Grown IN Indiana: Farming program helps former inmates plant new roots in community
The tattered plastic sheet clung to the metal half circles like the ribs of a skeleton — what once were two long hoop houses for growing tomatoes and potatoes are almost unrecognizable.
Tall grasses grew waist-high around the hoop houses and some neighboring garden beds, seemingly threatening to swallow them whole. Raised beds bordered by stacked cinder blocks sat nearly empty except for some soil and mulch the wind had piled into the corners.
But then, Marty Henderson spotted it: What originally looked like a weed sprouting from the crumbly dirt in the cavity of one of the cinder blocks was anything but.
It was the green top of a single onion shooting up. Henderson reached down and plucked it up, taking it to his nose and inhaling deeply.
To some this site in Gary, Ind. may seem like one of ruin and decay, but Henderson sees hope and opportunity. To him, the tall grass and the onion are signs that life wants to flourish and persevere at the northwest Indiana urban farm. He's not talking just about the plants, but the people who plant them, too.
Henderson runs Peace Garden and Farms on a few acres a stone’s throw from Lake Michigan. He also is the Senior Pastor at Peace Baptist Church, which is right around the corner.
In both of his roles, he oversees a program that grows and provides food for the neighborhood.
“It feeds not just the stomach, but it feeds the soul,” said Henderson, a Gary native. “But the vision for the whole farming program is not just to do farming. Our program is designed for returning citizens, those who were formerly incarcerated.”
Henderson’s program employs individuals who were previously in prison to work at the farm. Doing so not only gives back to the community, the pastor said, but it also helps those enrolled to reintegrate into society and find their purpose.
That’s what makes this program special. It got its start almost by accident several years ago, but since then has worked with nearly two dozen people. Now Henderson can’t imagine doing anything else.
The urban farm has experienced some ups and downs in recent years, given weather, health struggles and the pandemic. Still, Henderson has big plans for the program to grow and prosper — like that small onion — in the coming years.
“We are establishing a station of hope where returning citizens can find a safe and secure place to enter back into society,” he said. “That’s a vital part of the program, knowing you have something to contribute back. It’s just wonderful and fulfilling, it really is.”
A sanctuary for farming
As a child, Henderson spent much of his summers with his grandparents in Arkansas and Louisiana. His family in Arkansas were sharecroppers and they grew everything: collard greens, peas, green beans, cucumbers and more.
Then they’d take those crops to the city in Louisiana near his other family to sell. Henderson’s days were consumed going back and forth and running through the garden.
“I didn’t know it then, but they were putting in me a love for farming,” he said, “and I’ve loved it ever since.”
Another experience from his youth has also stuck with Henderson and driven the work he does today. His father was arrested when Henderson was in 8th grade, so he grew up in a home where incarceration was front and center.
“I feel a sense of commitment to this community,” he said. “It’s really my personal stewardship to help those who have been in those kinds of situations.”
That first started through his service and his ministry. The farming component was an unexpected turn of events.
The church had purchased a former Army Reserve building and its few acres of land in Gary in the early 2000s. They were planning to build a new sanctuary. But that plan fell apart in 2008 when the economy went bust and the church lost a lot of revenue, Henderson said.
“Still, we wanted to find a way to utilize the facility, so we started playing around with planting some vegetables,” he said. “It was providential that we couldn’t do a sanctuary. It let us turn swords into shears and spears into pruning hooks.”
The program moved through a few different phases over the years. It started working with middle school youth in a six-week long curriculum to teach the principles of urban farming. The program then began working with high school seniors where they were instructed on farming as well as leadership.
In the meantime, the church had started a relationship with the county sheriff’s department in which men would come out to the church and do various things such as maintenance, landscaping and general upkeep. Expanding the program felt like a natural next step. That next summer, just about five years ago now, the returning citizens farm program was born.
The program is a partnership between three entities: the Center for Workforce Development, Goodwill and, of course, the church and Peace Garden & Farms.
“Working with returning citizens was a challenge at first for the church,” Henderson said. “But now it’s our privilege and responsibility to be able to teach them.”
The fruits of their labor
The opportunity to sign up is open to most anyone who is needing employment after completing their sentence and is interested in outdoor work. The only requirements are that they can lift 40 pounds, stand for hours at a time and are “willing to get dirty,” Henderson said.
Some enroll fresh from their sentence, he added, while others might have waited a few months or even a couple years. Those enrolled in the program complete 200 hours of work over a roughly 12-week period, and they receive a $12.50-an-hour wage.
On a normal day, participants will arrive around 8 a.m. and do a “farm walk.” They are looking for any changes to the farm from the night before, watering plants that may be thirsty, doing some weeding, picking up trash, etc.
Then about a half hour later, they are in the classroom for an hour. There they study one of a few things: the laws of leadership, areas of life training or the principles of farming. The latter helps provide a basic sketch of a business plan if they are interested in using that to start their own farming or other type of business.
After the day’s lesson, it’s time to go outside to the farm and “do some work.”
Depending on the time of the season, that could include preparing the beds by working the soil and turning it over or plowing it. Then they must also dig small trenches for the seeds, known as putting the rows in.
That’s what one worker was doing on an overcast and almost chilly late-spring morning — the cloud cover a welcome reprieve when working outside for hours at a time. Francisco arrived early that morning to make sure he could get all his work done before he had to leave for an appointment.
The hard work showed on the bit of dirt smudged above his brow where he had wiped his forehead while digging in the little field plot. He kept his head down as he put his shovel and other tools away, pausing briefly to share a smile with Henderson when the pastor admired the spacing and straightness of the rows.
In the next couple days, Francisco and Henderson would transition into the time for planting all their seeds and little starter crops. They grow all sorts of specialty crops: peppers, tomatoes, okra, collard greens, cucumbers, kale, squash, eggplant and more.
Other tasks on the farm include watering and tending to the plants, making sure they have nutrients and weeding to keep the small fields clean. Harvesting comes in mid- to late summer when all the delicious vegetables and greens are ready to eat.
That’s the best time, Henderson said, especially for the workers to see the fruits — or vegetables — of their labor. It’s an invigorating feeling.
So much so that “some of them who are off books, no longer in the program, they come by and will help and pick up some produce, too,” Henderson said. “A lot of them establish relationships with the church and the farm and come back.”
Real and meaningful work
Since the program began, about 20 men have gone through and graduated. But it’s not as much about what the participants offer to the program with all their work — rather, it’s about what the program offers to the participants and the community.
It gets the returning citizens on their feet and the farming gives them the opportunity to do something independent. With that independence comes a lot of responsibility and accountability, Henderson said.
Those in the project have had the opportunity to travel to Purdue and other places around the region for presentations and meetings about the program, he added: “It broadens their horizon and gives them the ability to see things they haven’t seen before.”
For many of these men, it is important to know that people and society see them not as someone who just got out of prison, but as someone who can be trusted and can be active in and contribute to society. In fact, that is why they refer to the workers as returning citizens rather than “ex-cons” or “former inmates.”
“The number one thing is integration into society,” Henderson said. “It gives them the work ethic piece, which is vital and something they can take anywhere in the world.”
Many of them have. While none have left the program to continue in farming, they have taken the skills to springboard into other fields. Some have gotten their licenses for the trucking industry, others have moved into carpentry. A few still have entered various training programs, including one for welding which can pay nearly $30 an hour.
“Those relationships are fulfilling to see them get on with their lives and be fruitful and productive citizens,” Henderson said. “I love seeing them drive up in a brand new car, their lives being changed.”
The program also is helping to change the community by giving back to it with fresh produce.
There are nearly two dozen food deserts in Lake County and almost two-thirds of them are in Gary, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means that more than one-third of the population lives not near a grocery store. The same percentage of Gary residents also live in poverty, according to data from the most recent U.S. Census.
All of that means many communities in Gary, including those around Peace Garden and Farms, don’t have access to fresh and healthy food.
“People are relying on our produce,” Henderson said. “This isn’t fake. It’s real, true and meaningful work. It has an important purpose.”
Starting later in the summer, the farm will have a stand to sell some of its produce to those living nearby. Anything that they don’t sell then is donated through their church or to a local food pantry.
“I love Gary, that’s a big motivation for me,” he added. “Gary is a great city with great potential, we just need to reinvest in the city.”
'Just the beginning'
Henderson’s motivation and optimism has helped keep the program going during some difficult times during the last couple years.
The senior pastor had some health struggles that forced him to pull back from his work a little bit, though he now has been able to recover and reinvest. Then a major storm came through and destroyed the hoop houses, which left them in tatters and unable to be used.
The farm has not been able to repair them since then, as the pandemic brought the world to a halt. It also slowed the program’s enrollment. While a handful of people were enrolled each year during the first couple years, Francisco is the only participant so far this year.
Having fewer people has made it difficult to catch up on the work and make some of the fixes and improvements necessary. It takes all of Henderson’s time, along with Francisco and the few other master gardeners who help with the program, to manage the pollinator garden and couple small field plots they have.
“It’s still in its infancy, we lost some momentum during the time of the pandemic,” Henderson said. “But we are getting back and going.”
The slowdown has done anything but dampen Henderson’s spirits. If anything, it has further lit a fire in him to propel the project forward.
“This is just the beginning of things,” he said.
He plans to reconstruct the hoop houses as well as the raised beds, and wants to clear out some of the tall grasses to create more room for additional field plots. Henderson also wants to get back to the farm producing its own compost that it can use to help keep the soils healthy for the crops.
Those are just the baby steps. Henderson also wants to add roof-top gardening and an aquaponics system that he hopes will allow them to produce food for a couple hundred families throughout much of the year. Henderson is working with Purdue on this aspect of the project and hopes to have it in place in the coming couple years.
His biggest dream, however, is to use the building to open a full commercial kitchen. He sees that as an opportunity to expand the returning citizens program to offer training for cooking, and also to provide a farm-to-table dinner service where the community can come and eat a healthy meal.
If the onion that inspired him can persevere, Henderson said, so can the farm and the returning citizens program.
“Agricultural systems are full of relevant examples, parallels and lessons that pertain to life,” he said. “For instance, the health of the farm is dependent on a diversity of crops just like the health of any group is dependent on its differences.”
Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.
IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Farming program in Gary helps former inmates integrate into society
