20 October 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Many families have been tightening their budgets as inflated prices continue. A pumpkin patch in Benton, just outside of Wichita, is easing the burden for people.
Stems Pumpkin Patch started this year as a way to tell more people about the founders’ faith-based non-profit, Gospel of Grace Outreach Ministry.
Organizers recognized it’s harder right now for people to afford to go to a pumpkin patch. They are offering free admission days so people can still do activities they might have missed otherwise.
“We usually go to swimming pools and just like different stuff throughout the year, and we just haven’t been able to do as much of that,” said Janelle Schoauf, Stems Pumpkin Patch visitor.
Schoauf and her fiancé Andrew Kackley would not have been able to go to a pumpkin patch this year if they hadn’t found one with free admission.
“All the prices on everything’s kinda going up, and it’s getting kinda hard in some areas,” said Kackley. “It’s nice to come out here and get with a lot of nice people.”
Stevie Jenkins is also feeling the pinch.
“We are spending more on food,” Jenkins said. “We’re spending more on our bills.”
Jenkins and her two boys would have made it to a pumpkin patch either way, but free admission allowed them to spend their cash on activities.
“We were able to spend money on the things that we wanted to get like the concessions, the pumpkins,” Jenkins said.
The patch’s organizers heard some could not afford to go to pumpkin patches this year.
“Theres just a lot of people, it seems like right now, who are tight on funds,” said Debbie Norman, Stems Pumpkin Patch Director.
Most of the pumpkin patch activities are free, according to Norman. The proceeds from paid activities go toward the nonprofit Gospel of Grace Outreach Ministry, helping fund programs.
The next date with no admission fees is Saturday.
To check out more pumpkin patches around the Sunflower State, click here.