By Holly Heinrich

Contributing Writer

Two hours before Homecoming, when other girls were putting the finishing touches on their hair and makeup, Westlake senior Mara Weidmann was rushing to complete the 23 micro-gardening boxes for Veggies on Wheels that she had been building all afternoon with her youth group. By the time she finished, there was no time to shower. She put on the dress, threw up her hair, and met her date at the door.

 

Veggies on Wheels began as a project for her Independent Study Mentorship class, where she is being mentored by Mobile Loaves & Fishes director Alan Graham. Mara had planned to focus on the nonprofit’s mobile housing for the homeless program, but when problems with city permits delayed the start date, Graham showed her a prototype micro-gardening “GrowBox” designed by Boggy Creek Farms. He suggested that the “GrowBox” could become the basis for her work. The GrowBoxes would allow individual families and organizations to produce fresh vegetables to feed the homeless.

“At first, I was going to make a few GrowBoxes on my own; I would have raised enough produce to supply a family or to send vegetables on a few truck runs,” Mara said. “But then I thought, ‘I bet more people would want to do this.’ ”

She expanded the project and gave it a name – Veggies on Wheels. With the help of the Westlake United Methodist youth group and a Girl Scout troop led by Sherri Bowen, Veggies on Wheels has created and distributed 23 GrowBoxes, and now has requests for more. The boxes’ simple design allows even those unskilled in gardening to grow vegetables.

“They are pretty self-sustaining,” Mara said. “The box sits in direct sunlight. I normally water mine once every week and a half. If it freezes, you cover the box with a tarp. I check for pests. Otherwise, the GrowBoxes are fine on their own. There’s actually an entire building design to it. It’s like a two-story house. The bottom story is the water reservoir. The top story is the dirt and soil and nutrients and vegetables.”

Mara has seen the program benefit the volunteers as well as those they serve.

“I believe that Veggies on Wheels not only helps those who receive the produce, but those who grow it as well,” she said. “It’s a community bonding experience as well as a community service experience.”

Mara has also experienced changes within herself through working with MLF.

“You come back from distributing food knowing that you helped people, but their impact on you is even greater,” Mara said. “Going out on the MLF trucks is a moral reality check. It connects us to what is real.”

Mara plans to keep service at the center of her life. She plans to join the Peace Corps after college and is considering a career as a firefighter.

“A big thing in my life is community service,” she said. “That’s what I feel called to do. You hear a lot of negatives about how there are all these problems and nothing’s helping, but then you see all these nonprofits that are doing their best to help.”