SAN ANTONIO — When Stephen Lucke walks through his community garden, he’s reminded of the seeds he sowed 11 years ago. 

“You can eat them as green beans, or you can let them go into maturity,” Lucke said squatting by the beans in his garden. “It might be a pinto bean, it might be a black bean, it might be a lima bean.” 

Stephen Lucke said his garden-based nonprofit Gardopia Gardens in San Antonio is helping folks reconnect to the land. Gardopia’s mission is to nourish the community with free food and the skills to help feed themselves. 

“It was really during COVID that people started to think of gardening as less of a hobby and (more of) a necessity,” Lucke said.  

Lucke said the nonprofit offers garden-based learning to schools, community organizations and businesses. These days, that help is costing a lot more money, he said. Hauling materials across different communities is taking its toll.  

“This is almost 40 gallons of gas here, and at $4 per gallon, we are looking at $160 per fill up, and that’s on the low end,” Lucke said. 

That’s only one of Gardopia’s trucks and doesn’t include the machinery that requires diesel fuel. 

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), gas prices jumped 30 cents from a week ago, an increase fueled by the Iran-U.S. conflict. 

“We could’ve spent about $20,000 to $30,000 last year in gas alone,” Lucke said. “As we are making our 2026-2027 fiscal year budget, we are going to have to increase that to $40,000 to $50,000.” 

That could be used for programming, he said.

“Now we are spending money that we would have been able to put back into gardening, back into food security, back into sustainability initiatives and education,” Lucke said. 

Gasoline prices surpassed $4 a gallon this week, giving Texans one more thing to worry about. A University of Texas poll showed 61% of Texans were concerned about the cost of gasoline, rivaling fears over the cost of health care and food.

“It’s just a domino effect, and it continues where they have to raise their prices for lumber or soil,” Lucke said. “It’s out of our hands, but I’m praying to the gas gods.”