At nine years old, Katie Stagliano-Rios had grown up listening to her dad remind the family every night at dinner how lucky they were to have food on the table when others weren’t as fortunate. Wanting to make a difference, Stagliano-Rios thought that donating a forty-pound cabbage she’d grown from a seedling might be helpful. Through Fields to Families, she and her mother, Stacy Stagliano, connected with Tri-County Family Ministries, now Neighbors Together, and contributed the giant vegetable that volunteers turned into a cabbage soup paired with ham and rice, serving 275 people.
When the director of the charitable group, Sue Hanshaw, who has since retired, remarked how rare it was to receive fresh produce rather than packaged and processed food, the gears started turning for Stagliano-Rios, who told her parents she wanted to start her own garden so that she could grow more fruits and vegetables to donate. In fourth grade, she spearheaded a project to plant a garden at her school so there would be additional food to harvest and give to the community. She also sought out a mentor through the Clemson Master Gardener program, Lisa Turocy, who taught her what crops to grow and efficient practices such as how to properly rotate them in different beds to make sure they had the nutrients they needed.
While delivering a harvest from her garden to the only full-time local soup kitchen one day in 2010, Stagliano-Rios was confronted with a notice on the door that the establishment had closed due to a lack of funding. Although she was heartbroken for the people who relied on the program, the resourceful sixth-grader was not to be deterred. With support from her classmates and the head of food services at her school, she used the fresh produce to prepare a healthy free meal. That’s how she started Katie’s Krops Dinners, a monthly seated dinner at Summerville Baptist that regularly fed 150-250 people.
These combined experiences, along with her mom’s support, led Stagliano-Rios to start the youth-based nonprofit organization, Katie’s Krops, that same year.
Throughout middle and high school, the charitable program continued to flourish. After graduating, Stagliano-Rios attended the College of Charleston so that she could stay local and maintain the momentum she’d built alongside the family, friends and community who had shared the nonprofit gardening journey with her over the years.
Now, eighteen years later, the flagship garden, located on the campus of Crossroads Community Church in Summerville, harvests upwards of 9,000 pounds of produce such as eggplant, jalapenos, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, beans, okra, butternut squash, herbs, and zucchini annually. According to Stagliano-Rios, everything the garden grows is organic with no pesticides, so that the organization can provide the most nutritious, healthy options to the community. “It’s important for everyone to know where our produce comes from and how it’s grown,” she says.
She adds that the mission, “empowering youth to start and maintain vegetable gardens and donate the harvest to those in need, as well as assist and inspire others to do the same,” is always at the forefront of her mind. As such, maximizing the harvest to make the greatest impact is the focus. “We have a lot of fun making sure that every year we can grow more and more,” she says.
Indeed, since Stagliano-Rios founded the program, Katie’s Krops has donated more than 900,000 pounds of fresh produce and served over 250,000 meals through its Garden-to-Table Dinners, which now provide meals for 750 community members each month. During the school year, students from the James Island Charter High School culinary program prepare one of the meal's featured dishes, while Chef Chris of Just Eat This Catering oversees the preparation of the protein. Dedicated family volunteers help prepare the remaining menu items, and additional volunteers assist with packaging meals, grocery items and desserts for distribution. Members of the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office also play an important role in supporting the distribution process.
From the beginning, volunteers have played an integral role in Katie’s Krops' success. Throughout the year, the core group ranges in age from 1 to 12 years old; helpers of all ages are welcome to come out several times a week to plant, harvest, weed and care for the garden. Other ways to get involved are crocheting melon hammocks, baking goods for Katie’s Krops Dinners, following katieskrops on Instagram and Katie's Krops on Facebook, donating to support the efforts and signing up for the newsletter at katieskrops.com.
Looking back on the journey, Stagliano-Rios reflects on how one gigantic cabbage, along with the encouragement of her parents and the community, changed the course of her life forever. “My absolute favorite part about working side by side with my mom would be the relationships we’ve created with our dinner guests, the individuals, and families we donate our produce to, and the organizations we partner with. They are truly like a second family, and through good times and tough times, we have created such a wonderful bond and have such love for each other.”
The Mission: Empowering youth to start and maintain vegetable gardens and donate the harvest to those in need.
Katie’s Krops has donated more than 900,000 pounds of fresh produce and served over 250,000 meals through its Garden-to-Table Dinners