_By GvilleTX Newsroom_
Friends of Shiloh Garden has listed eight free Cook Fresh:Eat Fresh adult cooking classes in Denton from Sept. 12 through Dec. 19, with First United Methodist Church Denton saying the Saturday sessions will use produce raised at Shiloh Garden. For Gainesville and Cooke County readers, the location matters: the public pages place the program in Denton, not Cooke County, while the subject is kitchen skill tied to a food-access problem that USDA data show remains heavier in Texas than nationally.
Shiloh Garden gives its garden address as 1650 Nottingham Dr. in Denton, and the class listings put the sessions at First United Methodist Church Denton. FUMC Denton says the classes will be held in Monroe Gym's commercial kitchen, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, with 5 to 10 seats per class.
Shiloh's schedule includes lessons on pepper jam, salsa as a canning-basics project, American beautyberry jelly and blackberry jelly. Other listed subjects include cowboy candy, baked zucchini, pumpkin pie and stocking a kitchen for less. Each listing describes the class as free and says donations are accepted.
FUMC Denton says Friends of Shiloh Garden is starting the series in partnership with the church. The church's event page describes the program as hands-on instruction for adults learning to cook, preserve and eat with fresh produce grown locally at Shiloh Garden. FUMC Denton also says instructors include Shiloh board members, Master Gardeners and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension educators.
Shiloh Garden says its food work begins in the field before it reaches the kitchen. The organization says Shiloh Field has more than 14 acres, grows about 40,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables per year and is working to double production. Shiloh also says it has grown more than 500,000 pounds over 16 years and operates the largest community garden in the United States.
Board materials posted by Shiloh say volunteers distribute produce to local food pantries, children's homes, homeless shelters and other organizations that provide free food to people in need. The listed class topics move that work from harvest into home use, including cooking, jelly-making and canning.
USDA ERS reported that 13.7% of U.S. households were food insecure at some point in 2024, statistically similar to the prior year. ERS state data show Texas averaged 17.6% household food insecurity during 2022-2024, above the U.S. average of 13.3% for the same period.
Census QuickFacts gives a Cooke County point of comparison. The Census Bureau reports that Gainesville's 2020-2024 median household income was lower than Cooke County's and Denton County's, while Gainesville's poverty rate was higher than both.
Cooke County's Texas A&M AgriLife Extension page lists food-preservation programming, including a Preserving the Harvest: Pickles class with registration information for June 30. Elsewhere in Texas, an AgriLife calendar listing for a Houston steam-canning workshop carried a fee, and Hope Farms in Houston says its First Saturday hands-on cooking classes charge a per-student registration fee while some Saturday demonstrations and tastings are free.
The City of Denton says local food production has been part of its sustainability work since the 2012 adoption of Simply Sustainable, including AgriLife-linked public classes on subjects from backyard chickens to small-container gardening. In a 2025 announcement on urban agriculture grants, USDA said community gardens and nonprofit farms can increase food production and access while providing education.
_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._
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