Opal’s Farm student ambassador educates community on food insecurity, climate change

To battle food insecurity, advocate for climate change response and attract volunteers and investors, one teen volunteers with Opal’s Farm as the student ambassador.

Maitri Kovuru, 17, is a rising senior at Fort Worth’s Paschal High School who first volunteered for Opal’s Farm in 2020 with her Key Club chapter.

“After that, I started developing more of an interest in what effect that farms like Opal’s were having on the environment,” Kovuru said.

Opal’s Farm, named after 95-year-old Fort Worth activist Opal Lee, who led the charge to make Juneteenth a national holiday, is a nonprofit urban farm at 2500 Lasalle St., just east of downtown near the Trinity River. The farm’s goals are to grow and distribute fresh produce, address food deserts, and provide surrounding areas with better health and well-being. The farm, founded in 2019, uses 100% organic methods, with special care given to soil conservation and the environment, its website says.

The Key Club stopped going to Opal’s Farm, but Kovuru wanted to keep going, she said.

“I think everyone needs to take some sort of action if we are going to create a change systemically and make the norm be things that are good for the climate and good for the environment, if we’re going to improve things,” Kovuru said.

Kovuru said volunteering for the farm enough to become its student ambassador was fulfilling. She said her main goal is to change the mindset of the people she talks to, inspire and educate others.

“I’m able to have access to events and areas where I can talk about what I’ve learned, where people are willing to listen and further their knowledge on the subject, and then hopefully, eventually act on it, if it’s something that they resonate with,” she said.

Farm manager Greg Joel said Kovuru approached him about doing some volunteering. He and others at the farm quickly agreed Kovuru would make a great student ambassador, he said.

Joel said one of Kovuru’s jobs is to give presentations on why Opal’s Farm exists and its mission to combat food insecurity and practice regenerative farming, which can help restore the soil.

Some of these presentations were given to support-based groups such as Young Women’s Leadership Academy and companies like Chase Bank. Most recently, Kovuru and Joel presented at the Growing Healthy Communities conference. The conference was hosted on July 16 by the Tarrant Area Food Bank.

Stacey Harwood, volunteer coordinator for Opal’s’ Farm, said Kovuru has been looking to identify areas of problems in the world, including the environment.

Harwood said last spring, students with the Young Women’s Leadership Academy came to the farm with about 200 people. Kovuru helped direct them and showed them what to do in different areas of the farm, Harwood said.

Harwood said people were planting fruits and vegetables, weeding and selling woodchips.

Kovuru also helps with attracting young volunteers.

“Kids will listen to their peers,” Joel said. “They’re apt to not listen to an older guy like me telling them how wonderful it is and what we can do. She’s the perfect person for it.”

Harwood doesn’t speak the same language as teenagers like Kovuru can, she said.

“I don’t know exactly what to go in to say to spark their interest to want to come out and be a part of our farm and make a difference in food insecurity and in Fort Worth and Tarrant County,” Harwood said.

Joel appreciates Kovuru’s passion for the farm and the environment. He said it’s her generation that will reap what his sowed when it comes to the climate.

“It’s her generation that gets stuck with the mess that my generation made, and generations prior, but especially with our refusal, outright refusal sometimes, to believe that climate change was real early on,” Joel said.

Harwood said Kovuru has done a lot for the farm as she goes into her senior year.

“She’s just an incredible human being,” Harwood said. “This is not just because she’s intellectually smart, but because she has this really big heart. And she cares about people and the environment. And she really, truly believes in helping everyone, especially through helping the environment.“