Author: Advyon

For 2014, it is our honor to officially announce the Katie’s Krops Growers of the Year and the Katie’s Krops Volunteer of the Year. These outstanding young ladies have gone above and beyond to help end hunger in their communities. We are extremely proud to have them as part of our growing family. In addition to the title of ‘Grower of the Year’ and ‘Volunteer of the Year,’ they will receive a scholarship for their higher education.

Katie’s Krops Growers of the Year

Erika and Shawna Hettick from Washington State have been growing with Katie’s Krops for the past three years. Together, these sisters are a powerful team that have been actively growing an end to hunger in their community and positively growing the footprint of Katie’s Krops by expanding their efforts and the impact that they could make outside of the garden. After Shawna attended the inaugural Katie’s Krops Camp, she was empowered to help Katie’s Krops beyond her community. The sisters traveled to meet one of our wonderful sponsors, First Fruits Marketing of Washington, in their home state. In addition to reaching out to personally thank the wonderful people who are helping us grow, they have also helped us secure new grant funding and encouraged our Founder, Katie, to apply for the Prudential Community of Spirit Awards, which she went on to win. Their passion for Katie’s Krops has truly helped us grow!

Katie’s Krops Volunteer of the Year

Arden McNeill volunteered at our very first Katie’s Krops Dinner almost four years ago. Little did we know that night how our dinner model would grow, reaching on average 150 people per dinner. From the moment we served  our first hot and healthy meal to the people in need in the Lowcountry, Arden has rarely missed the opportunity to help at a dinner. When a family vacation conflicted with a Katie’s Krops Dinner, she persuaded her father to postpone their vacation so that she could attend and help at the dinner. Arden is a valuable volunteer in the kitchen and in the dining room. For her dedication to feeding the Lowcountry, Arden is our volunteer of the year!    

To all of our wonderful Lowcountry Supporters, 

We need your help. As you know, our mission at Katie’s Krops is to empower our youth and fight hunger in our community one vegetable garden at a time. Over the past five years, our flagship garden has produced over 7,760 pounds of healthy fresh food for families and individuals in need in our community. Our produce is grown with love by kids with very big hearts.

The residential area surrounding our garden is being developed at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, this development has eliminated the natural habitat for the deer in the area and, as a result, the deer have ravaged our garden this season. Since our first season in 2009, we have never seen damage to this extent. We have tried every method possible to prevent the deer from eating our plants. Nothing has worked. In order to keep growing, we need to fence in the garden as soon as possible.

Due to the large size of the garden area, which is roughly the size of a football field, we are expecting the material and installation costs for the fence to be quite high. As a not-for-profit, paying for this fence will be a challenge. So, how do we plan on raising the funds? We are going to swim our way to a new garden fence! On Tuesday, July 29th, we are hosting the First Annual ‘Dive In to End Hunger’ event to build a garden fence at the Pine Forest Country Club Pool starting at 4pm.

Swimmers of all ages and abilities are welcome to participate in this fun and healthy fundraising event! How can you participate?

– Complete the Katie’s Krops ‘Dive In to End Hunger’ Registration form and send it to us (see details on the form) as soon as possible. Spots are limited. Registration forms should be submitted by Thursday, July 24th.

-Register as an individual swimmer or gather your friends and co-workers to create a relay team, which will swim during the last event of the night.

–Gather donations using the Donation Sheet. Katie’s Krops is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. Donations are tax deductable as allowed by law. Checks should be made out to Katie’s Krops (Katie with a K and Krops with a K).

-Come out and swim on Tuesday, July 29th! The event will run from 4pm to 9 pm. Swimmers will be assigned a time to swim.

-Prizes will be awarded to the top Individual and Relay Team fundraisers.  The winners will be determined by the donation monies that are turned in at the ‘Dive In to End Hunger’ event on Tuesday, July 29, 2014.

We hope you can help us swim our way to a new fence and help kids continue to grow a healthy end to hunger in our community! 

Please join us at the Katie’s Krops dinner table on Thursday, January 23rd at 6:00 p.m. The garden to table dinner will be held at Summerville Baptist Church, located at 417 Central Avenue, in Summerville, South Carolina. The dinner is always hot, healthy and FREE. Everyone is welcome at the Katie’s Krops dinner table. All of our dinners are based on the harvest from our gardens. Every meal is prepared and served by our young Katie’s Krops Crew.

We need your support to continue to empower youth, to provide healthy meals to those who are facing challenging times in the new year. You can make a donation using the ‘Contribute’ button, or by visiting our ‘Support Our Cause’ page, or by visiting our our ‘Wish List’. Your support is greatly apprecaited, and necessary, in order to allow us to keep feeding the Lowcountry. Every donation truly helps.

We are very excited to announce a new partnership that will help us continue to grow. Starting today, October 9th, BI-LO and Dole will support our efforts to empower kids to end hunger, one vegetable garden at a time. For the next two-weeks, everytime you purchase three pounds, or more, of Dole Banannas at your local BI-LO store, a donation will be made to Katie’s Krops. When you stop by buy to purchase your Dole Banannas, we would love if you could stop by the BI-LO customer service counter and thank them for helping us grow. This promotion will run until October 22nd. A big thank you to BI-LO and Dole for supporting our efforts.

Three years ago, our Founder, Katie, who at the time was only 12-years-old, attempted to make a delivery of fresh produce from her Katie’s Krops Gardens to the only full-time soup kitchen in Summerville. She found a note on the door which read that due to financial issues, the soup kitchen had to shut their doors. Knowing how many people in our community needed access to free, healthy meals, Katie, along with the support of her friends, teachers, parents and the head of food services at her school, created ‘The Katie’s Krops Dinner,’ a garden to table dinner for anyone in need of a healthy meal.

Over the course of three years, these dedicated young volunteers, who themselves prepare, cook and serve every meal, have provided a healthy and free meal to thousands of individuals in need in our community. On average now, the young Katie’s Krops Crew serves 120 people per dinner. Every meal is based on the harvest from the Katie’s Krops gardens and is healthy, well balanced and free and everyone is always welcome to join us at the Katie’s Krops Dinner table!

Please join us at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 22nd at Summerville Baptist Church as we celebrate the three year anniversary of the Katie’s Krops Dinner. In addition to a free, healthy, garden to table dinner, we will host a children’s book giveaway and a cake walk. Summerville Baptist is located at 417 Central Avenue in Summerville, South Carolina.

Join us as we celebrate how youth in our community have come together to create a positive change through one garden, one dinner, and one healthy meal at a time.