By Jennifer Whitlock
Field Editor

In the Lone Star State, 20% of children and 11% of seniors experience food insecurity—or a lack of consistent access to adequate food—every day, according to the food bank network Feeding Texas.

In Southeast Texas, those numbers are even higher. The Houston Food Bank is the nation’s largest food bank by distribution, helping an estimated 1.1 million food-insecure people across its 18-county service area.

But Brazoria County farmer Jacko Garrett has been quietly helping to feed those hungry Texans for more than 35 years. Because after all, he said, a farmer’s job is to feed people.

And he firmly believes a man reaps what he sows.

“Giving to people who are needy is something the Lord asked us to do, and I don’t think you can ever outgive Him,” Garrett said. “He’s going to make it come back in some kind of way, and we’ve been blessed my whole life. In the good times and the bad, we’ve been blessed. So, I just give because people need it, and I need to do it.”

In 1984, Garrett was farming rice with his father, John T. “Jack” Garrett Sr.

After seeing a segment on the local news about the Houston Food Bank, it occurred to him they could donate some of their rice harvest that year to help local families in need.

The Uncle Ben’s rice mill in Houston agreed to mill a truckload of rice at no cost to assist with the donation, and when word got out what the family was doing, more farmers wanted to help. The Garretts drove a grain truck to local rice dryers and picked up as much as each wanted to donate, then sent the donated bounty to Uncle Ben’s for milling. They usually averaged three or four truckloads of rice a year that way, he recalled.

Most of it went to the Houston Food Bank, although they frequently sent donations to areas hit by natural disasters both at home and abroad.

“But it was a deal where I wasn’t keeping really good records of where everything was going. So, in ’99, I established the Share the Harvest Foundation so that everything we grow is shipped to the Houston Food Bank,” he said. “They keep a record of where it comes in, how much comes in, how much goes out.”

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Now, Garrett designates a certain number of acres to grow for the food bank each year. After harvest, the rice is dried by Eagle Lake Rice Dryers and stored by Colorado County Rice Mill at no cost.

Every six weeks, about 44,500 pounds of Texas-grown rice is shipped to the Houston Food Bank in 2,000-pound “super sacks,” where it is portioned out into 2-pound bags and distributed by staff and volunteers.

When he was growing rice on more acreage, Garrett said they would send two truckloads a month, but changes in cultivation and increasing input costs have forced the family to step back some.

This year, he was able to grow 130 acres for the food bank. Fellow rice farmer and Colorado County Farm Bureau member Al Shimek grew another 45 acres of rice for the food bank, too.

But last year was one for the record books.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people than ever were relying on food banks for assistance. Before the pandemic, Houston Food Bank was distributing about 400,000 pounds of food daily. Now, it’s closer to 1 million pounds per day.

However, a large group of individuals and organizations pitched in to help share Garrett’s rice harvest with hungry families.

“This past year, because of all the troubles we were having and so many people without work and needing help, the whole industry just fell in and donated everything. We didn’t have to pay for anything in the way of chemicals, fertilizer. There were no labor costs, nothing,” Garrett, a Brazoria-Galveston County Farm Bureau member, said. “The seed, chemical and fertilizer companies just stepped up to the plate and donated 100% of what went into this crop. Lissy Flying Service and my brother’s flying service, Garrett Flying Service, didn’t charge anything for aerial applications on the crops. It’s just been a joy to see how people contribute and donate.”

The Colorado County Rice Mill added another half-truckload, or about 25,000 pounds, of milled rice to the food bank deliveries. And the Lower Colorado River Authority donated the equivalent of what it cost to irrigate 46 acres of rice, helping to stretch the foundation’s budget even further.

Many private donors stepped up, too. Any money donated to Share the Harvest is used to purchase more rice to add to the shipments sent to the food bank.

Nearly 500,000 pounds, or about 10 million servings of rice, were donated through Share the Harvest last year.

“For a food bank, rice is very, very valuable. It’s a great staple item, certainly here in the South. It keeps very well and offers good nutrition,” Houston Food Bank CEO Brian Greene said. “Food banks primarily deal in surplus or damaged goods and produce from grocery stores. And rice is not something that’s easy to mess up, so we don’t otherwise get rice like we do other foods. It’s such a staple and almost every household likes rice, so Jacko’s donations are really valuable to us and help us serve those families better.”

Packaging the rice also makes a great volunteer project, especially for school groups.

Houston Food Bank would not be as effective without the help of its average 85,000 volunteers annually, Greene noted.

“We have these large groups coming in every day, and it just enables us to do so much more,” he said. “All around the country, food banks are serving record numbers of members, and it’s been pretty tough. But with our volunteers and people like Jacko, we’ve been able to meet the needs of our service area.”

The power of one farm family to bring so much food to the table and help so many local families is awe-inspiring.

At the end of the day, though, Garrett said all the credit goes to a higher power.

“I’m just a steward of God’s blessing, because He gave me an opportunity to be able to get out of here and do what I’m doing,” he said. “Share the Harvest is a good organization, and we do a lot of good. I don’t need any accolades for that. Don’t even want it. The right hand is not supposed to know what the left hand is doing.”

If you or someone you know is interested in donating a rice crop or funds to Share the Harvest, contact Garrett’s office manager, Gina Maness, at gmaness@garrettfarms.com.

Any farmer is welcome to donate food crops directly to the Houston Food Bank, according to Greene. For questions regarding large-scale food donations, contact Ja’Terrell Moffett, product industry manager, at 281-786-2676.