OC, Atmos plant fruit trees to extend pantry
Apr. 27—With Willie the Wrangler and Gus the Gopher (with no one inside the costume) from Atmos Energy on hand, officials from Odessa College and Atmos Energy planted fruit trees at the northwest corner of the OC campus Thursday.
The trees will provide fresh fruit for OC students in response to students' basic needs and food insecurities. Atmos Energy and OC Student Support Services volunteers planted 20 trees including apple, pear, peach, plum, plumcot, pomegranate and apricot trees.
Kristi Clemmer, director of Support Services, said the orchard is an expansion of OC's project that includes helping students with food insecurity through its Atmos Energy Pantry Gardens. She added that it would probably take about three years to get some "good-size" fruit on the trees, but this year, they may see a small amount.
"This is the culmination of some projects that we have going on to expand our gardens around the campus. This orchard, we planted 20 fruit trees to help our students to have access to that during harvesting season," Clemmer said.
"It's really rewarding to give back to the students through the Wrangler Food Pantry.
"They have access to fresh ingredients that someone might find at a farmers' market. Their faces light up. They get really excited (that) they're able to take that food to their families," Clemmer said.
She added that Atmos has been an amazing partner in these projects. The OC team has also put in many volunteer hours to keep the gardens going and mange the projects.
"They (Atmos) provided us with funding to start our project three years ago. Since then, they supported us every step of the way and supported our expansion efforts. They're here today to help us plant the trees, so we just really appreciate the partnership," Clemmer said.
There are two garden locations now. The second garden will double the size of OC's "vegetable footprint," Clemmer said.
"We grow all kinds of ... vegetables year-round," she added.
Once the trees are established, they might be put in pockets around the campus.
"We'd like to grow vegetables kind of all around in different areas. One of the things that we're looking at is expanding into a pumpkin area; the students would really like that; as well as a watermelon area because those take up so much more room. We'd like it to be as they walk around, they're aware of what we have for them on the campus," Clemmer said.
Since the food pantry opened, they have served about 1,200 students, she said. The Wrangler Pantry is open year-round.
Andrea Goodson, Atmos manager of public affairs, said OC does a lot for the community and it makes sense for Atmos Energy to partner with them as they both have the same goal of giving back.
Goodson added that Odessa College's pantry garden is not only helping address food insecurity on campus, but in the community. It's also teaching them self-sufficiency.
She added that Atmos is always open to partnering with OC.
"I think that what Odessa College is doing is fantastic. They are leading the community in this pantry garden and helping set the example, set the tone of what the entire community and everybody wants to be doing," Goodson said.
