Crops from The Giving Fields in Melbourne support regional food pantries

The Giving Fields in Melbourne grows crops that stock local organizations’ food pantries with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs.

The fields, owned by Doug and Shelia Bray, have been around since 2011 when the couple was deciding what to do with their 40 acres. Sheila Bray said they would volunteer at local soup kitchens and food pantries and realized there wasn’t much fresh produce available.  

“We just saw that there weren’t a lot of healthy alternatives at the food pantries, especially vegetables,” Sheila Bray said. “Some of the stuff that was donated to the pantries was really on its last leg. You know, almost rotting some of the foods that some of these pantries would get. We had this big field, and Doug grew up on a farm. We had just sold our business, and we had time.”  

The Giving Fields has 1 1/2 acres of vegetables, 125 apple and pear trees and 14 bee hives. The fields utilize a seven-foot solar-powered deer fence, drip irrigation with water supplied from a nearby well and weed mats.

The Giving Fields give their produce to Be Concerned food pantry in Covington, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newport, St. Vincent De Paul in Cold Spring, Brighton Center in Newport, Rosegarden Home Mission in Covington, La Soupe in Cincinnati, and Last Mile Food Rescue in Cincinnati.

Assistant farm manager and intern from Western Kentucky University Brooke Meyer said the fields have many volunteers from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, who take the produce they need for their pantry with them. Then, Last Mile Food Rescue delivers the rest of the harvest to the other food pantries.

La Soupe soup kitchen also receives much of The Giving Fields’ produce. Doug Bray said they grow 12-15 items specifically for La Soupe, including fresh herbs. The soup kitchen has trained chefs and community volunteers who transform the rescued food into restaurant-quality, healthy meals, soups and salads.

“Every week for 15-18 weeks, they know they get that product fresh from us,” he said. “They don’t have to go out and buy it and it’s a higher quality.”

When the Brays began The Giving Fields, they traveled to places like North Carolina, Oregon and Seattle to review successful business models from around the country.

The crops are all watered through a drip irrigation system that the Brays discovered while traveling. Meyer said the five systems have a control panel that allows them to determine how much water they want to produce.

“The water comes from our well,” Meyer said. “It’s a drip line. Water comes out of these tubes, which have tiny holes in them, so they drip slowly. That’s better for the plants because they get to really absorb all of that water through the roots and everything.”

Doug Bray said they use about 25% of the water they would use if they had sprinklers.

The fields also use mats over the roots, which help protect the plants from water loss due to evaporation and keep the weeds out.

“The most important thing is sustainability and the ability to get volunteers,” Doug Bray said. “The grass mat keeps you from having to bring a hoe out, and then when you don’t have to bring a hoe out, you get more volunteers.”

The fields also have wildflowers planted to attract the bees and help pollinate the crops.

Doug Bray said their strategy is designed to simplify and make things easy.

“We very seldom have a canceled harvest day because we put grass in between the rows, and even though we have to cut it, it can rain, and we can still get out there,” Doug Bray said. “As opposed to volunteers coming down they get muddy, and that’s a reason not to come back the next time whenever it’s wet. So, we like to do things that just make the overall experience really good, and hopefully, word of mouth gets a message out, and we get more volunteers.”

The Giving Fields is a nonprofit organization mainly funded by the Brays. One aspect of the fields that does help offset expenses is the rent-a-row program. It is a plot rental program for individual or group use. Gardeners plant and harvest fruits, vegetables, and flowers for their personal consumption.

“A lot of these people that are on rent-a-row are also doing work on our pantry side,” Doug Bray said. “This is our first time with rent a row, and so far, it’s worked out just incredible.”

Beginning in July, the fields will harvest on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with Tuesday being the biggest harvest. Doug Bray said that they are hoping to harvest 10-20,000 pounds of fruit this season alone.

This effort requires help from volunteers. To learn more about volunteering at The Giving Fields, visit their website.