Three Collin County women are putting their green thumbs to work by growing fresh food for local food pantries and shelters.
McKinney’s Carissa Bleeker along with New Hope residents, Taylor Stone and Michelle McCarley, created farm-to-fork donation service, McKinney Roots, to bring more nutritious foods to low-income McKinney families, The McKinney Courier-Gazette reported.
The nonprofit currently partners with places in need such as a homeless shelter and local elementary school, but the group aims at expanding its outreach.
With the help of donations by seed companies and local residents, the nonprofit plans to move its gardens to a more spacious plot of land within the next year, the McKinney Courier-Gazette reported.
McKinney Roots hopes its efforts also serve as a learning opportunity for local youth.
“We want kids to come out to the garden,” Stone told the newspaper. “We want the families we’re serving to come out, and we want to be able to show them all the things they can grow on an apartment patio.”
Stone, who also serves as the community outreach coordinator at Clearview Church in McKinney, was surprised by her community’s enthusiasm about the group.
“People were interested, they were asking questions,” Stone said. “The response was mind-blowing.”
As for the far-future, Stone sees the nonprofit’s gardens blossoming into bigger pastures.
“In five years, we will have an established orchard, and we hope to be 100 percent sustainable,” Stone said.
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