FREE VEGGIES

HELPING SOUTH OAK CLIFF RISE FROM THE FOOD SWAMP

A YOUNG WOMAN walked into the Veggie Store one Saturday, pointed to a big pile of green beans and asked Bettie Montgomery, “What is this?”

“I said ‘that’s green beans,’ ” Montgomery recalls. “She said, ‘Oh, I thought that only came in a can.’ ”

The encounter struck at the heart of what the Montgomery family and St. Luke Presbyterian Church are up against in South Oak Cliff.

The neighborhood is amid a food desert where residents lack nearby access to fresh food.

About five years ago, Montgomery says, she received a spiritual message to do something to improve her community.

“My faith drives me quite a bit,” she says.

A friend had introduced her to a food coop called Bountiful Baskets, and she started picking up produce shares, which cost $15 and often included $30-$50 worth of groceries, to cook for her family.

That gave her the idea to bring produce to South Oak Cliff and make it available for free.

The message was clear: “Do this, and do it for the community.”

She brought the call to members of her church, St. Luke.

Montgomery and her family and church members started buying co-op shares and handing out produce to anyone who wanted it in front of their church on Singing Hills Drive. They called it the Veggie Store.

Now Montgomery and her son Ples Montgomery IV are working to gain nonprofit status for their charitable upstart, the Oak Cliff Veggie Project, which has grown to include initiatives toward nutrition and cooking education, gardening, composting and reducing food waste.

The Montgomery family and church

Story by RACHEL STONE Photo by DANNY FULGENCIO

members still offer the Veggie Store every third Saturday of the month starting at noon and ending when all the food is gone.

They receive donations from food distributors and from the Harvest Project, a food-rescue program that takes less attractive but perfectly edible produce that wholesalers otherwise throw out.

Americans waste about 30 percent of the food they purchase, according to endhunger.org.

That’s energy that could be turned into fertilizer to grow more food, Bettie Montgomery says.

“If we can close the loop on food waste, it brings costs down for producers and consumers,” she says.

Her son Ples is 36 and a farmer at Big Tex Farms, and he is the steward of St. Luke’s vast community garden.

He also helps neighbors who he’s met at the Veggie Store to build their own community gardens.

Gardens at four other Oak Cliff churches already are planned.

They envision gardens and agriculture programs in neighborhood schools and “grannies” who can help with gardening and cooking to “bridge the generation gap and keep seniors active.”

“We already know that if kids grow stuff themselves, they will eat it,” Ples Montgomery says.

Gardening teaches the value of food when people see what it actually takes to get food out of the ground.

“Food gives us so many opportunities. Sitting down at the dinner table, sharing, passing down traditional food and stories,” Bettie Montgomery says. “Family gatherings are usually done over a meal. Business meetings are done over a meal.”

Education

Third-grade teacher Adan Gonzalez won the Good Works Under 40 Award from the Dallas Foundation in November. He won a $10,000 grant for the nonprofit he founded, Puede Network, which helps improve the lives of kids in our neighborhood. The son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzalez grew up in Oak Cliff, and when he was accepted to Georgetown University, he arrived as a freshman with his belongings in garbage bags. After that, he organized a luggage drive for other college-bound students. He later received a masters degree from Harvard University and now teaches at Bowie Elementary, the same school he attended. Puede Network provides comprehensive college access services, volunteer opportunities and mentorship to underprivileged students in inner city public schools.

The Best in Class Coalition and the College Football Playoff Foundation recognized two Oak Cliff teachers in October. Matthew Abernathy teaches algebra 2 and pre-calculus at Kimball High School. As a student at Texas A&M University, he mentored students and was able to see classroom inequality. “I found myself wanting to teach students who don’t believe in themselves or believe in their added value as a human being,” he says. “Now that I get to be in the classroom I ground myself in my belief that each and every student has the potential to achieve highly.” Dennis Sorto lives in Oak Cliff and teaches music in Mesquite ISD. His colleagues nominated him for the honor because of his passion for sharing music with students. The teachers were among 400 who were invited to a tailgate party at the Oct. 27 Southern Methodist University football game. They received tickets to the game and were recognized on the field at halftime.

People

Sen. Royce West won Methodist Health System Foundation’s Robert S. Folsom Award in October. The award recognizes demonstrated commitment and excellence in community leadership. West was first elected to the Texas Senate in 1993, and his district includes part of Oak Cliff. The gala at the Hilton Anatole, hosted by Nancy Ann and Ray Hunt, raised $1.6 million to build a new cancer unit at Charlton Methodist Medical Center.

By BRENT MCDOUGAL