CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It’s officially fall in the Coastal Bend — but with the heat sticking around, local pumpkin patches are starting to feel the impact.
"Our problem is that the heat is not good for any of us, including the pumpkins,” said Norm Smith, pumpkin patch supervisor of Asbury United Methodist Church.
Two churches Unitarian Universalist Church of Corpus Christi and Asbury United Methodist Church — both had one thing in common: empty pumpkin patches during the day and barely a crowd in sight.
"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,” said Wrene Adams, a volunteer at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Corpus Christi.
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.
"We have large ones that are sold by the diameter. We have smaller ones that are sold by the type,” said Adams.
Despite the slow turnout as of right now, the mission of raising fund to give back to the community continues.
"A lot of that is going to go into our food pantry,” said Forrest Deviney, a senior pastor at Asbury United Methodist Church. “We 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."
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. — inviting the community to stop by, pick a pumpkin, snap a fall photo, and support a cause that gives back.
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