Look how far we've come! And the (life) lessons we've learned along the way.

We recently came across some old photos of when we first acquired the land on which we now operate GrowGood Farm. It was a great reminder to us of (a) how far we’ve come, and (b) the many lessons we’ve learned along the way.

When we started in 2011, we acquired a 1.5 acre lot of asphalt and dirt (the image below). Literally starting from scratch, we took the time to repair the earth to prepare it for planting - a process that took several years.

Life lesson 1: Have patience in the process and sometimes, the only way to it, is through it (meaning there are no shortcuts for doing the job the right way).

While we were working on repairing the soil for the main crops, we built a garden area with raised beds, creating our first space to grow produce for the shelter. This area is now known as “Jayne’s Garden,” named after Jayne Torres - a tribute to our first staff member and friend of GrowGood. The garden area is used for growing flowers, herbs, and soon-to-include a Permanent Supportive Housing Community Garden area.

Life Lesson 2: Use your time wisely. Sometimes there are interim solutions that are worth investing in. Our “interim” solution is now a permanent, and important, part of our farm.

After Jayne’s Garden was built, we moved onto our next project, which was planting our orchard; 70 fruit trees were planted.

Life Lessons 3-10: SO many lessons through this process. But many of the lessons were not learned until years later. Which is a life lesson in and of itself. When you plant a tree (or 70), they grow. And as they grow, they change. And as they change, so do their needs. So what worked when you originally planted that tree, might not work 8 or 10 or 15 years later. The same holds true for people. And so sometimes you have to make hard(er) decisions later on. And that’s all part of the process. Growing, adapting, changing.

And through the years, we’ve added additional crop areas, chicken coops, a hoop house, wash station, multiple sheds, a 1,400 s.f. greenhouse. Our farm is now an oasis for the Bell Shelter community, providing a place to connect with nature and to connect with each other. We are incredibly proud of where GrowGood is today.

Yet, our work has truly only just begun. We have so much more that we want to do, can do, and need to do for the surrounding community.

Life Lesson #11: Appreciate how far you’ve come while continuing to chart your course toward your North Star. You will need to make course corrections along the way, as the tides and currents are constantly shifting. The journey isn’t always easy, and it isn’t always dry (as we discovered this year), but it IS always worth it in the end.

Here is where we are today …

Meet our new Executive Director!

As we head into our most ambitious year yet, with plans for expanded programming, site improvements, and new partnerships, we have made an integral investment in our future by bringing on Meghan Steed Garvey as our Executive Director.

With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, Meghan brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to GrowGood. Throughout her career, Meghan has been dedicated to creating positive change through her work, and she is excited to continue this mission in her new role.

“I’m truly honored to join GrowGood. Brad, Andrew, and the Board of Directors have worked tirelessly through the years to make their vision a reality. With the support of an incredibly dedicated and talented team, I’m excited to continue to advance the mission of GrowGood. I look forward to working with the board, staff, and volunteers to build on GrowGood's incredible accomplishments and take the organization to new heights."

The Board of Directors at GrowGood have also expressed their enthusiasm for Meghan's appointment and the future of the organization.

“We are thrilled to have Meghan join GrowGood at such an exciting time for our organization.  Her experience, drive and passion are a perfect fit, and we are confident that Meghan can elevate GrowGood to a new level as an organization and in the impact we can bring to our community.” - Brad Pregerson and Andrew Hunt, co-founders

As the new Executive Director, Meghan will oversee all aspects of GrowGood's operations, including fundraising, program development, community engagement, and strategic planning. She will work closely with the board, staff, and volunteers to ensure that the organization continues to grow and thrive in its mission to create positive change in Bell, CA and beyond.

Connect with Meghan on LinkedIn or contact her directly via email.

GrowGood Featured on Modern Farmer

“This urban farm is small but mighty”

- Modern Farmer

Learn more about GrowGood in our conversation with Modern Farmer here.

Apply for the Climate Action Summer Program by April 30

The California Climate Action Corps is accepting applications for AmeriCorps Fellows this summer!

The Deadline to Apply is Friday, April 30 (Accepted Until Filled)

GrowGood is a potential host site for two to three Fellows who will spearhead our new carbon farming initiative! The Fellows will work on a series of related Environmental Research and Action Projects centered around Carbon Farming.The CA Climate Action Corps program will place Fellows at environmental nonprofits all around the state of California. Once you complete the general application, you will get to apply directly to the nonprofits whose projects most interest you. GrowGood, as well as other LA-based nonprofits, is in the process of becoming one of those host sites. Please list L.A. Works as our Intermediary on the application.

Interested in applying? Go here to apply.

Note the deadline to apply is Friday April 30, 2021 (Accepting Until Filled).

Please share this opportunity with your own network! This is an ideal opportunity for recent college grads.

Calming Minds and Uplifting Spirits -- Reflections of 2020

Dear GrowGood community,

Lately I’ve been thinking about the word shelter—its meaning as a word and its myriad forms in the world, the feeling of comfort that comes from being sheltered versus the feeling of anxiety when sheltering in place. Merriam Webster defines shelter as a noun: “something that covers or affords protection;” and as a transitive verb: “to provide shelter for: PROTECT; to place under shelter or protection.”

Shelter is something we can find and create for ourselves, as well as something we can build and provide for others. 

 GrowGood’s neighbor and partner, The Salvation Army Bell Shelter, is a living definition of that transitive verb. Its buildings and staff have been sheltering thousands of women and men for more than 30 years. People come to Bell Shelter when they have no other place to go, forced out of their homes by a job loss, an eviction, an abusive relationship, an uninsured illness. They spend their time at the Bell Shelter trying to gain back the pieces of their lives, hopefully leaving the shelter only after securing a stable place to live. But since the pandemic began, Bell Shelter has taken on yet another role: as a place where hundreds of unhoused people can shelter in place. 

Shelter in place: to remain inside in one's current location until a danger has passed: to temporarily take shelter in a protected space.

Surviving a pandemic within a homeless shelter is like weathering a storm within a storm.  Since March, the residents of the Bell Shelter have passed in and out of quarantine as Covid-19 cases crop up amongst staff and residents. Outdoor activities are limited to walks around the parking lot and a bi-monthly pass to leave the shelter. The stress and challenges of finding housing, employment, and healing have compounded with the daily uncertainty of contracting Covid-19 and the long, isolating months of indoor confinement.

Yet the shelter’s residents have been finding ways to cope. One woman in her seventies walks six miles a day inside the shelter buildings. A young man in Bell Shelter’s substance abuse rehabilitation program finds solace in his classical guitar. Another man from the shelter’s hospital wing finds purpose in restoring some of our old benches at GrowGood’s farm. 

And then, for one hour a week, residents come to Food For Life. 

Pictured above: Shelter residents engaging in stretching and breathing exercises.

One of GrowGood’s central programs, Food For Life is a weekly class that teaches shelter residents the self-care skills to maintain healthy minds, bodies, and hearts. Our teachers Rob Don and Samantha Feinerman guide participants through gentle yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, and discussions on holistic wellness. We intentionally host our classes outdoors in our native plants garden. The garden setting offers our participants a respite from the shelter buildings and exposure to the restorative power of fresh air, sunlight, and fragrant plants. 

In Food For Life, we learn how to find shelter within one’s own mind and body. Many of our class participants live within minds wracked by anxiety and bodies exhausted by insomnia. Many live with muscle tension and aches as a result of chronic stress. For our veterans participating in the rehabilitation program, their bodies are recovering from both the trauma of combat and the ravages of addiction. While their bodies are temporarily sheltered and fed at the Bell Shelter, at Food For Life we provide the tools for creating a lasting sense of safety and calm for their minds and spirits. 

Watching our participants discover tranquility, listening to their insights, and witnessing them show up for themselves has become the highlight of my week. Although I manage the program and Rob and Samantha lead the classes, each person present during class helps build a sacred shelter within our hour together. Every Tuesday and Friday mornings, I get to sit within a circle of fellow survivors who teach me how to survive a pandemic with grace, humor, and yes, even gratitude. 

Pictured above: Wiley, resident of the shelter and FFL participant, standing over one of the planters he beautifully restored. These planters will beautify the shelter grounds and will give individuals with disabilities the opportunity to contribute to our efforts.

I have big plans for this expanding this little circle under the sycamore tree. We currently provide Food For Life classes for up to forty-five people a week (the latest public health order limits our class sizes). Last week, we offered an impromptu class for case managers at the Bell Shelter who have been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic. The shelter’s staff needs a weekly moment of respite as well. 

With the necessary funding, I would love to be able to provide a weekly class for the shelter’s staff, as well as additional weekly classes for our participants living in the shelter and rehabilitation programs. Donations of as little as $20 to $50 would go directly to providing more Food For Life classes during this time of acute need. 

Thank you for being a part of GrowGood’s community, whether you are a volunteer, donor, or partner. We value the time, talent, and good cheer that you bring to our farm. May you find wellness, silver linings, and joy this new year!

Namaste,

Sara Alura Rupp

GrowGood Programs Manager

Thrilled to Be in GOOD Company

We were so honored to be recognized in LA Magazine this November as 1 of 6 L.A. Charities to “consider spending time assisting.” We thank all our wonderful volunteers that come to the farm to support the mission!

“Sustainability meets charity at this urban farm located at Bell Shelter, a homeless care facility. Flex your green thumb and help feed those in need. If getting your hands dirty isn’t for you, GrowGood is always looking for people to run outreach, provide program support, and help fundraise.”

Amanda’s story - Profile of TEP Participant

Amanda Raposo’s whole face opens wide with shock when I suggest that she’s a brave woman.

But consider these: She joined the Army as a sure way to earn money and escape her marriage. She then risked prison by going AWOL when her ex threatened to keep their toddler son from her. She endured the death of a second husband. On her own, she’s moved to various parts of the country, finally to L.A., where her heart was drawn but with no support system.

She had worked in a bank and as a manager in a games shop, and her dream is to get her art out into the world. Living in a shelter was depressing, she says. And working on a farm didn't seem much better, she says. "I thought, 'Oh no. Not a farm. It's going to be chores. ... I wasn't enthusiastic.'"

But she took a leap of faith and became part of GrowGood's Temporary Employment Program late in 2018. 

Turns out it didn't take much to change her mind. "I saw butterflies, and thought, 'Oh, this is lovely. ... I'm not out there desilking corn all day."

Amanda showing off a hand dyed scarf she made using indigo grown at the farm.

She liked putting her hands in the dirt and the precision of planting one seed at a time. "I took the time to appreciate the wonder of nature in a way I didn't do as a kid," she says over a vanilla latte at a Huntington Park café. 

Amanda's smile was a fixture at GrowGood, and she could be counted on to note the "magic" of the farm. 

She’s always wanted to be an artist. “When I was a girl I told my mother, ‘I want to grow up and be an artist.’” But her mother responded by saying that would not be a lucrative path. “So like a good little girl, I took AP courses and planned for college.”

But Amanda’s path was not to be so smooth. She met and married at 19 a man with three little girls; then they had a son.

I couldn’t help but be wide-eyed at that. “I was raised very Christian,” Amanda explains. “Part of my motivation had been that these little kids didn’t have a mommy.”

The marriage had problems; Amanda learned the girls’ mother did want to be in their lives. And she started to feel trapped. Her way out was enlisting in the U.S. Army, and after boot camp she was sent to Fort Gordon in Georgia to computer repair school.

It was there that her world fell apart. At 4 a.m., when she was due to go on  a run with other soldiers, her husband showed up and said he was taking off with their son.

“It was horrifying,” she says now, at 48, decades after the moment. “I remember this day so clearly.”

She completed the run – falling behind, with an officer yelling, “Come on, soldier. Pick up your feet!” – and then went to the military police, where she was told there was not much to be done. But she knew what she had to do.

She went AWOL and returned to Michigan, reuniting with her husband so she wouldn’t be without her son.  She soon turned herself in, and was lucky enough to get a general discharge -- and avoid a court martial. Her son, still in the Midwest, has a 1-year-old and is expecting a second child.

She eventually married again: "I loved him very much. He was my best friend," she says, her voice breaking a bit as she reveals that he died.

Amanda then moved to New Mexico, where her mother was living. And eventually to California. "My heart was always pulling me to California," she says. The VA sent her to the Bell Shelter, where she lived until the fall of 2019, when she moved to a house with her own room. She's looking for a job, exploring Los Angeles and working at her art.  “My favorite sort of art is 3-D illustration. I use various programs for that,” she says. She’s self-taught, has used programs like PhotoShop for years. The goal is a YouTube channel "that will show people the beautiful world." 

She has a clever stop-motion intro already done that will make anyone smile.

Kind of like Amanda herself.

By Mary MacVean

MARY MACVEAN: A PERSON OF HER WORD by JUSTINE LEBLANC

People today tout clean eating as having less to do with losing weight and more to do about feeding yourself mindfully. But Mary MacVean claims it’s an old trick, repackaged with new vocabulary.

“There are all these ways of talking about what is essentially the same thing – a super strict control over what goes in your mouth,” she says. “It just has different names now.”

Gwyneth Paltrow’s recently released cookbook purports to not be focused on dropping pounds (but in reality promotes restrictive diets). Weight Watchers rebranded as WW, dropping the dreaded word “weight” from its name. Atkins and NutriSystem have been replaced by keto and Whole 30. But no matter the rebrands, they cannot fool MacVean, whose work revolves around branding food as a means of healing and self-care.

MacVean is executive director of GrowGood, an urban farm in partnership with the Salvation Army in Bell. GrowGood’s land covers an acre and a half with three different gardens, a chicken coop and a substantial greenhouse. Most importantly, it also provides jobs and opportunities for the 500 homeless people who live in the shelters across the street on Mansfield Way.

On a recent visit to GrowGood, MacVean strides through the garden with a group of students, giving them tastes of the nasturtium leaves and pink peppercorns freshly fallen from the tree. This, for MacVean, is the crux of the organization: connecting people to the things they eat. She believes that may help the problematic relationship people have with their food.

MacVean doesn’t remember a time in her adult life where she wasn’t concerned with her weight. In high school, she would set an alarm early to wake up before her parents, pour a little milk and cereal into a bowl and leave it in the sink so her parents would think she ate. MacVean is in the majority of women on that front – adopting habits to control her weight and appearance from an early age. A study done recently showed that 80% of women have had some issues with body image throughout their lifetime.

Read the rest of the article on Ampersand’s blog here.

2018 Annual Report

Check out our 2018 Annual Report. It was a landmark year for GrowGood and we are excited for the future!

“We are determined to do everything we can to make ourselves financially sustainable without sacrificing the delivery every week, year-round, of hyper-local food into the kitchen of The Salvation Bell Shelter.”

— Mary MacVean, Executive Director

Photo cred: Christina Gandolfo

Shop Black Friday through AmazonSmile to Donate to GrowGood

GrowGood is a recognized charitable organization by Amazon! For those of you who don’t know, AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com. The difference is that when customers shop on AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.

This Black Friday, score deals through GrowGood’s AmazonSmile Profile smile.amazon.com/ch/45-5472840 and AmazonSmile donates to GrowGood.

Thank you,

The GrowGood Team