Nurtured with faith, a community garden in San Antonio springs back from the devastating winter storm
The St. Phocas Garden in San Antonio’s historic West Side supplies a local food pantry with the only fresh vegetables many of its clients get, but it suffered major freeze damage during the winter storm.
By Alexa Ura
Get Pocket
March 4, 2021
Excerpt:
When a garden is tended to feed a community in need, it’s also built on faith.
The harvest from the St. Phocas Garden feeds predominantly Hispanic, low-income people living on the West Side of San Antonio — its vitality determining whether many families will be able to eat fresh produce.
Named for the patron saint of gardeners, the St. Phocas Garden helps supplement a local food pantry operated by Catholic Charities of San Antonio. Its master gardener, Jennifer Sierra, labors throughout the year to ensure the pantry’s nonperishable goods, like dried pasta and canned beans, are accompanied by salad mixes of lettuce and spinach, onions and shallots, various kinds of kale, cabbage, broccoli, an assortment of herbs, and lots and lots of tomatoes.
In the aftermath of the severe winter storm that ravaged the state in mid-February, Sierra is now beginning anew with her vegetable patch, parts of which were ruined during the unusual prolonged freeze. She knows who is depending on it.
“Nobody comes here because life is great,” Sierra said last week, standing between some of her decimated garden beds. “They come for support.”
