MARFA — Spring typically signals the start of a new growing season at the Marfa Food Pantry Garden, but this year its tilled soil will remain bare as organizers recently decided to cease operations. The program, initiated by volunteer Peggy O’Brien in 2020, helped provide organic, fresh produce to food pantry clients.
“During the pandemic, when the needs in our community increased so dramatically, it was the perfect opportunity to introduce growing fresh produce on site at the Marfa Food Pantry,” O’Brien said.
Some fresh produce for the food pantry is also provided by independent local gardeners.
O’Brien as well as Shelley Bernstein, executive director of the Big Bend Conservation Alliance (BBCA) — which employed a garden assistant, paid the water bill and bought seeds and other supplies with grant funds for the past three years — cited several factors for the garden’s closure.
Chief among them is the labor it takes to run such a large, productive garden. From spring to fall O’Brien, garden assistants and volunteers endured the elements to plant and harvest crops for food pantry client pickups.
While O’Brien, Bernstein and Marfa Food Pantry Executive Director Genevieve Bassham expressed gratitude for all of the volunteers that donated their time over the years, they said there simply weren’t enough regular volunteers to continue to make the garden viable.
O’Brien and Bernstein said there is a possibility a community garden could spring from the food pantry garden’s closure.
“We have found that the reality of continuing such a large labor-intensive effort is more work than is sustainable,” O’Brien said. “I am happy to have contributed to its beginning and am so pleased that it will evolve in a new direction with volunteers who are enthusiastic about growing local.”
O’Brien, who was essentially the backbone and visionary behind the operation, decided to take a step back from the project this fall. Bernstein attempted to hire a new garden manager, but BBCA could only afford to pay someone a few hours a week on an assistant salary, and the hours were not enough to keep the garden in good working order.
There were also concerns about how impactful the labor-intensive initiative was for food pantry clients. Over the years, garden workers surveyed food pantry clients about what produce they would like to see grown, pick up times and methods, how they were using the fresh food and more to attempt to serve their audience better, Bernstein said. They also provided recipes for various fresh ingredients and laid burlap paths in the garden to encourage food pantry clients to walk through.
But last growing season, from March to October 2023, BBCA Project Coordinator Elvira Hermosillo performed evaluations on the program and found it was underutilized by food pantry clients. “What we were trying to figure out is how well is this thing actually working?” Bernstein said. “Who’s picking up? How often are they picking up?”
Hermosillo found that of the food pantry’s 175 clients, 61 people came to get produce throughout the entire season. Of those 61, 18 picked up more than three times, meaning around 10% of the food pantry clients were utilizing the fresh produce.
“We were basically seeing that 61 people were picking up, and of those, half of those only picked up once and never came back,” Bernstein said. While the 18 regular clients represent 18 families taking advantage of the program, she said, what was concerning about the number was the amount of work the garden took to run in comparison.
Amelia Morales, who regularly utilized the Marfa Food Pantry Garden, said she is sad to see it go but understands limitations and does not have the time to volunteer herself to help keep it afloat. “[The garden] is needed, but if it can’t be done I understand. It’s not like I could offer to help because I work,” Morales said.
Bertha Armendariz, a Marfa Food Pantry client who worked as the garden assistant for a period of time, said the garden was “very tricky,” requiring constant attention and, in the end, its produce did not appeal to some clientele.
“Caring for the plants is a daily thing, especially for things like chiles, tomatoes and zucchini. If you don’t harvest the zucchini when it’s ready, it gets really big and no one wants it,” Armendariz said.
“In reality there wasn’t enough [harvest] for so many people, and they expected more items similar to a market,” she added.
The shortage of volunteers coupled with the lack of client engagement in the program and the loss of its lead gardener, O’Brien, meant the food pantry garden was no longer feasible. “The reality is if it’s not working for the people that it was designed for, I think you either iterate — which we’ve tried to do — or you have to step aside and say, maybe the project model does not work,” Bernstein said.
With the Bassham’s blessing, BBCA plans to move two water catchment tanks, which they funded, on the property to gardening projects in Presidio and assist with deconstructing the garden and divvying up tools as needed.
Melody Bowers — A.K.A. “the compost queen” — who helped get a compost program up and running at the food pantry garden is serving as the go between for the food pantry and the garden’s future.
The idea to relocate the garden to the First Presbyterian Church and turn it into a community garden has been discussed, but Bowers said the church board is not ready to commit to hosting the project at this time. She said, for now, she plans to relocate the composting system to her property and “anything that happens in the next chapter will only be possible” due to Bernstein and O’Brien’s hard work.
Genevieve and Elbert Bassham are the owners of the garden and accompanying orchard land behind the food pantry. The couple told The Big Bend Sentinel they are still researching options for what to do with the land.