By Shelby Peck | Copy Editor
Every fall, the yard of Central Christian Church is transformed into a sea of orange pumpkins, welcoming thousands of visitors from across the Waco area. Since 2006, “Waco’s Pumpkin Patch Church” has given the community an opportunity to form fall traditions while supporting local missions.
Each October, two-and-a-half semi-trucks carrying over 200,000 pounds of pumpkins arrive at Central Christian. The church community then unloads and stages nearly 15,000 pumpkins and gourds in the span of a few hours.
“Unload days I describe as a beautiful chaos. There are people from [age] two to 82 that show up to help,” Rev. Kristin Jack, minister to families at Central Christian Church, said. “It’s hard work. You find muscles you didn’t know you had — we call them our pumpkin muscles. … It’s so much fun and we try to include everybody.”
Open every day in October from 10 a.m. to dusk, the pumpkin patch welcomes visitors and families of all ages to take pictures and purchase pumpkins for decoration or carving. The pumpkin patch also hosts field trips for school groups and daycares, where children listen to a pumpkin story, go on a scavenger hunt and learn how pumpkins grow.
Jack said various jobs include passing pumpkins, filling wheelbarrows and unloading the semi-trucks. Having participated in the pumpkin patch since she began her position in 2007, she said it is special to watch those in the children’s ministry grow up and be able to participate in different ways.
The pumpkin patch originally began as a fundraiser to fully fund a home through Habitat for Humanity. Proceeds from the patch now benefit Central Christian’s children and youth ministry, as well as many other local causes.
“Sixty percent of what we sell goes directly back to the farm,” Beverly Taub, minister to families assistant at Central Christian Church, said. “Then we keep 40%, but of that 40%, 10% goes to Mission Waco, 10% goes to an organization called Kids Against Hunger … We also help cover some of the costs for an event we do for kids with special needs where we provide a sensory-friendly environment to take pictures with Santa, then the rest helps pay for kids [and] youth curriculum and offsets the cost for church camp and mission trips.”
Jack said the pumpkin patch has many photo opportunities, but a particular favorite is the bench in the middle of the patch, where many families have taken an annual picture for the past 10 or 12 years. She said Central Christian loves that they “get to be part of a family tradition.”
“The pumpkin patch is so lovely. You get to meet people in the community and you get to interact with them, and it really is a community-wide event because a lot of the money that we make goes directly to support other people,” Taube said.
Of the 15,000 pumpkins, Jack said only a few hundred will remain by the end of October. Local ranchers collect old pumpkins throughout the month to feed their livestock, including pigs and chickens. Jack said cows especially love pumpkins, as “a pumpkin to a cow is like candy to a kid.” Mushy pumpkins are also put to use by Cameron Park Zoo.
“Elephants love them. They feed them to the lions — the lions push them around like they’re a basketball; it’s really funny. We have a zookeeper that’s a member of our church, so she’ll send us videos of animals with the pumpkins,” Jack said. “Every pumpkin gets put to use. There aren’t any that are just thrown in the trash.”
Jack said the motto of the pumpkin patch is “more than a pumpkin,” highlighting the various missions to which proceeds go and the community cultivated through the patch.
“If you want a pumpkin, you can go to a grocery store or Walmart or wherever and buy a pumpkin, but when you come here … your purchase goes to support lots of really wonderful things,” Jack said. “It’s also like an experience; it’s not just a shopping thing. People make memories when they come out here.”
Jack said Central Christian is an intergenerational church ready to give college students a “home away from home” by feeding them, loving them and including them as family. She said students are more than welcome to visit the pumpkin patch as well as attend Sunday morning worship, which is held weekly at 10:30 a.m.
“When Baylor students come out, one of the things that … most people say, the feedback that we get, is just how they’ll comment on how nice the church people are that are working here. I think that when people see that, a lot of the times they come and they experience that, and that is a really true picture of who this church is,” Jack said. “This church is friendly, filled with people that are willing to serve others and include people in things. We love that people come, and they come to belong.”
