With 3-and-a-half acres of crops, the South Plains Food Bank GRUB Farm director Jenifer Smith says it’s been a struggle to maintain with the lack of rain.
“Nothing beats rain water. So we would love love a good rain,” said Smith.
But because of the drought, the GRUB (Growing Recruits for Urban Business) Farm can’t produce food for the Food Bank, which gives it to charity and people in need.
“It’s making us rely more on our subsurface water, using our well, and that is an added expense. The electricity,” Smith said.
They take matters into their own hands and harvest rain and have a drip irrigation system.
On years the GRUB Farm gets more rain, they typically have much bigger plants than what they have now.
“We got such little rain this year, this winter, that our cover crop never come up,” said Smith.
They’re even expecting fewer vegetables this year because of the drought.
“The other issue is that we are a job skills and life skills training farm. Training ground for our GRUB program so we have teenagers working out here,” she said.
For now, they’re just praying for the rain.
“We need a good rain so we can have a good harvest that we can take a lot of beautiful harvest to the food bank.”
