Fort Worth Medical Students Plan to Feed the Homeless Using Sustainably Grown Food

FORT WORTH – Nestled quietly inside a community garden plot, Sereena Jivraj, a first-year medical student at the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, is slowly building a crop of fresh vegetables.

In the near future she hopes to feed a portion of the homeless population in Fort Worth with produce from the garden located at the University of North Texas Health Science Center campus.

“When you tell people to eat better, they aren’t going to know what that is,” Jivaraj said. “You have to meet them where they are and understand where they are coming from.”

The Office of Student Affairs at the Fort Worth medical school obtained a garden plot through the HSC Community Garden, which Jivraj and seven other first-year medical students have volunteered to maintain.

“The garden is a good opportunity to be able to take my mind off of school and focus on something new from time-to-time and kind of embrace the outdoors,” Jivraj said. “Also, we are able to send produce to locals in the community so knowing that is also something that drives me to do it.”

When the medical students took over the plot in Fall 2020, there were already a few plants such as potatoes, corn, eggplant already growing. It was all harvested and donated to a local food bank and a research center.

Jivraj, a native of Miami, Florida, didn’t have a green thumb prior to arriving in Fort Worth in July 2020. Since her arrival to the medical school, she’s become an avid gardener in her spare time.

She regularly maintains the SOM Community Garden plot and so far, has planted Brussels sprouts, bok choy (Chinese white cabbage), kale, lettuce and greens on her own. Her classmates have also planted watermelon, squash and peppers. Once they have a big enough harvest, the goal is to begin donating the produce to the homeless shelters near downtown Fort Worth.

“The cool thing about it is that we are allowed to plant whatever we want to plant and distribute it to whomever we want,” Jivraj said.

That falls in line with HSC’s mission to use the garden to enhance university and community engagement, promote sustainable food production, and educate others on health and nutrition among others initiatives. One of the key goals of the community garden is to donate a portion, of at least 25% of the yield, to the local community.

The garden currently has 35 (4’x12′) plots that are maintained by faculty, staff and students.