What-a-surprise
Texas burger chain aids food bank farm damaged by hail storm
![Students in the South Plains Food Bank GRUB Program plant flowers around the sidewalk leading to one of the greenhouses on site at the food bank farm Tuesday in southeast Lubbock. [Madeline Oden for A-J Media]](/gcdn/authoring/2019/07/16/NLAJ/ghows-TX-8dd42d92-3c7f-2cbb-e053-0100007f2e48-80cc38b9.jpeg?width=300&height=400&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Burgers, manpower and money came in handy Tuesday after a hail storm last month devastated the South Plains Food Bank's teaching farm.
Whataburger surprised the South Plains Food Bank with a donation of $1,000 to help the organization rebuild the food bank’s GRUB - or Growing Recruits for Urban Business - farm, which sustained heavy hail damage in a June 24 storm.
Whataburger also provided free lunch and helping hands for the employees and students in the GRUB program farm at 76th Street and Avenue B.
The morning after the hail storm, GRUB members went to harvest the crops but found large holes left in them from the hail. After discovering the damaged crops, 15-year-old Ashley Eastling said she felt as though her hard work had been undone.
“It was a little upsetting because we spent a lot of time planting and tending to them and then it was all destroyed in just one night,” Eastling said.
The GRUB members helped plant what few resources the farm had left, but wasn’t sure what to expect.
“We saw what happened on the news and the SPFB has been an established partner with us for many years, so we wanted to make sure we could provide them support in their time of
need,” said Alison Kennedy, the brand developer for Whataburger in West Texas.
Jenifer Smith is the Director of the Farm, Orchard and GRUB divisions of the food bank and worked with Whataburger to make the surprise possible for the GRUB members.
“We are grateful for the support from Whataburger,” Smith said. “I think sometimes the kids feel small here. We are just a little tiny farm and no one knows about us, then somebody as big as Whataburger comes in and it really boosts their confidence.”
With the donation, the GRUB program will be able to rebuild areas that were damaged and buy more crops to plant in place of the ones destroyed in the storm.
The GRUB program lets area students get practical community service skills through farm work. The large variety of crops grown at the farm helps supplement the South Plains Food Banks' offerings.
