South Dallas, affectionately and often referred to by residents as “Sunny South Dallas,” has always been a vibrant area with a rich history. Tucked just below the Dallas city center, South Dallas is the birthplace of the likes of Grammy-winning artist, Erykah Badu, anti-apartheid activist, Desmond Tutu and the prominent Church of God in Christ Bishop, Charles E. Blake. For plenty of the right reasons, South Dallas has earned its place on the map as a cultural hub, worthy of respect.
Still, for some of the wrong reasons, South Dallas has gained a reputation for hardship. Part of South Dallas’s history includes an all but consistent battle with significant challenges, almost all of which have been rooted in generations of underinvestment, overwhelming divestment and the consequences thereof. While things have improved in recent years, with outside and city investments coming into Fair Park and therefore the neighboring blocks, South Dallas still faces challenges related to housing, crime, infrastructure, and limited access to certain amenities – including fresh and nutritious food.
Plagued with an issue that has led to a prevalence of chronic disease and lower life expectancy of residents, grassroots organizations have found themselves attempting to solve an issue that major grocers and the city has, for more than one reason, been unable, and arguably, unwilling to solve.
The Oak Cliff Veggie Project (OCVP), a nonprofit organization that believes in the power of the community, is one such entity working to address this issue by providing fresh produce and promoting food self-sufficiency in South Dallas. Founded in 2015 by Betty Montgomery as the Veggie Store, OCVP would just a year later become an incorporated non-profit focused on feeding and healing the people of South Dallas.
Betty’s son and OCVP Executive Director, Ples Montgomery, told the Dallas Weekly that his mother founded OCVP when she “got a word that said she needed to feed the community.” Ples says that the family immediately jumped on board, seeing Betty’s passion for the idea. “We got some family funds together, ordered a bunch of fresh produce from an online food co-op and put a sign in front of St. Luke Presbyterian church that said ‘fresh produce here’ and that was the beginning.”
Almost 10 years later, Oak Cliff Veggie Project distributes fresh fruits and vegetables to residents in need of nutrient-dense foods several times a month. Their giveaways always include local produce cultivated from a neighborhood garden and always located in a food desert.
In South Dallas, a USDA certified food desert, many residents struggle to consistently access nutritious food. Residents in food deserts like South Dallas often rely on convenience stores and fast-food chains for meals, leading to a diet high in processed foods, unhealthy fats, and added sugars. This lack of access to fresh produce and whole grains then contributes to a range of health issues seen in communities both lacking access to nutritious meals and adequate healthcare. “Along with the food deserts, come these health disparities.
Anywhere you find this level of heart disease, hypertension, things like that, that are directly related to diet, you find, almost always, they are food deserts,” says Ples. These health conditions can ultimately reduce life expectancy and quality of life for individuals and families in the community. In fact, data recorded by UT Southwestern shows that residents living in the well-to-do areas of Uptown and East Dallas’ 75204 zip code have an average life expectancy of about 90 years, while individuals living in South Dallas’ 75215 have an average expectancy of 67.6 years.
Still, the Montgomery family believes that their work can help reverse the detrimental effects of food insecurity. “These are life threatening diseases, but they aren’t static life-threatening diseases – where there’s nothing that you can do about it, and you have to live with it your entire life,” Ples Montgomery says. “Now that we know that food can change things, rather than depending on a drug company somewhere to create a pill, we’re showing people that we can implement lifestyle things that incorporate the community and bring us closer together so that we can help heal together.”
Recently, the Oak Cliff Veggie Project was asked to participate in a partnership involving several healthcare systems, including Parkland Hospital, to trial a “Food is Medicine” program. Here, doctors choose nutrition over medication to attempt to heal certain ailments – educating patients about how to use food to send reversible diseases into remissions while partnering with local food providers to provide the prescribed produce as a first line of defense. In this partnership, Oak Cliff Veggie Project serves as a local produce provider. “We provide the local access point while doctors provide the nutrition directives, letting us know which kinds of foods we may need to provide to certain groups of people battling certain diseases.”
Betty Montgomery says that these giveaways not only provide access to essential nutrients for residents, but also education through discussions about how to best prepare the produce. “Most of us don’t know what to do with the produce when we get it, or how to prepare it so we don’t cook the nutrients out,” says Betty. “Proper preparation is key. For example, you’re not supposed to boil greens and cabbage – that cooks out a lot of the vitamins and nutrients that we need.”
Betty says that since founding the Oak Cliff Veggie Project, she has even learned about the power of preparation for produce. “My daughter has a recipe that I share with other neighbors now – a recipe for greens and cabbage. So now, I don’t boil, I steam them, and they’re so good!”
“These are life threatening diseases, but they aren’t static life-threatening diseases – where there’s nothing that you can do about it, and you have to live with it your entire life.” – Ples Montgomery
One of the most innovative aspects of the Oak Cliff Veggie Project’s work is its focus on education. The organization offers workshops and classes that teach residents how to start and maintain their own gardens. By empowering individuals to grow their own food, the project is helping to create a more sustainable and equitable food system.
However, the organization’s impact extends even beyond produce distribution and education. The Montgomery family believes the work that they do is also cultivating a sense of community interdependence while promoting an active lifestyle. “The community comes out here, and they get active,” says Ples. In today’s modern society, with increased reliance on technology and a more sedentary lifestyle, sitting for extended periods has only added to a number of health risks, including obesity and heart disease. OCVP is seeking to combat that too through community gardening. “Even if you only come out and volunteer for an hour, that’s your movement for the day. It’s more movement than most people get all week long.”
Erin Wakefield spends her Saturday mornings living this active lifestyle, with her hands in the dirt. A familiar face in the franks of the Oak Cliff Veggie Project, once a normal volunteer, Erin now leads groups of volunteers in the garden. She explained to the Dallas Weekly that she’s seen first hand the power of the organization and learned how to care for the soil to get the most nutrient-dense crops.
“One of the examples I like to give volunteers is about tomatoes,” says Wakefield. “They taste so good from a garden, but if you try to plant tomato seeds back in that same soil, they’ll come back but they aren’t going to taste as good. It’s because they have taken nutrients and vitamins out of the soil and if you don’t put them back in.”
Erin says she enjoys teaching volunteers the importance of rotating crops to prevent the depletion of specific nutrients and reduce the risk of pest and disease infestations – a practice that industrial food growers as modern farming methods often prioritize yield over nutritional quality. “We’re bringing it back down,” Erin says. “It doesn’t have to be this huge, large, global thing. Food can just be community. It can be in your own backyard.”
The Oak Cliff Veggie Project’s efforts are making a tangible difference in the lives of South Dallas residents. By providing both food and education, the organization is addressing the root causes of food insecurity and building a more resilient community. As the project continues to grow and expand its reach, it has the potential to serve as a model for other communities facing similar challenges by getting back what Ples Montgomery called the community’s “heritage and legacy”.
“We like to say that we are reintroducing a time-honored and tested practice of having community-grown food and community access and neighbors helping neighbors,” says Ples. “This is how our ancestors who created the first freedman towns survived. They had to have their own. And that’s what we’re bringing back – owning our own so that we can care for one another and help heal each other.”
North Texas Giving Day is on September 19. As the Oak Cliff Veggie Project continues to combat food insecurity in South Dallas, support is more vital than ever to the operations. By donating to the project, supporters are not just providing fresh, nutritious produce; they’re investing in the health and well-being of the community. The generosity will help Oak Cliff Veggie Project expand their programs, reach more families, and create a more sustainable and equitable food system for South Dallas.
To donate, please visit https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/organization/theoakcliffveggieproject
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.