“Planting seeds of hope,
harvesting futures.”
Panther Community Market
This picture was taken on our Grand Opening Day, October 10th, 2024. We received our very first Tarrant Area Food Bank order of 3,000lbs+ and it arrived at 6am the day we opened. These students and volunteers were committed to seeing our Panther Community Market open on time to serve our community! It truly takes a village!
We launched our Panther Community Market in October in partnership with Tarrant Area Food Bank. Our first month we were only open to Paschal Families, our second month we were open to our Pyramid, and our third month on we were open to our entire community! From October 2024 through April 2025 we had 692 Visits to the market. Breaking down that number, we served 224 different families through the Panther Community Market this year! The Market is free and available to anyone who needs it. In collaboration with TAFB we are combatting food insecurity in our neighborhood. This is our Panther Community Market therefore, students, community partners, and parent volunteers help keep it stocked, clean, and ready to serve our community!
Thanksgiving Support
WOW! Our community showed up and showed out this year for Thanksgiving support! All Athletic teams, AVID, Texas Association of Future Educators, Junior Optimist International Club, National Honor Society, Durham Pecan, & Neighborhood groups gathered nonperishable items, donated boxes, donated bags, and collected items. Together we collected enough to pack 70 boxes with Thanksgiving food plus a full bag of groceries. The extra groceries help while students are home during Thanksgiving break! We even had some nonperishable items leftover that we were able to put in our Panther Community Market. Through generous donations Harvest Project was also able to give a gift card of $15 that was included in each Thanksgiving Box to go towards the purchase of a turkey, ham, or pork for Thanksgiving. This year we were able to serve 70 families across our Pyramid for Thanksgiving!
“Thank you for making this Christmas a very special one for my kids. We are so grateful for people like you who give to those who are going through a rough patch. Thank you and may God multiply back what you give to others. ”
Adopt A Panther
In December 2024 we were able to serve 62 families across our Pyramid. Together we brought Christmas joy to 198 kids. This was all possible because of the 90+ volunteers who sign up to support Adopt A Panther. We have volunteers who sign-up to “adopt” a Panther for Christmas, from helping collect Christmas Gifts, organizing rooms of Christmas sacks, decorate for the Christmas Drive Thru event, to all the little things in between. We could not do this without generous people who give of their time and of their finances. We want to give a huge shoutout to University Baptist Church who graciously allowed us to store items and use their space to make this all possible! It was such a blessing to partner with them for the first time this year.
“More than anything, I appreciate knowing that someone cared enough to lovingly shop for my children. Knowing kindness enveloped my family was the balm my heart needed to really enjoy the love and peace of the season. Thank you.”
Care Closet
Room 131 holds our Paschal Care Closet and our Panther Community Market. Students can come by whenever they need to grab something. This can be a snack to hold them over before lunch, clothes because they got caught in the rain, undergarments and feminine products whenever needed, deodorant if they forgot theirs and they had athletics, toothpaste and toothbrushes if they had to unexpectedly sleep somewhere other than their home, school supplies, and they can even come in and get laundry soap and laundry vouchers to do their clothes. These are just simple scenarios as to why one may visit the Care Closet. There are more complicated scenarios where students come in and get items they need because they were kicked out of their home, a guardian lost a job, or maybe they are considered homeless and need access to basic needs. We believe ALL students should have access to these basic necessities with no questions asked. This year we had 8,044 visits to the Care Closet. When combing through the data, we served 948 different students this year meaning we served 45% of the Paschal Community.
Next Steps
Our Next Steps program steps in when a family needs a little extra support through financial resources. This may look like providing transportation for a student who may need it. That could be a bike or city bus passes depending on their circumstances. This could look like providing Laundry Vouchers + Laundry Supplies so that a family can gain access to clean clothing. This could even look like Harvest Project stepping in to cover a utility bill or rent one month. Our goal is to be able to give a family a hand up in a time of need while ensuring that a students basic needs are met. When a student is always worried about where they are going to stay, what are they going eat, how are they getting to school or work, or how they will shower without water when that bill is past due they cannot concentrate in class. We step in to relieve the weight of worry where we can. This year we were able to provide Next Step services 114 times. We were able to serve 29 students and families with rent or utility support this year.
“I told her I did need help with transportation since I live in an area where we don’t have school buses. She was able to provide me with Bus Passes so I could ride the city bus. After a while, she just started getting me weekly bus passes. The good news is, I have been able to make it to school now. I am glad we have a Care Closet to help with transportation.”
Annual Luncheon
Our Harvest Project Annual Luncheon typically takes place the last week of April or first week of May. This is a sweet time for our Harvest Project Family to gather and celebrate the success of the year and dream about what is to come! It’s a great time of fellowship while raising funds to continue to support Paschal students and families for the following school year. This year we had the privilege of hearing from Mr. Gary Brown, the first ever student who was serviced through Harvest Project 11 years ago. He is now a phenomenal speaker who is gifted with many talents. We were so blessed to get to hear part of his testimony and the role that Harvest Project played in his life. This year we sold out of tickets and we had a fundraising goal of $20,000. We added seats and surpassed our goal reaching $25,000! Imagine how many more families we will be able to support this next school year because of such generous donations! Huge shoutout to each and every Harvest Project Donor. Harvest Project would not exist without you.
What’s Your Next Step?
Maybe you are asking yourself how you can get involved with Harvest Project. Look no further than sending an email to Casondra.Castillo@fwisd.org and ask how you can get involved today!
Volunteer Opportunities:
- Mondays: Unload, Prep, and organize Snacks and Care Closet for the week
- Tuesdays: Unload our Tarrant Area Food Bank truck of around 3,000lbs of food and stock the shelves
- Thursdays: Volunteer in our Community Market!
- Become a Bin Buddy! Great for small groups of people wanting to get involved together.
- You can even donate your gently used teen approved clothing!
