EVANGELINE PARISH — An Evangeline Parish greenhouse is getting rebuilt from the ground up with help from the community. The owner of that greenhouse is Turkey Creek's mayor. He's now getting help from the same community he serves.
Prairie Culture Farms has provided local produce to Evangeline Parish for 2 years. However, that's now on hold after hurricanes Laura and Delta damaged their greenhouse.
"It's a tangled mess over there," mayor Phillip Cavins said. He's starting from scratch to rebuild the greenhouse.
"We were averaging about 400 to 500 head lettuce out of that greenhouse a week," Cavins said. He added, "We were averaging about 60 to 120 pounds of tomatoes a week out of that greenhouse to supply our community."
It was originally created after Cavins says he saw a need for fresh produce grown locally.
Now after the storms, his community sees the business is in need of help.
"Eight volunteers came out," Cavins said. "We were able to install of the hoops. We did the farming for some of our cement slab and everything. Just a great group of people coming out and helping one another."
He added, "We didn't think that our local produce made that big of a difference in our community. Whenever they (residents) couldn't buy it anymore they reached out to us. Asking, 'how can we help?' The outpouring of support was just overwhelming and we're blessed with a great community and customers. "
That generosity is helping the business stay afloat and continue serving local produce for the future.
"We were praying for a sign of if it was meant for us to rebuild or not," Cavins said. "Then the community just started reaching out just wanting to help. They wanted to organize a work day with us. It did my heart good to see our community come together as one and help their neighbor out."
If you'd like to help volunteer follow Prairie Culture Farms facebook page for updates on the next volunteer opportunity.
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