Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Stagliano.
Hi Katie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
In 2008, when I was just nine years old, I received a cabbage seedling from the Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program. I planted my seedling in my backyard. Every day I would come out with the watering can and water it. I would fertilize the cabbage and weed around it. My family and I watched it grow and grow and grow in size. One day our neighbors told us that deer had been spotted in the neighborhood, so my grandfather and I took action. We decided to build a cage for my cabbage. My grandfather arrived with supplies in hand, and we went to work. At the end of the day, it was done. We had four wooden posts, one in every corner with chicken wire spread from one corner to another. We had built a cabbage cage. It worked. No deer ate my cabbage. When my cabbage was fully grown it weighed in at an amazing 40 pounds!
I knew my cabbage was special and it needed to find a special home. My mom contacted Fields to Families a local organization that helps farmers get crops to organizations that feed the hungry to see where I could donate my cabbage. They recommended we share my cabbage with TriCounty Family Ministries.
In May of 2008, my family and I brought my cabbage to Tri-County Family Ministries. When I walked in, I saw a huge line of people waiting for what might be the only meal they would have that day. The guests greeted me and asked if I grew the giant cabbage. When it was time to serve my cabbage to the guests, they thanked me for helping to feed them. My one cabbage helped to feed 275 people. After seeing how many people my one cabbage helped to feed, I thought about how many people can a garden feed? And that was the inspiration for me to start Katie’s Krops.
I started with a garden at my home, then my school but I quickly realized that the larger the gardens, the more gardens, the bigger the impact I could have on hunger. When I start hearing from kids across the country asking how they could help. I decided to start giving grants to other kids to start their own Katie’s Krops garden eight years ago. I have built on the model over the past fourteen years growing over 100 gardens in over 30 states across the United States and two gardens in Africa.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Over ten years ago, I remember walking up to the doors of a local soup kitchen with my mom, a basket of vegetables in hand. A sign on the door read, ‘Due to lack of funding, we’ve had to close our doors.’ I was shocked, I had donated vegetables three days prior; the soup kitchen was bustling with activity, I could have never imagined that it would be lifeless three days later. At that moment, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to be there for those who had been relying on the soup kitchen just three days earlier. And that is how I turned one of my greatest obstacles into my greatest achievement. Out of that obstacle, Katie’s Krops Dinners were born. My friends and I came together with the head of food services from my school, used the fresh vegetables from my gardens, and purchased whatever we couldn’t grow to create hot, healthy, and free meals for anyone in need in the community. The dinners were held at a local church, once a month, and we served anywhere from 150-to 200 guests. When the COVID-19 pandemic has begun, I knew we needed to do more to help the individuals and families who were struggling to put food on their tables. In March of 2020, we transitioned from the Katie’s Krops Dinners, a sit-down meal, to the Katie’s Krops Meal Distribution, a drive-thru style meal distribution where individuals received meals in to-go boxes through their car windows. These distributions were held once a week in 2020 and held bi-weekly in 2021 and 2022. Since 2020, we have served over 35,000 hot, healthy, fresh, and free meals to the Low Country.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am the Founder & Chief Executive Gardener of Katie’s Krops. The mission of Katie’s Krops is to empower youth to start and maintain vegetable gardens of all sizes and donate the harvest to help feed people in need, as well as to assist and inspire others to do the same. I started Katie’s Krops in 2008, and in the past 14 years, I am most proud of the amazing people I have met along the way and the incredible Katie’s Krops Family that we have grown!
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
On our website, www.KatiesKrops.com, you can locate our Amazon Wishlist, as well as links to monetarily support us! Monetary support for our gardens, meal distributions, and outdoor classroom is so vital to us continuing our work in our community and across the country. We can always use volunteers as well, and there is a link on our website to sign up for our volunteer list.
Contact Info:
- Email: katie@katieskrops.com
- Website: www.KatiesKrops.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katieskrops/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Nonprofit-organization/Katies-Krops-208021205915459/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/katieskrops?lang=en
Image Credits
Stacy Stagliano
