After numerous delays and disruptions in the construction schedule, the West Texas Food Bank will soon finally be able to cut the ribbon on its new Innovative Gardens at its Midland facility.
The 20-acre expansion will have its ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Sept. 25 at the West Texas Food Bank’s Midland location at 1601 Westcliff Drive where children of all ages are welcome.
The idea for the innovative gardens has been floating around since the Midland facility first opened a few years ago when there was a need for more parking.
“As we were a little landlocked, we needed parking,” Director of Communications for the West Texas Food Bank Craig Stoker said. “It became apparent that we didn’t have enough parking as soon as we opened.”
It wasn’t long until the idea to expand the gardens at the Midland location came about after the success of the West Texas Food Bank’s greenhouses and educational programming to the community.
“We needed more parking and the idea was to expand the gardens and expand the parking while we’re at it,” Stoker said.
Thus, the Innovative Gardens project was born.
The new garden will have two biodomes and a classroom and will feature many different plants and trees that do not normally grow in West Texas.
Most of those plants will include banana trees and pomegranate trees just to name a few.
“We’ll have the biodomes that are the centerpiece of it and that will allow us to grow tropical fruit that kids may not have seen before,” Stoker said. “To see the bananas grow on a tree … We’re going to have citrus trees in there, too. Kids might not know that a lemon comes from a tree.”
There will also be a garden for pollinators and a garden to showcase drought-tolerant sun-loving plants with a bunch of vegetables.
“We will have raised planting beds that’ll have a bunch of tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers and those things growing,” Stoker said. “The goal is to really show kids where food comes from and that it’s not from the back of the grocery store.”
There will be walking paths throughout the garden.
The pollinator garden will attract bees, butterflies and other pollinator insects to teach kids how crucial they are.
“If the plants don’t get pollinated, we don’t get tomatoes,” Stoker said. “You have to be aware of your environment and take care of it.”
The idea of putting together the Innovative Gardens has been in the works for about five years.
The project was originally supposed to be completed last fall; then came the pandemic which forced some delays.
“Innovative Gardens has been such a project of emotions and creativity and challenges that we are so excited to ribbon cut this garden,” West Texas Food Bank Executive Director Libby Campbell said. “We’re excited to let people see all the great things that we were dreaming of before COVID came during construction which was very challenging, not just because of the need at the food bank exceeded everything before the pandemic and is still high today, but also just building challenges that you’re hearing throughout the world right now like getting supplies.”
It wasn’t just the pandemic that forced some delays. The winter storm in February also brought about some challenges.
While the garden will open this month, Campbell says there are still some plants they couldn’t get in due to the freeze from this winter and that has delayed some portions of the project.
“We’re still delayed because we weren’t able to plant on time,” Campbell said. “Not only that, when things cleared, a lot of things that should’ve been planted in the spring had been killed due to the freeze, so it was hard to get plants and things over the spring and summer months. We’re about 8-9 months behind on our planting schedule. But we’ve been able to plant things out there and still make it a beautiful place and be able to provide education for our community and a space for people to get outside and spend time as a family which I think is important.”
Fruit trees will also include apples, figs, peaches, pears and citrus.
“You can grow things here in West Texas besides mesquite and oil under the ground,” Campbell said.
Campbell also described the classroom building at the gardens as looking similar to a chapel, or a little house.
“It’s designed like that so that if you want to grow sweet potatoes, you can grow them on the west side of your home,” Campbell said. “Our gardener on staff can teach the people how to do a garden and what are good things to grow here in West Texas. We’ve tried to grow different things that you wouldn’t think would grow in West Texas, but they do. This fall, we’ll be planting some trees, obviously. You’ll get to see some apple trees and some pomegranate trees. There’s also some things like conservation of our Earth like taking care of where we live. There’ll also be a flower garden that helps Mother Nature continue to pollinate. We’re excited to have that going on.”
The project has cost up to $1.8 million.
“That’s of course with the expanded parking lot that we also added for our staff at the Midland location,” Campbell said.
To be able to do a project like this, especially during a stressful time where a pandemic is still ongoing, Campbell says it has been impressive that the West Texas Food Bank has continued to serve the community while also be able to finish the completion of Innovative Gardens.
“We need to keep meeting the need out there and we couldn’t do that without the support of our community,” Campbell said. “But then as you get to look at things that we’ve been able to do like meet the need of hunger … we’ve also been able to do what we love to do, too, which is education. We’ve been able to bring different things to our clients and our families and communities in which we bring hope … The fact that we’re able to start this project before COVID and finish it, shows the turmoil that the food bank has undergone and to still be able to bring something like this to our community really makes us feel lucky that we get to go to work here and continue to do our job and bring innovative and different things to West Texas. We couldn’t do that without our support out here.”
If you go
- What: Innovative Gardens ribbon-cutting ceremony.
- Where: The West Texas Food Bank, 1601 Westcliff Drive, Midland.
- When: 10 a.m. Sept. 25.
- More information: wtxfoodbank.org.
