• Debby Alley of the Elgin Community Cupboard
  • Grace Baptist Church food boxes lined up for patrons
  • First-Ever Gumbo Cook-Off – HEB Team
  • Executive Director, Tresha Silva, Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry
  • Abundant produce in a high tunnel at Simple Promise Farms
  • Shepherd’s Heart Food Pantry in Taylor
  • Shepherd’s Heart Food Pantry, vehicle fleet
  • First-Ever Gumbo Cook-Off – LeJeune’s Boudin Cracklins Team
  • First-Ever Gumbo Cook-Off - Dat Creole Cook-Off Team
    First-Ever Mari Gras Gumbo Cook-Off: Dat Creole Cook-Off Team
  • First-Ever Gumbo Cook-Off - Boggy Bayou Festival Team
    First-Ever Mari Gras Gumbo Cook-Off: Boggy Bayou Festival
  • Texas WIC set up at the Elgin Farmers Market
    Texas WIC program table at the Elgin Farmers Market
  • Sustainable Food Center and their Double Up Food Bucks program
    Sustainable Food Center – Double Up Food Bucks program table at the Elgin Farmers Market
  • Bluebonnet Trails, My Plate, My Family promotion
    Bluebonnet Trails – My Plate, My Family program table at the Elgin Farmers Market
  • Olson Family Farm set up at the Elgin Farmers Market
    Olson Family Farm – Elgin Farmers Market setup
  • reusable shopping bag
    Elgin Farmers Market – market swag
  • ACC farm tour, laying hens
    ACC Sustainable Farm in Elgin – flock of hens
  • mixed greens growing under row cover at Eden East
    High tunnel greens at Eden East Farm in Bastrop
  • Bastrop Master Gardeners share their progress at Bob Bryant Park
  • Little Green Church and Soup Kitchen – Thanksgiving Celebration
  • Nourish tables at their first event to support breast health for the month of October
  • Presenting pictures to our Bastrop County Cares colleagues
  • Pastor Mary Flores – Oasis Church/Agape Food Pantry
  • First-Ever Mardi Gras Gumbo Cook-Off : LeJeune’s Team
  • First-Ever Mardi Gras Gumbo Cook-Off : Master Gardeners Team
  • Nearly 1,000 lb. of local pears
  • Summer Succotash – chef demo at the Heritage Square Farmers Market
  • Buttercrunch Lettuce freshly harvested
  • The season’s first asparagus harvest
  • VRDNT farm mixed salad greens
  • Krissy Voutas, AmeriCorps VISTA member, helps launch SNAP at the Elgin Farmers Market
  • Sample cups of sauteed butternut squash over rice

Food Connects Us

A food system is the interconnected network of everything that happens with food — where and how it is grown, processed, distributed, sold, consumed, wasted, or recovered.

Food nourishes us. We believe our food system is essential to the economic, physical, mental and social well-being of our community. To positively impact our Bastrop County residents’ health outcomes, we are focused on 6 sectors or key influence areas of our food system.

As a mostly rural county in our five-county metro region, many mistakenly believe that Bastrop County is a significant producer of local food. While there are Bastrop County farms that do supply area farmer’s markets and restaurants, the fact is only 5.3 % of the food grown in Bastrop County is being sold in local markets (USDA Agricultural Marketing Service #).  Nourish hopes to help increase that percentage through the work of our initiative and the work of the residents of Bastrop County.* 

If this work is something that you’re passionate about, scroll down below and click on the Join the Coalition button. We also have a Coalition Survey linked at the bottom of our page under the Get Involved header. This survey is action oriented for those that have specific skills, expertise and projects they’d like to see the coalition work on. 

For those looking for resources, we have a community calendar that lists the food pantries, free hot meals, farmers markets, farms, etc. that you can click on at the bottom of the page. We will also have seasonal recipes as we evolve and grow. Stay tuned for more information!

Mission Statement:  To collectively create a healthier, more sustainable, and just food system to improve the lives of people in Bastrop County and surrounding communities.

Vision Statement: We envision a community based effort that brings together food cycle stakeholders and community members of varying cultures, tastes and budgets to create a sustainable food system that can nourish us today and for generations to come.

Join the Coalition

Get Involved

Nourish is working on building its member capacity, identifying areas of need, and prioritizing community projects. We envision a community-based effort that brings together food cycle stakeholders and members of varying cultures, tastes and budgets to create a sustainable food system that can nourish us today and for generations to come. If you’re interested in this kind of work, please fill out the survey by following the link below. This survey is designed to get the right folks working in sectors of interest that are most meaningful to them.

Want to join us? We meet Thurdays at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom. Click here to get involved with Nourish.

Resources

Nourish Newsletter Archive
July 2023
October 2023
January 2024

Community Calendar

Seasonal Recipes

Keep checking out this space for recipe inspiration from our local collaborators.


Nourish Seasonal Recipe Archive

Thank you to the Texas Center for Local Food, Texas Farmers Market, and VRDNT Farm  for their permission to share the recipes from their websites

Key Influence Areas

Where our food comes from – how it’s grown, processed, distributed, and sold. Improve efficiencies, capacities and sustainability of local producers and supporting businesses.

Who struggles with enough to eat.
Supply nourishment to those in need.

What impact food has on our health.
Improve community health through increased awareness and education regarding food-health connections.

How our food supply is negatively impacted by food waste and positively impacted by food recovery.
Waste less and use more.

How our food system does or does not work for every member of our community.
Encourage equitable food systems that support the needs of all our community’s cultures.

How our food system responds to disruptions. Participate in planning for prevention, response and recovery.

*Work CitedUSDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Food and Agriculture Data Explorer. Food and Agriculture Data Explorer, https://localfoodeconomics.com/data/food-and-agriculture-data-explorer/.