by Aaron Cooper
It all started with a bowl of soup.
On a chilly evening about four years ago, a neighbor invited Robert Chenault Jr., to dinner at All Saints Lutheran Church in Spokane, Wash. Every Tuesday night, the congregation hosts a free meal for 100 to 150 people who are homeless or have low incomes. New in town and trying to make a fresh start after being in prison, Robert appreciated the idea of a warm bowl of soup and getting to know other people. After dinner, he discovered something interesting.
In front of All Saints, Robert noticed several patches of lawn that had been torn up and converted into small garden plots. He inquired about the operation and learned that the church’s sprinkler system had failed not long before. In the process of tearing up the sprinkler system, Pastor Alan Eschenbacher and other church workers received a visitor. A neighbor walked by and remarked, “That looks like some really good dirt. What would you think about letting some people garden here?”
Pastor Alan agreed. He and his son rented a sod cutter. They removed the sod from a small portion of the lawn and turned it over to a few people.
“It was a little disorganized at first,” said the pastor. “We just kind of planted some stuff, and even that year we got some good tomatoes and other things for the soup kitchen.”
Robert and his partner, Leona Brumitt, asked if they could tend a piece of the garden. The following year, more people came out of the woodwork, and the idea took off. Robert and Leona were asked to oversee garden operations, Robert in the field tending to gardening mechanics and Leona coordinating the business end of things.
“We basically act as liaisons between the community and All Saints Lutheran Church,” said Robert, referring to the fact that the garden is open to anyone, including non-members. From the beginning there have been more non-member gardeners involved than members of the church. And a few people—like Robert and Leona—have joined the church because of their involvement in the garden.
Feeding Ministries
A typical day for Robert during gardening season involves tearing up parts of the lawn, enriching new soil, and fertilizing soil with organic compost made from scraps produced by All Saints’ Tuesday-night dinners.
“It’s an impressive thing,” Pastor Alan said. “It’s all green. It’s an all-organic garden. There are no harmful fertilizers or pesticides used.”
The garden now hosts 20 to 25 families. Each tenant—some are tended by individuals, some by couples or families—is asked to donate about one quarter of their produce to the church’s feeding ministries. Many who have joined the garden in recent years had never gardened before, and Robert happily gives them pointers.
To start the growing season this year, there were 10 families on the waiting list. Plots left vacant by tenants who decide not to return are prepared for new gardeners to take over. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for a lot of us that live in apartments to have a garden,” said Robert. “And organic produce is so expensive in the stores.”
“We get our food from Second Harvest [a community food bank],” said Robert. “Seventy-five percent of that we can use. Twenty-five percent might be too wilted. So I take it out into our compost pile, and I turn it back into soil which then gets put on the garden, which then feeds the people again. It’s so rewarding to be a part of that whole cycle of life.”
“We have such a different mix of people that do their gardening with us that I know people I might never have met just walking down the street or even going to church or wherever one might find a social hub,” said Robert. “It’s brought those of different socioeconomic levels and classes together on a common— literally—ground.”
Brownes Addition Neighborhood
All Saints rests atop a cliff on the west edge of downtown Spokane, overlooking Hangman Creek and the Spokane River Valley. Brownes Addition spans roughly six by 10 blocks, a relatively small neighborhood.
“There are many low-income apartments in the neighborhood,” said Pastor Alan. “It’s kind of understood that if you are looking for a cheap place to live you start looking in Brownes Addition. It’s still $450 a month for a studio apartment. On the other hand we have millionaires who are living in $1 million or $2 million condominiums that are gated and overlook the water. People from these two groups live across the street from each other.” The area represents the highest population density in Spokane County and one of the highest in the state, according to Pastor Alan.
The last few years, 700 to 800 pounds of produce from the garden has been donated to All Saints feeding ministries. “The garden has become a centerpiece for the neighborhood,” said the pastor. “We’re a walking neighborhood…a lot of apartment buildings and old houses where people go out for walks all the time. Almost all the walking paths include coming by the church garden, because everybody wants to see what’s going on.”
“I think the real value to the congregation [in having this garden] is accepting people who are different,” Pastor Alan said. “That was the challenge when we started this whole ministry. You had people who asked, ‘You mean the homeless people are going to be in the church?’ Well, unless we’re gonna feed them out on the lawn, yeah. There was that break-in period where people had to accept the idea. But this is what Jesus taught us to do. Once people got to the hospitality part, they said, ‘Yes, these are children of God. We love them.’ Then things just kind of opened up.”
Dolly Owen lives next door to the church and became intrigued about the garden. “I’ve gardened all my life,” she said. “I learned it from my mother and thought it was wonderful. So, I went and asked Pastor Alan about it. Now I live in the city and not the country, and I can still garden.” Dolly procured a plot for herself and coordinated the project for the first few years.
“There are several community plots that we share,” said Dolly. “Everybody helps everybody, and that what’s been great. If someone goes away for a week, we all tend to all the plots.”
“I can’t tell you how often folks just stroll by in the evening,” said Robert, “hand in hand toward sunset, admiring the beauty of our garden, and stop and just chat. To have that representation in front of our church without being preachy, that kindness, that invitation—‘Hey, come join us,’ with no strings attached—has brought more people through these front doors than we’ve seen in a long time. Whether it’s a middle-aged woman spending time with her elderly mother or a little kid that gets home from school and goes to water the family plot with his dad…it’s just been wonderful.”
Urban Gardening in Ohio
Many people approach retirement with thoughts of resting from their labors, taking up a new hobby, or going on vacation.
Not Job Ebenezer. Upon retirement in 2006, he founded Technology for the Poor, a nonprofit organization devoted to developing and innovating technologies for sustainable agriculture and disseminating them to people living in poverty throughout the world.
Technology for the Poor focuses on simple yet effective technologies, including container gardens. Especially helpful in urban settings, a container garden is housed in an inexpensive container, typically a children’s plastic wading pool. This allows people to plant gardens in places where gardens are not usually possible, such as rooftops, vacant city lots, brown fields, and unused portions of parking lots.
In 2007, Job settled in Columbus, Ohio, and joined Ascension Lutheran Church where he launched a container garden project. The church allocated one of its six acres for the project, and Job enlisted volunteers to help plant more than a dozen containers filled with vegetables. The project yields over 1,600 pounds of produce annually.
Though the congregation has struggled financially, Ascension shares its bounty with others. One beneficiary is the Helping Hands Health and Wellness Center that serves adults without health insurance.
“After giving away vegetables and fruits to Helping Hands and three food pantries in our area, we keep some of these fruits and vegetables on a table after Sunday morning services, so people can take and donate something,” Job said.
From Columbus to Tanzania
The efforts of Job and his fellow members reach beyond Columbus. Nearly 40 members of Ascension are from Tanzania. Pastor Tim Muller once asked Job to talk about his work with Technology for the Poor in Sunday school. He obliged with PowerPoint presentation in hand and showed students and teachers about pedal-power technology and other ideas. One woman from Tanzania, a nurse, said, “Dr. Ebenezer, it would be so nice if you could come to our place and teach these things to our people.”
In 2009, Job traveled to the Kashasha/Bukoba area of Tanzania where most of the Tanzanian members are from. He showed people there what agricultural and gardening technologies they could adopt for the benefit of people living in poverty. The people there invited Job back a year later to work with a program called Huyawa, which has received ELCA World Hunger grants.
Job worked primarily with women who had lost their spouses to AIDS, implementing container gardens outside their homes. Though most knew how to garden, many were elderly and frail.
“These women are not able to go to the garden or field or cultivate because of the hard work,” said Job. “So when I showed them the easier way to use plastic jugs and water bottles to grow radishes and then tie them to pencils or any other way to grow a vertical garden, they are able to grow vegetables right next to their huts.”
Ascension invested $1,000 to create a microfinance loan program for 20 women in the Huyawa program.
Each received $50 to buy containers, seed, and fertilizer. Some of the food is consumed by each woman and her family, and the rest is sold at local markets for income. Each woman agrees to pay back the loan within a year or two, creating a revolving loan fund.
“We are pleased that the majority of the women and some members of [Huyawa] staff implemented what [ Job] taught,” said the Rev. Christopher Mbuga, director of the Huyawa program. “I witnessed that when I visited some of them. Some neighbors have learned from them and have also implemented [gardens]. We are grateful to the members of the congregation who are behind this project.”
“Lutheran churches have so much potential in terms of human and financial resources,” said Job. “We are only tapping a portion of that. Just imagine the amount of work we can accomplish in the world and how we can strengthen the churches back in Tanzania and other places by integrating them to do microenterprises and other kinds of things.”
Aaron Cooper is a freelance writer and editor based in Chicago.
See photos of the All Saints garden.