Your Diocese

MARSEILLES, IL — Surrounded by hundreds of acres of commodity corn and soybean crops, a 10-acre plot for vegetable gardening hangs tough enough to plant the seeds that one group of homeless people from Chicago might grow the roots of self-sustenance.

This is the fourth season that Growing Home Inc., an offshoot of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. The organization has welcomed 10-to-12 trainees from among the homeless population in Chicago to cultivate organic crops in a holistic approach to promote life skills readiness. For 49-year-old Michael Courtney, the six-month program aimed at hands-on job training is more than an opportunity to dabble in the dirt. Aside from acquiring the technical know-how to cultivate an organic vegetable garden and the marketing savvy to promote the business, Courtney said it soothes the soul.

Along the well-tread path between the field and the overhang where the vegetables are cleaned and separated in 4-foot round plastic pools, Courtney obliged a few precious minutes from his busy harvesting schedule to talk about the significance of the experience. Looking out over a plot of leafy greens, he cast his eyes down for a moment. As he wiped his brow, Courtney organized his thoughts about the ways that the program has influenced his life. A 6-foot-tall, slender man, he said, “I’ve always been in the madness (of urban life), but this is a way that I can get away from all that. I like to see stuff I plant grow.” Since May, this native of Chicago’s South Side has spent six hours a day, four days a week on the farm in rural LaSalle County. He’s gleaned an understanding of teamwork, computer technology, and management skills, and in the midst of fresh air, he’s unearthed a connection with God’s creation.

“I never thought I’d be doing farming” and growing things, he said. “But now, I can do the same thing—It’s soothing to my soul. All the glory goes to God. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. He’s teaching me a new way of life,” said Courtney, whose goal is to transfer his newfound gardening skills into a marketable reality. “I want to get one of those vacant lots, get some topsoil on it and plant a garden like we do out here… I’ll sell it at the farmers’ market,” he said.

Farm manager Larry O’Toole envisions Growing Home as a way to instigate an attitude change on the part of chronically homeless people by steeping them in an environment free from the trappings of urban existence. With 10 years experience working with homeless and disadvantaged populations in Chicago, O’Toole has a grip on the reality in terms of proven success. Growing Home is a concrete way of instigating a “paradigm shift” in individuals, whose development has been seriously interrupted by social ails, including entrenched poverty, substance abuse and lack of job skills. If they can get away from the elements that drag them down in life, O’Toole said he believes they can flourish. On the farm, they are exposed to homegrown, healthy food. Ideally, the outgrowth of such exposure is recognized as a fresh approach to life, said O’Toole, an activist in the Catholic Worker movement. Specifically, the graduate in literature from the University of Notre Dame said he got his feet wet in the early 1990s by watering the seeds of hope at Su Casa, a Catholic Worker house in Chicago. He honed his agricultural skills at Su Casa’s own miniature vegetable and herb garden.

Linda Petty from Chicago’s West Side, said not only has she lost weight, she feels better. “I learned about nutrition,” she said. Setting aside a bin full of purple beets, Petty took a moment to reflect on the experience at the farm. With the money she earns at the farm, Petty can pay her bills. The ripple effects have also generated a renewed vigor in spirituality, she said. “If you’re doing what’s right, then everything else you look at in the right way too. I’ve been looking for a church, and on Sunday I went to the one across the street.”

Already, Petty is looking forward to beginning a nutrition program, beginning with the children in the congregation. “They need to know about nutrition and how to improve their health,” she said with a knowing nod.

Scrubbing vegetables in a 10-gallon tub of water, 57-year-old Delores Oluwole of Chicago, said Growing Home has “changed my whole life.” Addicted to drugs for nearly four decades, she said the chance to work outside has cleared her mind and given her a new lease on life. Problems that once seemed overwhelming are easier to tackle without the mind-altering effects of drugs, she said. In the past three months, Oluwole has figured out how to best use her time, budget and make the bills.

“Today, I’m okay. I have a 7-year-old grandson I can take care of. I never took care of my own children and here I am, buying his school supplies,” said Oluwole, with a smile as wide as the pride she has in her grandson. Her goal is to get a job preparing food in a restaurant or hospital, she said.

The farm grows 40 crops and 100 different varieties of vegetables and herbs, planted to coincide with a schedule that encourages a gradual series of harvest days. Since Growing Home set up operation, “We’ve planted 500 fruit trees,” said O’Toole, and they make sure each crop qualifies for the organic stamp of approval. Last year, the farm netted $60,000 by contracting with restaurants and grocery stores to fulfill their needs, he boasted.