Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry To Offer Fresh Produce

AURORA, IL—Food pantries aren’t typically known for their vast array of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Except for the occasional bruised and browning banana, pantry guests aren’t often supplied with fresh foods that make up a large portion of the food pyramid.

That’s changing at the Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry in Aurora, which is expected to receive 6,000 pounds of fresh, homegrown produce this garden season, all planted, grown and harvested by volunteers of the Charity Blooms nonprofit garden.

“We want to show people that they don’t need to eat garbage, but they also don’t need to shop at Whole Foods to eat healthy,” said Charity Blooms founder Rob Vaughan. “There are food insecurities in Aurora. For a lot of low-income families it’s easy to just stop by McDonald’s, but we want to provide them with something more.”

Vaughan wasn’t always a gardener. In fact, his area of expertise was in residential remodeling when he spontaneously decided he was going to build a farm.

In 2017 he rented a small garden plot at Oakhurst Forest Preserve in Aurora and ended up growing 600 pounds of food to donate to the pantry. Four years later, Vaughan has a half-acre of land (owned by the city, but rented to the food pantry for a dollar) to grow on, and is harvesting 10 times as much food.

There’s a greenhouse for the seedlings and a new orchard with apple, peach and cherry trees to tend to.

Visitors can take cooking classes from a registered dietician, who uses all fresh foods from the garden. They can enjoy a meal, take home a seedling, and learn the importance of growing their own food.

“Deep down everybody says nothing is for free, but I think that’s a load of crap,” Vaughan said. “Everything we have is free. Come, have a free dinner. See the farm.”

With a 36-inch grill, two gas griddles, twinkling lights for late night events, and seating for 50, the farm has turned into quite a social place where volunteers can spend hours and not get bored. But, they never lose sight of the task at hand, because the job they have is a big one.

Last spring, COVID-19 concerns kept hundreds of volunteers at bay. Gone were the Boys Scout and church groups. Gone were the sports teams willing to help harvest.

Yet somehow, Vaughan was able to grow twice as much food as he had the previous season, with half the man power. Volunteers who did participate in the 2020 planting were skilled beyond measure, Vaughan said. They grew food so fast that there weren’t enough volunteers to harvest it. As a direct result, Vaughan watched 100 pounds of produce rot on the ground.

That shouldn’t be a problem this year, as Charity Blooms superseded last year’s volunteer signup numbers in just one week.

Vaughan expects more than 300 volunteers to tend to the farm this year, and is still seeking more. No gardening experience is necessary, and Vaughan provides gloves, hand tools and other necessities.

“When people see something amazing, they want to latch onto it,” he said, confident that, this year, no food will go to waste.