World Hunger Relief in Waco, Texas, is using farming to heal their community. Aside from becoming a hub for aspiring farmers, the farm encourages empathy and compassion to those in need.
By Dee Ann Littlefield, Public Affairs Specialist
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During this holiday season, it’s hard to think about those who might be going hungry or suffering from malnutrition because they don’t have access to regular, healthy meals. But the reality is, millions of Americans go hungry every day. Thankfully, there is an organization in central Texas aspiring to alleviate food insecurity and malnutrition in the community through sustainable agriculture.
World Hunger Relief (WHR) in Waco, Texas, is using farming to heal their community. Aside from becoming a hub for aspiring farmers, the farm encourages empathy and compassion to those in need. WHR has an operation that extends beyond the demanding day-to-day business of running a farm: the organization aims to bring the power of good food to their neighbors.
“We’re so disconnected from food,” says Chase Jensen, the Educational Director for WHR. “We don’t know where it comes from and, sometimes rightly so, we worry the people who produced it may not have had great working conditions. This is a way people can come see the land where their food comes from, shake the hand of the farmer who grew it.”
The organization’s name reflects their past: WHR has been in operation since 1979 and has worked with education and outreach on a global scale. Recently, they’ve concentrated more of their efforts on driving positive impacts in their own community.
Hearing Jensen speak, it’s clear that the larger mission at WHR is inseparable from the normal day-to-day work that goes into every other farm.
“Our work really falls into three enterprises: livestock, market gardens, and all of our educational opportunities,” Jensen said. “It’s high-density, high-intensity vegetable planting using organic methods to produce a whole bunch of food for our community.”
Produce for the Masses
Weekly, WHR produces around 200 boxes of vegetables destined for families in the area. In addition to more traditional methods of distribution such as farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture (CSA), WHR sends out much of this produce through a unique partnership.
Jensen estimates that three quarters of their produce boxes are delivered to Waco Family Medicine, a McLennan County non-profit. Like WHR, they strive to serve community members who encounter social, economic, and environmental barriers to health.
“When doctors see patients throughout Waco who show signs or symptoms of a diet-related illness, rather than being prescribed a supplement or something out of a plastic bottle, they’re taking a more holistic view.
“The doctor can write on the prescription pad ‘fresh vegetables,’ and then World Hunger Relief grows those vegetables. So, it’s a way that, in the current food system, people who are being left out or can’t afford or access healthy, nutritious food, are able to get food delivered to them at no cost.”
Jensen says that in the first four weeks of the most recent season, WHR delivered roughly 1,700 pounds of produce from an acre-and-a-half of garden space.
To be able to support these vital missions and such fantastic output, it’s crucial that WHR has the infrastructure in place to ensure that production remains strong and consistent.
Planting and Growing Relationships
Every week boxes of fresh produce hit the doorsteps of local homes. But how does that produce go from vine to box? WHR strongly believes their volunteers are their driving force.
"Our goal as the current staff who have the honor of stewarding this place, is that we want to manage it in a way where the land can continue to do transformative work. [We want to] be a place where we are open to letting people come in and let the land teach them,” Jensen says with hope.
WHR is an active farm but is also an educational non-profit organization. Not only do they want to produce healthy and fresh produce, but they also want to teach people that no matter what space is available, they can create an impact. WHR offers multiple programs and partnerships for people, including a volunteer program called the Farm Partner Program, an internship program, a partnership with Truett Seminary, and farm camps for schools.
The volunteer program brings in a range of people from individuals who like to help out on the land, to college and university groups that use the volunteer program to get their service hours. These volunteers can sign up for any day at any time as frequently as they would like. The Farm Partner Program is a more regulated volunteer schedule where locals can sign up weekly, for a specific day or days.
“Because they’re here more regularly [with the Farm Partner Program], we can take more time to teach them things like how to weed specifically, and become involved in the production process,” Jensen said.
With big goals, WHR also plans to bring back an abbreviated four-month internships with hopes it’ll develop back into nine-month internships. These internships will allow a group of people who want to help specifically with livestock, gardening, or local education and outreach to come onto the WHR property and experience first-hand everything that goes into owning and operating a farm.
In addition to working on the property, the interns will also go through classes together to encourage education and living within the community to help build relationships.
In case WHR wasn’t involved with the community enough, they recently partnered with Truett Seminary. WHR will house students that are accepted into the newest master’s degree - focusing on theology, ecology, and food justice. Classes will be taught on the farm at WHR, in addition to some travel courses and traditional courses on the campus of Baylor University.
While all the volunteers and seminary students are busy learning and applying their skills, WHR also hosts farm camps on site where 1st through 7th graders are eligible to partake in activities every day in June that take place across different sections of the farm. While schools are in session, WHR welcomes school groups to come visit and take a tour.
“I’m hoping that when people come to World Hunger Relief -- whether it’s a school group or family – they are intrigued by nature, about being in nature,” said April Strickland, another local education advocate for WHR.
Strickland hopes that the curiosity people develop in these volunteer and school programs will inspire them to apply their skills in their own homes with a small garden in their backyard or encouraging their neighbors to attend volunteer sessions together at WHR.
Urban Gardens Hit the Streets with the Help of NRCS
Additionally, margins can be even tighter in the non-profit world than in normal commercial farming, meaning that farm improvements and features need to be cost-effective.
One way they help maintain their operations is by creating environments suited to pollinators. The main farm keeps six hives of bees which help support the farm through both their plant pollination and the honey WHR sells to their neighbors.
Strickland says that pollinator waystations are also important at the organization’s urban farms and the food system as a whole.
“If we don’t have these pollinators to come and pollinate everything, then we won’t have food.”
These urban gardens are another key part of the work at WHR. As available land plots get smaller and smaller and more people move into urban areas, they believe empowering people to grow on microplots and community gardens is an important tool for increasing access to nutrition.
WHR has also built up their infrastructure with the help of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Through both financial assistance and a wealth of expertise, they’ve supported WHR’s mission.
“What I’ve really found is that the NRCS is a network all throughout the U.S. that has specialists in pretty much any area you want,” said Jensen. “When I had questions about what fruit trees I should plant, [Michael] says, ‘well, I got people who do that, let me contact them.’”
“Michael” is Michael Higgins, the Urban Conservationist for NRCS based in Arlington, Texas.
“I’ve worked with World Hunger Relief on the Texas Urban and Rural Conservation Project,” he said, explaining that the WHR project is a unique technical and financial assistance arrangement. “It’s a yearlong process of planning and working on four different components: the pollinator habitat, the garden, the water harvesting catchment, and the high tunnel. Those components really address the root issues of food deserts, food insecurity, and educating through demonstration projects.”
The help of NRCS goes beyond financial assistance.
“I called him and said, ‘Michael, I’m looking online for these particular seeds and these particular flowers in this area,’” Strickland said. “[Michael] and I had conversations back and forth about what route we could go, what could help with weed control, and different things like that.”
Jensen agrees. “I was really blown away by the generosity [of NRCS] when they told me, ‘You know, we’re helping you with this fifth-of-an-acre project, but if y’all have any questions about your pastured poultry…your irrigation…we have people who can help,’” he said.
This was a huge offer, considering WHR is home to cows, pigs, goats, donkeys and even a comical duck named Lefty.
“He’s really made the whole organization, the scope of its knowledge available to us, even beyond the scope of the project that was funded,” Jensen said.
Through its partnership with NRCS, and the hard work of their mission driven farmhands, WHR can take some impressive steps forward in making Waco healthier- both the land and the people.
The gift of food and health gives their customers more to be thankful for, especially this time of year.
During this holiday season, it’s hard to think about those who might be going hungry or suffering from malnutrition because they don’t have access to regular, health meals. But the reality is, millions of Americans go hungry every day. Thankfully, there is an organization in central Texas aspiring to alleviate food insecurity and malnutrition in the community through sustainable agriculture.
World Hunger Relief (WHR) in Waco, Texas, is using farming to heal their community. Aside from becoming a hub for aspiring farmers, the farm encourages empathy and compassion to those in need. WHR has an operation that extends beyond the demanding day-to-day business of running a farm: the organization aims to bring the power of good food to their neighbors.
“We’re so disconnected from food,” says Chase Jensen, the Educational Director for WHR. “We don’t know where it comes from and, sometimes rightly so, we worry the people who produced it may not have had great working conditions. This is a way people can come see the land where their food comes from, shake the hand of the farmer who grew it.”
The organization’s name reflects their past: WHR has been in operation since 1979 and has worked with education and outreach on a global scale. Recently, they’ve concentrated more of their efforts on driving positive impacts in their own community.
Hearing Jensen speak, it’s clear that the larger mission at WHR is inseparable from the normal day-to-day work that goes into every other farm.
“Our work really falls into three enterprises: livestock, market gardens, and all of our educational opportunities,” Jensen said. “It’s high-density, high-intensity vegetable planting using organic methods to produce a whole bunch of food for our community.”
Produce for the Masses
Weekly, WHR produces around 200 boxes of vegetables destined for families in the area. In addition to more traditional methods of distribution such as farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture (CSA), WHR sends out much of this produce through a unique partnership.
Jensen estimates that three quarters of their produce boxes are delivered to Waco Family Medicine, a McLennan County non-profit. Like WHR, they strive to serve community members who encounter social, economic, and environmental barriers to health.
“When doctors see patients throughout Waco who show signs or symptoms of a diet-related illness, rather than being prescribed a supplement or something out of a plastic bottle, they’re taking a more holistic view.
“The doctor can write on the prescription pad ‘fresh vegetables,’ and then World Hunger Relief grows those vegetables. So, it’s a way that, in the current food system, people who are being left out or can’t afford or access healthy, nutritious food, are able to get food delivered to them at no cost.”
Jensen says that in the first four weeks of the most recent season, WHR delivered roughly 1,700 pounds of produce from an acre-and-a-half of garden space.
To be able to support these vital missions and such fantastic output, it’s crucial that WHR has the infrastructure in place to ensure that production remains strong and consistent.
Planting and Growing Relationships
Every week boxes of fresh produce hit the doorsteps of local homes. But how does that produce go from vine to box? WHR strongly believes their volunteers are their driving force.
"Our goal as the current staff who have the honor of stewarding this place, is that we want to manage it in a way where the land can continue to do transformative work. [We want to] be a place where we are open to letting people come in and let the land teach them,” Jensen says with hope.
WHR is an active farm but is also an educational non-profit organization. Not only do they want to produce healthy and fresh produce, but they also want to teach people that no matter what space is available, they can create an impact. WHR offers multiple programs and partnerships for people, including a volunteer program called the Farm Partner Program, an internship program, a partnership with Truett Seminary, and farm camps for schools.
The volunteer program brings in a range of people from individuals who like to help out on the land, to college and university groups that use the volunteer program to get their service hours. These volunteers can sign up for any day at any time as frequently as they would like. The Farm Partner Program is a more regulated volunteer schedule where locals can sign up weekly, for a specific day or days.
“Because they’re here more regularly [with the Farm Partner Program], we can take more time to teach them things like how to weed specifically, and become involved in the production process,” Jensen said.
With big goals, WHR also plans to bring back an abbreviated four-month internships with hopes it’ll develop back into nine-month internships. These internships will allow a group of people who want to help specifically with livestock, gardening, or local education and outreach to come onto the WHR property and experience first-hand everything that goes into owning and operating a farm.
In addition to working on the property, the interns will also go through classes together to encourage education and living within the community to help build relationships.
In case WHR wasn’t involved with the community enough, they recently partnered with Truett Seminary. WHR will house students that are accepted into the newest master’s degree - focusing on theology, ecology, and food justice. Classes will be taught on the farm at WHR, in addition to some travel courses and traditional courses on the campus of Baylor University.
While all the volunteers and seminary students are busy learning and applying their skills, WHR also hosts farm camps on site where 1st through 7th graders are eligible to partake in activities every day in June that take place across different sections of the farm. While schools are in session, WHR welcomes school groups to come visit and take a tour.
“I’m hoping that when people come to World Hunger Relief -- whether it’s a school group or family – they are intrigued by nature, about being in nature,” said April Strickland, another local education advocate for WHR.
Strickland hopes that the curiosity people develop in these volunteer and school programs will inspire them to apply their skills in their own homes with a small garden in their backyard or encouraging their neighbors to attend volunteer sessions together at WHR.
Urban Gardens Hit the Streets with the Help of NRCS
Additionally, margins can be even tighter in the non-profit world than in normal commercial farming, meaning that farm improvements and features need to be cost-effective.
One way they help maintain their operations is by creating environments suited to pollinators. The main farm keeps six hives of bees which help support the farm through both their plant pollination and the honey WHR sells to their neighbors.
Strickland says that pollinator waystations are also important at the organization’s urban farms and the food system as a whole.
“If we don’t have these pollinators to come and pollinate everything, then we won’t have food.”
These urban gardens are another key part of the work at WHR. As available land plots get smaller and smaller and more people move into urban areas, they believe empowering people to grow on microplots and community gardens is an important tool for increasing access to nutrition.
WHR has also built up their infrastructure with the help of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Through both financial assistance and a wealth of expertise, they’ve supported WHR’s mission.
“What I’ve really found is that the NRCS is a network all throughout the U.S. that has specialists in pretty much any area you want,” said Jensen. “When I had questions about what fruit trees I should plant, [Michael] says, ‘well, I got people who do that, let me contact them.’”
“Michael” is Michael Higgins, the Urban Conservationist for NRCS based in Arlington, Texas.
“I’ve worked with World Hunger Relief on the Texas Urban and Rural Conservation Project,” he said, explaining that the WHR project is a unique technical and financial assistance arrangement. “It’s a yearlong process of planning and working on four different components: the pollinator habitat, the garden, the water harvesting catchment, and the high tunnel. Those components really address the root issues of food deserts, food insecurity, and educating through demonstration projects.”
The help of NRCS goes beyond financial assistance.
“I called him and said, ‘Michael, I’m looking online for these particular seeds and these particular flowers in this area,’” Strickland said. “[Michael] and I had conversations back and forth about what route we could go, what could help with weed control, and different things like that.”
Jensen agrees. “I was really blown away by the generosity [of NRCS] when they told me, ‘You know, we’re helping you with this fifth-of-an-acre project, but if y’all have any questions about your pastured poultry…your irrigation…we have people who can help,’” he said.
This was a huge offer, considering WHR is home to cows, pigs, goats, donkeys and even a comical duck named Lefty.
“He’s really made the whole organization, the scope of its knowledge available to us, even beyond the scope of the project that was funded,” Jensen said.
Through its partnership with NRCS, and the hard work of their mission driven farmhands, WHR can take some impressive steps forward in making Waco healthier- both the land and the people.
The gift of food and health gives their customers more to be thankful for, especially this time of year.