planting, creating a composting system, setting up a drip irrigation system, repairing vegetable beds, and creating frost covers to protect plants from extreme heat or cold. The staff and locals welcomed Hickory 4 with open arms and were amazed by all of the work that had been accomplished at the end of the day.

“The team seemed to especially enjoy meeting community members and learning why they were passionate about the garden.” JJ Jahr of Hickory Four adds about the ISP at Harvesting Hope Community Garden, “We also learned a lot about how to garden.”