South Carolina teen grows vegetables for soup kitchens and charities

Katie Stagliano distributes her garden bounty to folks in need in Summerville, S.C. Photo by Adele Starr.

Girl Finds Goodness in Gardening

By Sandy Summers
American Profile
August 2, 2011

Excerpt:

Katie Stagliano, 13, gives new meaning to the word sharecropper.

The founder of Katie’s Krops oversees six gardens that have produced tons of vegetables for soup kitchens and other charitable organizations in and around her hometown of Summerville, S.C. (pop. 43,392).

Katie’s Krops took root in 2008 when Katie brought home a cabbage seedling for a third-grade science project at Pinewood Preparatory School.

She planted the seedling in her family’s backyard garden, faithfully tended it and watched the leafy vegetable grow into a 40-pound giant. Katie hauled the colossal cabbage to a nearby soup kitchen where a long line of people waited for what might be their only meal of the day.

“She could barely carry it in,” recalls Sue Hanshaw, CEO of Tricounty Family Ministries in nearby North Charleston. “I asked her to prepare and serve it herself.”

Katie went to work. She chopped, cooked and served the cabbage over rice to help feed 275 hungry people.

Read the complete article here.