Today we’d like to introduce you to D’Andra Willis.
Hi D’Andra, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I come from a long line of people who knew how to tend things. The women in my family, from my great-grandmother to my great-aunties, my grandmothers, and my mother, were women who fed people before they fed themselves. They cooked without being asked, opened doors without waiting to be thanked, and loved their communities in spite of everything. That was just who they were. Quietly strong, endlessly giving, always showing up. My grandfathers were different but the same kind of man. One ate directly from his garden and fruit trees. He grew food like it was sacred. The other one grew people. His love and compassion were his harvest. I spent summers with both sets of grandparents and I was right there with them, eating straight from the ground, and already as a young girl, feeding and caring for people around me. Looking back, I was always either tending to nature or tending to people. My servants heart was inevitable. It’s part of my DNA. My dad is the one who helped me see that the church isn’t supposed to just be in the community. It’s supposed to be the community. Serving, loving, showing up as a real resource for real people. We talked for years about starting a community garden together. We dreamed about it out loud.
I lost him about four years ago. Planted Hope Community Garden is a living memorial to him, and honestly, building it was how I moved through my grief. It became more than a garden. It’s a gathering place where neighbors grow food together, where people who have never had access to fresh produce are pulling it straight from the earth with their own hands. It’s a farmers market, a classroom, and a sanctuary all at once. When I walk those rows, I find healing. I connect with God in a way that is hard to explain but easy to feel. And I feel my people, my dad, my grandparents, my aunties, all of them who have gone on. Planted Hope is where I go to remember them and where I go to keep going.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not. And I think anyone who tells you their purpose came easy is leaving something out.
Grief is not a smooth road. Building something in honor of someone you lost while you are still learning how to breathe without them, that is one of the hardest things I have ever done. There were days I questioned everything. Whether I was the right person, whether the community would receive it, whether the resources would ever come.
Building a nonprofit from the ground up in a corridor that has historically been overlooked means you are fighting for credibility and funding at the same time you are trying to serve people. You write grants that don’t come through. You show up even when the support doesn’t. You do the work before anyone is watching because you know it needs to be done.
There is also the weight of wearing so many hats. I am a doula, a garden coordinator, a ministry leader, a co-founder, a wife, a mother. Some seasons I had to remind myself that I couldn’t pour from an empty vessel, even when the need around me felt urgent.
But every struggle taught me something. The NOs made the YESes mean more. The hard seasons deepened my roots. And the garden itself kept reminding me that nothing worth having grows overnight.
We’ve been impressed with Community Infusion Project, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Community Infusion Project Inc. ( CIP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit rooted in Dallas’s 75232 corridor, birthed out of the heart of Village Disciple Center, ( VDC) a 55-year-old faith anchor in this same community. My husband, Pastor Gregory Willis, leads VDC and together we are building something that honors the legacy of this ministry while expanding what it looks like to truly serve the people around us. I am a fourth generation ministry leader, so this work is in my blood as much as it is in my calling.
CIP works across four areas: Health, Wealth, Living, and Learning, because real community transformation doesn’t happen in just one lane. Everything we do connects back to the people in this corridor who have been here, been overlooked, and been holding on.
We are most known for Planted Hope Community Garden, a 40-bed production farm and community education space that hosts a monthly farmers market, youth programming, and hands-on growing experiences built around food sovereignty. This summer, VDC is hosting a summer camp and CIP will be providing the enrichment and education programming, which is exactly how both organizations are designed to work together.
I also lead Full Spectrum Doula Training preparing doulas to support people through every season of the reproductive journey.
What sets us apart is that we are not coming in from the outside. We are already here, already trusted, already rooted. And what I am most proud of is that we built something that holds space for grief, growth, healing, and community all at once. She Tends Life is not just my brand phrase. It is the truest description of everything I do.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
People matter most to me. Not programs, not titles, not accolades. People.
I grew up watching the women in my family love their communities without keeping score. I watched my grandfathers tend to things, whether it was the earth or the hearts of the people around them, with everything they had. That kind of love leaves a mark on you. It sets a standard.
What matters to me is that people feel seen. That a mother in the Oakcliff area knows she has somewhere to turn. That a child gets to pull food from the ground and understand where it comes from. That a woman walking through the hardest moments of her reproductive journey doesn’t have to do it alone. That a neighborhood that has been overlooked for decades starts to see itself as worth investing in, because somebody showed up and stayed.
My faith is the foundation of all of it. I don’t do this work because it looks good. I do it because I genuinely believe we are called to tend to one another. That is not just a ministry principle. That is how I was raised and how I want to live.
And honestly, legacy matters to me. My dad matters to me. Making sure the things we dreamed about together didn’t die with him, that matters more than I have words for.
I tend life because life is worth tending. That’s it. That’s everything.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.villagedisciplecenter.org
- Instagram: @PlantedHopeGarden
- Facebook: @plantedhopegarden
