There is an idea sprouting outside a South Longview mission that feeds homeless people in body, mind and spirit.
A community garden that could supply the kitchen at Newgate Mission and overflow to local homes is being planned at the Methodist ministry on Mobberly Avenue.
The Rev. Jennene Laurinec, director of the mission that serves free lunch weekdays and breakfast on the weekends, got the idea while driving past the garden at First Baptist Church a few blocks from the mission.
The sight inspired images of all the good husbandry can create.
"Gardening is difficult work," she said last week. "But it’s also good for our bodies. And it feeds our soul, because working in nature is incredibly healing. It connects you with something greater than yourself. And then we share."
Many of the 150 or so people who gather at the mission daily are fighting addictions, she said, and tending for something else nurtures the soul of the worker.
"I look at this as a way for them to seek healing, to connect with the neighborhood, to give the best of themselves," Laurinec said. "I’m excited about that aspect of good, healthy, prosperous work that allows all of us to stand taller, to stand prouder and connect with our God, the God who made us and the God who feeds us."
It’s a formula that’s working in other places.
An East Fort Worth ministry called, Feed by Grace, has been growing its Unity Gardens for five years. Program Director Neale Mansfield said his homeless clients reap benefits beyond the physical ones.
"Yes, spiritually, for sure," he said. "There’s definitely a connection between gardening — getting your hands in the dirt, working the soil (seeing) little things growing. All of those can be tied in to spiritual messages. But I think, more than anything, to be honest, for people to get involved it’s the therapeutic side of it that’s beneficial."
Leaders of the Cowtown outreach hope eventually to add an employment element to the endeavor. But the garden is rooted in the good it does its workers, Mansfield added.
"That was one of the main purposes of trying to get this garden going in this community," he said. "These folks need anything to raise self-worth and self-esteem. And gardening is something that works really well in that arena."
That’s what Laurinec supposed. She reached out, a community reached back.
AEP Southwestern Electric Power Co. was charged about leasing the half-acre lot next to the mission for five years at a nominal annual fee. Local businessman Tommy Lloyd volunteered to spread herbicide from his tractor. Horaney’s feed store agreed to donate seed, Laurinec said.
Young people attending a LeTourneau University mission camp spread out to clear stones and bric-a-brac from the vacant lot.
"It’s business people in our community," Laurinec said. "It’s church leaders, it’s missionary campers. It’s the people at LeTourneau University, the people at Newgate Mission."
A newly formed good works foundation has stepped up to make this its first major project.
Steve Crane has led a community garden project at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church since it began four years ago. He’s also a charter member of the Stragent Foundation, which was casting about for its first good work when Crane caught wind of Laurinec’s dream.
"The Stragent Foundation is very excited about this project and the potential for changing neighborhoods and communities," Crane said. "This is not going to be the one and only program. The dream is to have a network of community gardens throughout Longview. Most of the major cities do have them."
Both he and Laurinec foresee inviting all residents to share the harvest.
"It will be such an asset," Laurinec said. "Can you imagine families that are having tough times being able to go out and pick some tomatoes. It’s just a healthy thing all around. It’s for everybody, Newgate is for everybody."
A tool shed also has been donated, which will hold the only part of the garden that should stay there — the tools. Laurinec had an idea of how to discourage the tools from walking away, so to speak.
"I said, ‘We’ll paint them hot pink,’ " she said.
Crane had an amen for that.
"It’s a great idea," he said. "First of all, who’s going to want to be seen with a pink tool?"
But he returned to the root of the project — helping people live more independently by the sweat of their brows.
"And you don’t really understand that till you’ve been out there and worked the dirt," he said. "And you see what that work has produced. God’s creation is an amazing, amazing thing, and we have everything we need to feed ourselves. It’s an incredible, holistic approach to solving problems — it builds community, it gets people exercising. It gets people to tilling their souls."
