BIXBY, Okla. — Harvest starts early in the morning hours at the OSU Mingo Valley Research Station, where up to 2 dozen Tulsa County Master Gardeners volunteers fan out each week to pick whatever is ripe: okra, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, squash, carrots, and more.
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Volunteer Teri Holmes said she found her calling there after retiring.
“When I retired, I said, Hey, this is where I want to be. So that’s how I got involved out here.”
The garden was launched five years ago to teach master gardeners how to grow and harvest fresh vegetables to donate to local food pantries. The program is called “Seed to Supper.”
Holmes told 2 News Oklahoma that the work was especially meaningful.
“We know that food insecurity in Oklahoma is a problem, and so what we can produce here to provide fresh food at various banks throughout the area is very important. It’s helpful. Food banks really are struggling on the fresh supply side,” Holmes said.
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Tom Ingram runs the program. He told 2 News that each week, volunteers harvest and distribute up to 1,000 pounds of fresh vegetables.
“Typically, it’ll go to the Jenks food pantry and the Bixby Outreach Center, their food pantry. Then, depending on how much we have, it’ll spill over to other food pantries as well,” Ingram said.
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In mid-June, volunteers delivered green beans, squash, carrots, turnips, and more to the Bixby Outreach Center, where Toni Parchuri described how the pantry serves the community.
“We provide a once-a-month service to our clients who need to supplement their food stock, and so they are allowed to come, and it’s a self-serve pantry and basically pick out their needs,” Parchuri said.
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She said fresh produce makes a visible difference for the people they serve.
“A lot of times they subsist off of the canned goods that we provide, and I know from personal experience as a shopper with our clients that when they see fresh produce, a smile gets on their face.”
That reaction is all the reward volunteers say they need to keep coming back year after year, and to keep expanding a garden that helps feed their community.
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