OKEECHOBEE – Our Village Okeechobee keeps growing – in more ways than one.

The nonprofit organization, which offers community members “a hand up, not a handout,” has moved the food pantry to a different building, and is adding new programs and is teaching kids to grow food.

Executive Director Leah Suarez said the organization has received grants from Gilbert Chevrolet, General Motors Corp., Okeechobee Soil & Water Conservation District, Refuse to Sink and Regions Bank, which will allow them to set up a Red Cross disaster assistance center and offer services through Mission United, a  program to help veterans and their families.

To make room for the new programs, Our Village has moved the food pantry into the old Joni’s Exchange Building, 206 North Parrott Avenue.  In addition to the food pantry, the building houses the hydroponics garden and emergency hurricane supplies.

Leah explained the hydroponics garden has multiple uses. They will grow some lettuce and herbs to be served at events such as fundraising dinners. They will distribute some fresh produce from the garden through the pantry. They will grow and give some seedlings away for others to grow at home.

They have been experimenting with varieties of leaf lettuce to determine which grow best in the hydroponics garden, which taste best and how long the produce lasts after it is harvested.

She said Black-seeded Lettuce and Grand Rapids Lettuce are the current favorites. She said they have grown endive by special request.

Children who attend the summer camp at Our Village will be taught to grow their own herbs and lettuce.

Our Village also offers a class for adults which includes a tabletop hydroponics unit, instruction on how to use it and everything they need to get started for $80.

Leah said Our Village relies on community donations. Recently Walmart donated a load of soil and mulch. She said  Commissioner David Hazellief provided a trailer to haul it, and Lawn Tamer provided a fork lift to unload it. The soil and mulch will be used for some outdoor raised garden beds.

She said teaching the children to grow some of their own food helps interest them in food and nutrition. The kids also  use the fresh ingredients as they learn to cook. Recently, they used the fresh herbs to make marinara sauce and did a “taste test”, using bread sticks, to compare what they made against a commercial sauce. The homemade was the favorite, she explained, with the kids quickly consuming a crock pot filled with the freshly made sauce.

The food pantry will be open Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Thursdays, food will be distributed from a truck at New St. Stephen Church. A survey found the Douglas Park area is the most food-insecure in the county, and lack of transportation was cited as a top reason residents from that area had difficulty obtaining food.

The food pantry is open to everyone. Participants are asked to pay a $5 handling charge to help offset the cost of rent and utilities. Shoppers can pick their food within limits, for example “three items from this area, two items from this area, etc.”

The food comes from donations, large and small. Leah said they are very thankful for the frequent donations of milk from Sutton Milk. They received peanut butter from the annual 4-H Peanut Butter Drive. Church and school groups help with food drives. Winter residents sometimes clean out their pantries and drop off food before heading north for the summer.

Some people who pick up food from the Treasure Coast Food Bank’s drive-thru visits at the Agri-Civic Center drop off any extra food they don’t need at Our Village. The Treasure Coast Food Bank hands out boxes already packed with food and these sometimes include items a particular family can’t use, or more of something – like a bag of apples – than they will eat before the food spoils.

She said Christ Fellowship Church was instrumental in moving the equipment and food from the previous location to the new building. The Christ Fellowship volunteers moved the entire food pantry in matter of just hours. “It would have taken us weeks,” said Leah.

Cris Suarez is organizing the hurricane relief supplies.  The back room is packed with nonperishable goods and disaster resources such as tarps, tents, flashlights, hand crank radios and more. “As soon as we said we’re starting long term recovery efforts, donations started coming in,” he said. Catholic Charities provided a $10,000 grant. Okeechobee County donated cots.

He said he hopes to find businesses that would serve as supply distribution points after a large-scale emergency.

The program has already helped community members who suffered emergencies such as house fires. The goal is to help people be “safe, secure and sanitary,” he said.  

He said the food pantry will also help in an emergency, distributing food to disaster victims at no cost.

Cris said he is also working with a group of Okeechobee High School students who want to provide hygiene products for students in need. “We’re helping them get started,” he said.