[dropcap size=big]B[/dropcap]orn with a compromised immune system, Kat V. Day is no stranger to living with a body that gives her challenges. After years spent as a model and working in the photography industry, Kat shifted her focus after her son was diagnosed with autism. She and her partner, Fernando, are freelance artists working in the San Antonio area. Through a list of physical trials, Day found the importance of eating clean, organic foods, and turned that knowledge into a passion of creating a self-sufficient lifestyle for her family, as well as creating an outreach program of sorts right from her own home.    

Day’s front and backyards serve as a tribal community garden for her neighbors, strangers who are homeless and anyone in need of access to healthy options.  “We welcome the neighbors to bring seeds or roots of anything they are hoping to have grown and harvested,” Day shares. “We really want people to be a part of the process, so we lend our backyard in exchange for splitting the harvests. What we grow we share, and what we grow for others, we get a part of.”

 

 “We don’t have to save the world, we can make a difference to those nearest to us; the people we pass daily.”

Day adds that when plants become ready for harvest, they notify the neighborhood by posting signs in their frontyard to let people know they are welcome to pick and pluck.  Starting a garden to educate her friends and neighbors is not all Day is passionate about.

“We put coats and clothing and supplies right out in front of our house,” she gently says. “People die from the cold, from lack of food.”  “We don’t have to save the world, we can make a difference to those nearest to us; the people we pass daily,” Day espouses with a smile.

Recognizing that those living homeless rarely get healthy food, she and Fernando take special care to share with those individuals easy-to-eat vegetables. “Instead of offering them a bag of chips, we offer them things like snap peas,” she says. Day mentions that those living in less than ideal situations often have the hardest time fighting infections. “Giving healthier foods will help them fight off things they can’t get medical attention for,” she says.  

“Your surroundings dictate what goes on in your body, and the life I was leading before was killing me.” 

Day adds that it was through her own healing that she began to realize the affects we can have on healing those around us. “Your surroundings dictate what goes on in your body, and the life I was leading before was killing me,” Day says. “Now I couldn’t be happier. I’ve lived all over and San Antonio has that kind heart needed for helping people.”     

The support she has received is inspiring to Day. “We don’t have to believe the same religiously or politically to love and help one another.” Self-sufficient gardens have long been popular, but it takes those willing to share and educate to help them flourish within a community. Day is definitely doing more than her part to help her city and her neighbors from the inside out.    

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Photography: Kimberly Scott

To connect with Kat or donate, email: miss_gatita_bonita@yahoo.com

 

Check out more articles from our Health & Wellness issue…