The vines are 15 feet long right now, on their way to 50. As food banks across Dallas strive to feed thousands ravaged by the recessed economy, volunteers at the Soulfood Greenhouse are working hard to put fresh tomatoes on empty tables.
Just a few hundred feet from the roaring traffic of Central Expressway, across the highway from a Best Buy, the greenhouse flourishes from December to June. It nestles serenely along one east wall of North Park Presbyterian Church.
North Park Presbyterian focuses on serving the Vickery Meadow food pantry about a mile away. A few years ago Keri McCall realized the pantry’s clients had few fresh vegetables in their diets.
“They’d get staples like canned corn and macaroni and cheese," said McCall, the project manager at Soulfood.
Growing tomatoes hydroponically would be a way to fill that gap.