The dream that grows Katie’s Krops is to end hunger one vegetable garden at a time. My dream started when I grew an amazing 40-pound cabbage that I donated to a soup kitchen. Seeing how many people in need could benefit from the donation of fresh vegetables, I knew I needed to do more. The plan was simple, grow vegetables, and donate them to feed people in need. Along the way, that plan grew to be so much more.
My local soup kitchen/homeless shelter became my favorite donation destination. It was a sad day when they had to shut their doors due to lack of funding. Families and individuals in need in my hometown no longer had a place to go to receive healthy meals. I knew I needed to take action.
My friends, their parents, and our teachers came together to create a healthy meal for those in need. I may not be able to donate the vegetables to our local soup kitchen, but we, working together, could create our own soup kitchen. We sought out a local church with a large industrial size kitchen and a big, beautiful dining hall and asked them to help provide a location to host our dinners. The food, well, that was easy. I had big beautiful gardens filled with fresh healthy food. The meal would truly be garden to plate.
The menu would be based on the harvest in the gardens. It is as simple as picking fresh vegetables hours before the meal, creating a delicious dinner and serving it to our guests only hours later.
The Katie’s Krops Dinners have made me look at my crops differently. Garden to plate; this simple concept has changed my view on gardening and cooking. When I plant a seedling now, or as I pick vegetables at their peak, I am thinking of the yummy meal this vegetable will contribute too, the recipes it can create, the people who will benefit from it and the fun of cooking it. The seedlings I plant are going straight from the ground to the plates of families in need. Perhaps the most reward part of the dinner is meeting and sharing a meal with the families that benefit from Katie’s Krops. To view a few of the recipes from our Katie’s Krops Dinners, garden to plate, please go to http://www.katieskrops.com/katie-cooks.html.
