WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)—The All Hands Cultural Community Center is celebrating a big win today after unveiling the new Green Paradise Garden in an effort to feed those in the community that might not have the means to do so themselves.

You do have to register in order to use the garden, and Facility and Youth Program Director, Ronnie Williams, said if you don’t know how to tend to a garden, they’ll teach you all you need to know.

With spring right around the corner, officials with All Hands partnered up with Abilene Recovery Center to bring something much needed to the east side, the Green Paradise Garden.

“We have a lot of people in our community that don’t have resources for food and I have people walking down my street daily, so we decided to put in a garden here to make sure they get the nutrients and things they need,” Williams said.

Williams said they’ve already planted collard greens, green onions even cauliflower among many other vegetables, something he said wouldn’t be possible without the help from the health department as well as Abilene Recovery.

“All Hands Community Center brought the land together, the health department, the Wichita Falls Health Department was able to come in and collaborate with us, and then we brought on Abilene Recovery Center, the group that funded it, so it’s been a blessing since day one,” Williams said.

Program Director of the Community Coalition Partnership, Ashley Simpson, said not only can this garden provide food, but it can also be an escape from any stress you may be dealing with.

“After COVID-19 there was a lot of stress here in our community and this ended up being a food desert, so we were able to provide some funds to present a garden here and what we wanted to do was provide an opportunity for people to reduce stress, address their trauma and get more involved in their community,” Simpson said.

Willaims said if you don’t have a green thumb, don’t let that stop you from coming out.

“What we try to do is have a demonstration garden where we teach people how to garden, so maybe they can take it home and grow fresh vegetables themselves,” Williams said.

Growing fresh vegetables while growing the east side community, in hopes that one day it will flourish like before.

For more information on how to register for the garden or if you would like to donate your time or money towards a great cause, click here.