Cultivated through years of care by Coppell citizens, the Coppell Community Gardens has brought together residents who have a passion for gardening since 1998.
The garden started as a nonprofit organization created by the City of Coppell with a mission to create a positive environment within the city.
The original location of three current locations was established in 1998 at Town Center. Helping Hands Community Garden is where the journey started.
“It’s more than just a community garden,” Helping Hands garden manager Diane Lowe said. “It really involves everyone in the community. It also just gives them a beautiful place to be.”Helping Hands established a system in which a community member chooses to adopt a plot. They are guided through and responsible for care of a garden bed by planting, weeding, watering and harvesting crops, using organic methods.
Shortly after Helping Hands was established, citizens had started adopting plots and a second garden, Ground Delivery Garden was created.
“The second garden incorporates that part of the city so that people who live in that general area have a closer place to go to,” Lowe said.
The largest garden with 60 plots and a library for gardeners, Ground Delivery Garden, is located near the Coppell Post Office.
“Each garden has a little bit of a different personality if you will,” Lowe said.
The third garden, Old Town Garden, was established about a decade later. It is located close to the Senior Center so that Coppell senior citizens have easier access to the gardens.
“Many of us are able to afford organic produce as we can of course get it in the grocery store, but there are many that can’t,” Lowe said.
The Coppell Community Gardens donates 80% of their produce to Metrocrest Food Services.
“Without a doubt, our most significant accomplishment is donating almost 400,000 pounds of all organic produce to the food pantry,” Lowe said.
Offering guidance to new gardeners, the Community Gardens and citizens work together to produce fresh, organic food to help those in need.
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The gardens also collaborate with Coppell ISD schools, helping students learn about gardening and start their own gardens.
“We started working with them when I was at [Coppell] Middle School East,” Coppell High School Eco Club sponsor Jodie Deinhammer said. “When we started our sustainability club over there, we did some volunteer work for them to kind of get to know how the gardens work.”
The Community Gardens have supported many schools in the district with setting up their campus gardens.
With Old Town Garden supplying CHS with crop transplants, they have been assisting the CHS Eco Club since its establishment. The person behind providing CHS with transplants and other supplies is Larry Thompson, known in the community as Farmer Larry.
“There’s the one at the Coppell Senior Center which is where we personally get all of our transplants that go into our garden that we have on Coppell High School,” CHS Eco Club executive committee officer Stayton Slaughter said.
CHS Eco Club also donates its harvests to Metrocrest through the Community Gardens. During the 2023-2024 school year, the Eco Club donated 65 pounds of cantaloupe and 63 pounds of sweet potatoes to Metrocrest. They plan on continuing to donate this year.
“This year we have eggplants that are about to be harvested,” senior Eco Club executive committee officer Ashia Agarwal said.
Not only are CISD students involved with the community gardens through on-campus gardening and donations, but the Community Gardens also extends scholarships to Coppell seniors and has plenty of gardening classes and volunteering opportunities for students and the community.
For Coppell citizens seeking a place to garden, the Coppell Community Gardens has been a haven. It has preserved its core values for 26 years, and has helped people in need while giving back to the community.
“I love doing this, I have a passion around it.” Lowe said. “I started doing this 25 years ago. It’s very rewarding. I would encourage doing this.”
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