Burnett School of Medicine at TCU Students Are Planting Seeds To Help Revitalize The COMO Community Garden

FORT WORTH – If you take a ride down Camp Bowie Boulevard that runs through the COMO neighborhood in Fort Worth you might see residents pushing carts along the sidewalk filled with food.

They’ve likely taken a mile-long trek to a food bank in search of healthier food options.

“That really breaks my heart,” Sandra Stanley, Ph.D., CEO & Founder of Opening Doors For Women In Need said. “They are just trying to make it just trying to survive.”

There are an estimated 280,000 Fort Worth residents living in a food desert, which is defined by being situated a mile or more from a full-service grocery store, according to the Tarrant County Food Desert Project. To get affordable and healthier foods, residents without transportation in COMO must find a way to travel at least a mile outside of their neighborhood.

COMO is located in 76107 area code of East Fort Worth and has 31,591 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The neighborhood is a little more than one-mile long in all four directions but only has three grocery stores (Tom Thumb, Natural Grocers, and Central Market) that carry fresh produce.

A lot of residents will venture outside of the neighborhood to find more affordable grocery stores, Stanley added.

“A lot of our community goes to Walmart marketplace because it’s more affordable for them,” Stanley said. “The local little stores we call them the corner stores they don’t have vegetables.”

Stanley is a longtime COMO resident who also runs the COMO Community Garden at the corner of Humbert Avenue and Prevost Street. She is trying to reduce the need of residents traveling outside the community for fresh food by offering what is in her garden for free.

“We harvest a lot and take it to the senior center or anyone can have it the gates are always open,” Stanley said.

Keeping the gates open is simple. However, keeping the garden fertile and growing crops has been a challenge. After the COVID-19 Pandemic made social distancing more common, the number of volunteers at the community garden dropped off, Stanley added.

“We’re just trying to keep our doors open and survive,” Stanley said.

HELP FROM AN UNEXPECTED PLACE

The help Stanley needed came from a place she least expected. During a health event at the COMO Community Center (CAC), she had her blood pressure checked by Ric Bonnell, M.D., Assistant Professor at Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University.

“We hit it off really good and I started talking to him about our non-profit (Opening Doors For Women In Need) and that’s when he said let’s work together,” Stanley said.

Through the Service Learning & Community Engagement curriculum at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, Dr. Bonnell was able to connect medical students with Stanley.

The interconnectedness of food and health is something that resonated heavily with Whitaker Reid, MS-2 at Burnett School of Medicine. He lives in COMO and previously had a positive experience at a different community garden prior to starting medical school.

“I saw the impact that had especially for individuals who are food insecure,” Reid said. “When I saw the opportunity to do a social impact challenge here at TCU I thought we have something right here in our backyard and it’s just waiting to be given extra time, love and attention.”

Before putting hands in the dirt and boots on the ground, Whitaker felt it was important to meet Stanley and listen.

“He was very, very sensitive and asked me what I wanted to see and what I needed help with and listened to what I needed,” Stanley said.

This is a lesson in empathy and communication that medical students can benefit from as they grow into Empathetic Scholars® and future physicians.

“Learning to communicate with patients and understanding their story is a huge part of medicine that gets overlooked,” Dr. Bonnell said. “Doing service learning projects gives them the opportunity to meet their patients outside of the hospital setting and understand them as people. That way when they see them in the hospital they have a better perspective on how to provide care.”

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

In the spring, Reid and a group of medical students began helping Stanley revitalize the community garden to prepare for a summer harvest. Students planted tomatoes, peppers, squash, onions, greens and a few marigolds around to help keep the bugs away.

“We know how busy that they are studying for them to take time and come and help us it makes my heart warm,” Stanley said.

Through the Service Learning & Community Engagement curriculum Reid was able to apply to the medical school’s Social Impact Program and receive a grant from the Brumley Fund to purchase new gardening tools, pots and soil for the garden.

“That’s all for this community to benefit from,” Reid said.

He plans to help Stanley create an irrigation system and, hopefully, a little greenhouse to have year-round planting at the garden.

“But right now it’s just getting the garden prepped and showing commitment to being involved in this community,” Reid said.