FAITH IN THE FARM: Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club Returns to Morningside, Bringing Agriculture and Heritage to 76104.

 

FAITH IN THE FARM: Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club Returns to Morningside, Bringing Agriculture and Heritage to 76104. Link: https://youtu.be/1zFbKLdHgkA?is=LApmdEt9oNATp2IP

“Getting Our Hands Dirty So That Our Community Can Eat Clean.” CBS News

As part of New Mount Rose’s Faith in the Farm Initiative, children will learn to grow food, raise farm animals, explore Buffalo Soldiers history, and help nourish their community.

In Fort Worth’s 76104 ZIP code, many children may grow up without ever planting a seed, tending a garden, or seeing how fresh food makes its way from a farm to a family’s table. New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church wants to change that—not with a single garden or a one-day event, but through a connected ministry initiative that brings young people into contact with agriculture, animals, history, community service, and one another.

The church is relaunching the Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club in Morningside as part of Faith in the Farm, New Mount Rose’s signature ministry initiative. Through hands-on projects, children will learn to grow vegetables, raise chickens and other farm animals, explore science and the outdoors, and develop leadership skills. They will also learn the history and legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers.

Faith in the Farm brings together the Funkytown Food Forest, Peace From a Pallet, the Community Food Bowl, Bean to the Bank, the Big Purple Fridge, and the Royal Chicken Coop. The Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club adds a youth development framework to this work, giving children a way to learn through participation. The result is an initiative where agriculture and service meet: young people can learn about food by helping care for the places and projects that grow, store, and share it.

For Pastor Kyev Tatum, senior pastor of New Mount Rose and a former university administrator, that connection matters. A lesson about a seed can become a lesson about patience. Caring for an animal can call for responsibility and attention. Learning where food comes from can lead to questions about health, access, work, and the resources a neighborhood needs. Faith in the Farm is designed to give children room to ask those questions and discover answers through experience.

Thanks to a gift from Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization and Dr. Spencer and Jennifer Smith, In the Funkytown Food Forest, children can get their hands in the soil and learn about growing food. They can observe how plants change, see how care and time affect growth, and begin to understand the work involved in bringing produce to a table. The garden becomes a place for learning, but also for shared effort. Children can take part in the work alongside adults and other young people, gaining experience through the tasks themselves.

That kind of learning is central to 4-H. Rather than limiting education to explanations, the program gives young people meaningful opportunities to try, observe, make decisions, and learn from what happens. A young person who plants and tends a crop can experience the process directly. A student who helps care for chickens can see that animals depend on regular attention. As the projects develop, children can practice communication, cooperation, problem-solving, and goal-setting in a setting where those skills have a purpose.

The club will engage young people in agriculture and livestock, leadership and citizenship, family and community health, natural resources, and STEM. These areas can meet one another in the everyday work of Faith in the Farm. Growing vegetables brings science into the garden. Raising animals involves observation and responsibility. Food storage invites practical questions about keeping produce and other food safe. Working with neighbors calls on communication and leadership.

This combination is important in a community where children may have limited opportunities to experience farming firsthand. The goal is not simply to tell young people that agriculture matters. It is to let them take part—to plant, care, observe, ask questions, and see how the work connects to people’s lives. The projects can introduce children to skills they may not otherwise encounter before adulthood, while helping them recognize the knowledge and labor that go into producing food.

Faith in the Farm is also intended to connect what happens at the growing site with what happens across the community. The Community Food Bowl helps bring food support to local families. The Big Purple Fridge, a converted cargo container designed to provide substantial refrigerator and freezer storage, will help keep food from the farm and other community sources available. Together, these efforts reflect a practical concern: food must be grown or obtained, cared for, stored, and made accessible if it is to nourish people.

The initiative’s guiding idea is from the farm to the family, to the fridge, to the fork. It describes a journey, but also a chain of responsibility. Growing food is one part of the work; ensuring that it can reach families is another. Children who learn about each step can begin to see how agriculture, food access, and community well-being are connected.

The Royal Chicken Coop gives young people another opportunity to learn through care and participation. Raising chickens and other farm animals requires attention to living creatures. It can help children develop habits of responsibility and patience while introducing them to livestock and animal care. The work also offers a chance for young people to learn together, with adults and partners helping guide the experience.

Peace From a Pallet and Bean to the Bank are also part of the Faith in the Farm portfolio. Together with the Funkytown Food Forest, Community Food Bowl, Big Purple Fridge, and Royal Chicken Coop, they represent the breadth of the church’s connected work. Each project contributes to the initiative’s larger focus on agriculture, food, learning, and service. The club gives children a way to encounter that work as participants and emerging leaders.

The initiative’s focus on food access also resonates with the work of Horns 4 Hope, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving food-insecure people in North Central Texas. Founded by Jeff and Kim Horwedel, the organization provides ground beef as a source of protein for families and individuals who may not have consistent access to meat.

Horns 4 Hope sources cattle raised on the founders’ ranch, donated by local ranchers, or no longer productive in the arena or on the ranch. The cattle are processed locally, including through partners such as American Butchery, and the ground beef is distributed to food pantries, food banks, Meals on Wheels programs, and senior centers. According to the organization, its all-volunteer team has donated more than 120,000 pounds of ground beef across multiple counties.

The work of Horns 4 Hope illustrates another part of the regional response to food insecurity: getting protein to families requires coordination among ranchers, processors, volunteers, and community distribution sites. It complements the broader idea behind Faith in the Farm—that food systems depend on connected efforts, from raising and growing food to making it available to people who need it.

For Tatum, the need for meaningful opportunity is tied to the conditions facing the community. The 76104 ZIP code has been associated with a life expectancy of 66.7 years, among the lowest reported in Texas. Tatum says the losses in his own family make the stakes personal: he has lost eight of his 11 immediate family members before they reached 65.

“We have a God-given vision, and we’re working dutifully to discover the provisions needed to help this vision come together for our children and community’s sake,” he said.

The statement speaks to both the scale of the vision and the work still required to realize it. The church is bringing together people and organizations with different areas of knowledge, experience, and service. It is building capacity around young people and their families, with the hope that the right resources and partnerships can help children see and pursue possibilities for themselves.

The collaboration includes New Mount Rose, God’s Army for Evangelism and Mission (G.A.M.E.), Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Prairie View A&M University Extension, the Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Buffalo Soldiers Heritage and Outreach Program, the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association Lakeside Riders, and Pipeline to Possibilities—English for the Profession, in partnership with UNT Dallas.

Each partner brings a different connection to the initiative. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Prairie View A&M University Extension bring agricultural education and practical expertise. Their participation connects the club to university-based knowledge and helps make agriculture a field of study as well as a hands-on activity.

The Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization works to support historically underserved agricultural producers through education, technical assistance, mentorship, and connections to resources. Its experience can help young people understand that farming involves skills and decisions, and that people who grow food may need access to training, support, land, and opportunities to build sustainable operations. That perspective can introduce children to agriculture as a source of knowledge, service, and economic possibility.

Pipeline to Possibilities—English for the Profession, in partnership with UNT Dallas, helps members of the immigrant community strengthen their English skills. Its place in the broader collaboration reflects the changing character of Morningside and New Mount Rose’s work across cultures. English-language learning can help participants build communication skills and navigate work and daily life, while the 4-H club and Faith in the Farm offer young people shared activities through which they can learn and contribute.

Cook Children’s Health Plan has also provided funding for the Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley CommuniVersity Center, named in honor of Erma Johnson Hadley, a former New Mount Rose member and chancellor of the local community college district. The center will provide internet access and help New Mount Rose become the “Digital Front Door in 76104.” For children in the Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club, it adds another avenue for learning—connecting hands-on experiences in the garden and at the coop with access to information and online resources. For families, it is part of the church’s broader effort to make education, services, and opportunity easier to reach.

God’s Army for Evangelism and Mission joins the collaboration and connects it with the church’s wider ministry. New Mount Rose’s goal is to serve children and families through practical opportunities that bring people together. In this setting, ministry includes creating places where young people can learn, where families can connect with resources, and where neighbors can take part in work that benefits the community.

The initiative also makes space for the history of the Buffalo Soldiers. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Buffalo Soldiers Heritage and Outreach Program helps connect minority and urban audiences with Texas history and the state park system. Its work shares the legacy of the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry, African American regiments formed in 1866 whose service included work on the Texas frontier.

The Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association Lakeside Riders will bring another heritage connection to the club. The statewide volunteer group works to ensure that the legacy and heritage of the Buffalo Soldiers and Frontier Women are preserved in honor of those who helped build Texas and the country. Through their involvement, the children can encounter people who actively work to keep this history visible and to pass its lessons on to future generations.

That history reaches beyond military service. The Buffalo Soldiers’ time on the Texas frontier offers a way to explore the land, the people who lived there, and the experiences that shaped the state. The history also opens a window into the contributions and interactions of Buffalo Soldiers, American Indians, Hispanic vaqueros, and frontier women. By including those stories, the program can help children see Texas history as a broad and interconnected story.

For young people, heritage education can come alive through more than books and lectures. The Buffalo Soldiers Heritage and Outreach Program uses activities such as living history, replica campsites, outdoor skills, campfire cooking, and traditional games to encourage families to explore history and public lands. The Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Trail links parks and historic sites associated with the soldiers’ journeys through Texas. Through these experiences, students can connect historical accounts with places, practices, and people.

This fits naturally alongside Faith in the Farm’s agricultural learning. Both invite children to engage with the world around them. A garden encourages observation of the land and the conditions that help plants grow. Outdoor history activities invite curiosity about how people traveled, worked, and lived. Caring for animals teaches attentiveness to living things. Together, the experiences can help children understand that learning does not happen in only one place or through only one subject.

The club’s name honors a legacy of resilience, honor, duty, courage, and perseverance. Those values can be discussed through the Buffalo Soldiers’ history and practiced through the club’s work. A young person who takes responsibility for a task, works alongside peers, listens to an adult mentor, or continues through a challenge is building habits that matter beyond the activity itself. The hope is that children will see those habits reflected both in the people they study and in the work they do.

The initiative is rooted in a Morningside community that has changed considerably over time. Once predominantly Black, the neighborhood is now home to immigrants from many parts of the world. New Mount Rose has become a gathering place for people across cultures, and the church sees that diversity as a strength. Children may bring different languages, family histories, and experiences to the club, but they can share the work of growing food, caring for animals, learning history, and serving neighbors.

That shared work can build relationships across backgrounds. A young person may learn from a peer, an adult volunteer, a university partner, a farmer, or a heritage educator. Each person brings a different perspective, and each project offers a reason to work together. In the process, children can develop a stronger sense of belonging—to their club, their church, their neighborhood, and the wider community.

The 4-H club also gives adults a structured way to work alongside youth. The program’s purpose is to create meaningful opportunities for young people and adults to learn together through practical experiences. Adult volunteers and partner organizations provide support, guidance, and encouragement, while children take on tasks that let them practice making decisions and using their growing skills. That partnership can help young people feel that their contributions matter.

The learning is meant to be useful, not abstract. Children can discover that growing food takes planning and patience, that animal care requires consistency, and that community work depends on people being willing to contribute. They can practice sharing ideas, dividing responsibilities, and completing a project. As they do, they can develop confidence through effort and see themselves as capable of helping solve problems close to home.

Faith in the Farm also connects youth development with food access. The Community Food Bowl and Big Purple Fridge are part of the initiative’s effort to help make food available to families. The Funkytown Food Forest and Royal Chicken Coop bring growing and animal care into the picture. The Big Purple Fridge supports storage. The pieces relate to one another, even as each project has its own role. Together they help children see the many steps between producing food and sharing it.

The broader hope is to support a healthier and more resilient community. Fresh produce and protein can contribute to family well-being, and community access to food is part of a larger picture that includes health, education, opportunity, and economic growth. The church sees Faith in the Farm as one way to bring people and resources together around those concerns. The 4-H club adds a focus on children’s development and gives youth a role in the work.

For Tatum, the vision is bold because the conditions in the community call for more than isolated efforts. Bringing agriculture, youth programs, food support, language learning, digital access, university knowledge, and heritage education into relationship requires collaboration. It also requires time, commitment, and resources. New Mount Rose is working to build those connections around a shared purpose: to give children useful experiences and help families and neighbors thrive.

“We are confident that with what we’ve been able to accomplish within our community, imagine what we can achieve with the proper resources and tools to support our children,” Pastor Tatum said.

That confidence rests on the work already underway and the possibilities that may follow. Children can learn about farming while helping with real projects. They can discover that history belongs to them and that people work to preserve it. They can see how food access depends on many connected efforts. They can practice leadership by contributing, not simply by being told they are future leaders.

The Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club’s return to Morningside brings these strands together. It offers young people a place to learn about agriculture and livestock, explore history and the outdoors, build relationships, and serve their community. Within Faith in the Farm, the club becomes part of a larger ministry landscape—one where gardens, animals, food support, cold storage, language learning, digital access, heritage education, and community partnerships can reinforce one another.

For information about the Buffalo Soldiers 4-H Club, Faith in the Farm, and New Mount Rose’s community programs, contact Pastor Tatum at 817-966-7625, email newmtrosembc@gmail.com, or visit www.newmountrose.com.