CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 It\u2019s officially fall in the Coastal Bend \u2014 but with the heat sticking around, local pumpkin patches are starting to feel the impact.<\/p>\n
“Our problem is that the heat is not good for any of us, including the pumpkins,\u201d said Norm Smith, pumpkin patch supervisor of Asbury United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n
Heat slows crowds at Coastal Bend pumpkin patches, but churches stay hopeful<\/p>\n
Two churches Unitarian Universalist Church of Corpus Christi and Asbury United Methodist Church \u2014 both had one thing in common: empty pumpkin patches during the day and barely a crowd in sight.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t had as many people yet. We kind of surmised that because it’s so warm, people aren’t really getting into the mood for Halloween yet,\u201d said Wrene Adams, a volunteer at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
Each year, both churches get their pumpkins from a Native American reservation in New Mexico. They only keep a portion of the sales, with prices of the pumpkins ranging from $1 to $40.<\/p>\n
“We have large ones that are sold by the diameter. We have smaller ones that are sold by the type,\u201d said Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the slow turnout as of right now, the mission of raising fund to give back to the community continues.<\/p>\n
“A lot of that is going to go into our food pantry,\u201d said Forrest Deviney, a senior pastor at Asbury United Methodist Church. \u201cWe do a thing called Thanksgiving for 1000 every year where we try and feed 1000 families for Thanksgiving who might not otherwise be able to have a Thanksgiving meal.”<\/p>\n
Deviney said so far weekends are the days that brings in crowds of people and hopes those waves continue throughout weekdays also. Both pumpkin patches are open through Halloween until 7 p.m. \u2014 inviting the community to stop by, pick a pumpkin, snap a fall photo, and support a cause that gives back.<\/p>\n
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