The Power of Hope
Eco-Justice Ministry in Action
by Donald B. Conroy

Introduction
In the summer of 1992, I had the opportunity of meeting Gloria Luster. From the start I recognized she was a very unique spirit. She has a keen sense of compassion and a deep commitment to renew the earth and give hope to people, especially those in the inner city who feel alienated and disenfranchised.

During our first meeting on that summer day, she wanted me to go to a garden which she had started nearby, within walking distance of her home in Pimlico (a section of Baltimore often known for its race track). As we walked up the alley behind her house and over a cross street, she told me how my visit was an answer to her prayers. She so wanted to start a garden for the poor and the hungry in Baltimore, but had not met with anyone from the religious community who was interested.

Before I could hear everything she had to tell me about her plans and dreams, we came to the end of the alley and looked across the street. There on the corner lot was a magnificent, lush garden. We went over for closer inspection. "This is my 'Garden of Eden,'" she said, motioning for me to come over and inspect it.

The garden was not your ordinary city plot. Three kinds of tomatoes (big boy, summer special, and better boy), several types of lettuce, potatoes, collard greens, different types of squash and zucchini, beets, pumpkins and corn were all growing behind a front edge of beautiful summer flowers of all types.

"Come here," she remarked. "I want to show you my secret." I went to the rear of the lot and there, beside the back fence under some trees, was a huge compost pile. "When I started this garden no one believed me that anything but weeds would grow here. On this lot was an old, termite-ridden house that the city pulled down. All that was left was some yellow clay and very little soil of any sort.

"I call this my pile of gold!" she said with her characteristic smile. "With old leaves and organic waste from my house, I started this compost pile that turned into rich soil that I scattered all over the lot before I began to plant. Over time I have built up the top soil to the point where it is now able to support a rich variety of food and flowers, as you can see."

I asked whether people stole from her garden that is easily accessible from the street. She said, "Rarely. Maybe a pumpkin or tomato sometimes. No," she explained, "this garden is the pride of the neighborhood and I share with the folks around here. They take great care of this patch, too."

After our inspection of Gloria's "Garden of Eden" once again, we walked back to her house where she told me more about her dreams of starting other inner city gardens. I told her that I would like her to meet an acquaintance of mine, a wonderful Lutheran pastor by the name of Choyce Hall, from St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, not far away. She expressed great interest in meeting him, and that's how it all began!

The Plot Thickens
After this visit I called my friend, the Reverend Choyce Hall. I had met Choyce one day a year before and immediately realized that this inner city pastor understood how important the environmental dimension of his ministry was for the mission of the whole church.

So after Choyce and Gloria met they began at once to consider doing a youth program in the summer of 1992 with an environmental theme thoroughly worked into it.

But that was only a starter. What Gloria wanted to do and Choyce dreamed about was much more extensive and would touch the core of the urban problems much more directly. They both realized that Gloria needed to fulfill her dream of addressing the problems directly by starting a new garden in a very rundown part of the city.

This is the story of what happened and where it has led.

Planning the Garden
The conditions within the inner city of Baltimore are very cutting edge. The environmental devastation and human hunger and displacement are rampant.

Take hunger for example. The incidence of hunger in Baltimore, Maryland, was estimated in the summer of 1992 at approximately 150,000 women, men and children who daily go to bed hungry or malnourished. This amounts to a significant portion of Baltimore's population. Moreover, in the Baltimore inner city many areas have trash heaped up in empty lots and bottles and other waste scattered in alleyways and sidewalks.

"Soup kitchens" have been established by religious and civic organizations, which are trying their best to respond to the need. Some churches run food pantries, which easily run out of both food and money to continue their work. Food campaigns or drives public and private fill a portion of the needed food supply. In addition, many of the hungry are homeless. Many of these especially in the colder times of the year find overnight lodging in shelters run by churches or the city government. As the 1990s have progressed, many of the homeless are now mothers with dependent children. They are unemployed, and have little to do during the day, and little hope of anything getting better.

 

"To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch the renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a person can do.

-- Charles Dudley Warner

The sense of despair and hopelessness is tangible. The poor easily feel down on themselves. Parents find that they quickly become exasperated and impatient with their children. Children receive a start in life that is dead-ended by violence and abuse. The self-image and self-esteem of so many is often very low.

With this condition prevailing, Gloria Luster and Choyce Hall began working together with support from the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology (NACRE) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Hunger Program to do something about the situation.

Gloria Luster as Master Gardener
Gloria Luster is a dedicated Christian and a churchwoman who believes in action. The situation she found demanded not apathy and despair, but a creative way to get going and to get others involved.

With her successful gardening experience in the Pimlico section of Baltimore, Gloria decided that the poor and the hungry could do some amazing things if they had half a chance and some direction in the process. Luster is a certified Master Gardener. She received her certification in 1990 through the Cooperative Extension Service of the nearby land grant university, the University of Maryland. In 1991 she also received a certificate as a Master Composter and had taken advantage of the Baltimore city "Adopt-a-Lot" program near her own home, where her garden received third place in the Baltimore Urban Garden Program and second place in the Northwest Baltimore Corporation's Garden Contest. Along with this she has been active as president of the Baltimore City Master Gardeners Association.

What to others might seem impossible, she saw as an opportunity. She reasoned that the inner city poor often just need a chance to change things and a little support in the process. She also knew that there were about 5,000 empty lots in the city just waiting for someone to use them. Some lots are called "single slot" lots. They are sandwiched between row houses only twelve to sixteen feet wide and as little as 25 feet in depth. But others are located side by side and could be turned into an easy-to-manage urban garden. In addition, others span half a block behind a row of houses and provide ample space to work and mulch.

Gloria found that Baltimore's Adopt-a-Lot Program was uniquely suited to allow for enough acreage to grow quantities of staple vegetables. She had no doubt from her past experience that a wide variety of garden plants could be grown. These included staples such as beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, regular and sweet potatoes, lettuce, cabbage and collard greens. She also had good experience with small fruits such as strawberries and raspberries.

Thus the city-owned lots, which have been acquired for a variety of reasons, including unpaid back taxes, are made available through the Adopt-a-Lot Program. Vegetable or flower gardens are one of the legitimate uses this program encourages. A lease is granted to an individual or a group on a year-to-year basis for as long as the City of Baltimore has no plans for the land's use. Nothing is charged to the lessee, who must agree to keep the land cleared and free of hazards.

Gloria points out the benefits that come to the city itself from the adopted lots. The local government is not constantly compelled to clear the grounds of trash and junk as well as keep down the rodent population for leased areas, which harbor garbage and waste materials. The beauty of the neighborhood is enhanced when a well kept garden of flowers and/or vegetables takes the place of a lot filled with refuse and garbage. Moreover, living skills are often acquired or nurtured when people of various ages, especially the young, get involved. By using organic mulch as fertilizer, fresh and nutritious produce is grown and harvested, thereby expanding the immediate food supply at a low cost and involving people in the inner city in improving their own skills and living standards.

Proceeding with Plans
In the spring Gloria acquired several vacant lots in the most rundown area of Baltimore's inner city, the 1200 block of Shields Place in the Upton section. Through the spring and summer this has now become a half-block-long urban garden, providing food and work for people living there. Having leased the garden space and asked the city to dump 28 loads of free leaf-mold, she mobilized residents living in the adjacent row houses to garden with her. She taught them the skills of turning the leaf mulch into organic soil capable of growing a wide variety of vegetables with some flowers around the perimeter. With the encouragement of NACRE and her local Lutheran Church of St. John, she applied for a small grant. This "Garden of Hope" Coalition now is making a difference and providing a realistic solution for one of the most difficult problems facing our inner cities.

During the summer and fall of 1993 local people working with Gloria Luster have harvested beans, tomatoes, lettuce, collard greens, and other vegetables. Some for the first time in years have had meaningful work outside their homes. One neighborhood gentleman of sixty told Gloria he has never seen the alleyway of Shields Place so clear of debris and garbage and that he felt a new hope and pride for his neighborhood. Another lady told me that in the spring she knew nothing about gardening or planting things, but through the summer was now raising food and cooking these organically grown vegetables herself. She said this with a new confidence and sense of purpose.

A Successful First Year
The first year has been a success, but plans for the coming years are more extensive. During the fall growing season, cabbages and collard greens still do well. Come this winter Gloria Luster intends to lay plans for the 1994 "Power of Hope" Garden. First the lots on the one side of Shields Place that were cleared for this year's garden will be further cultivated, and the opposite side of the alley will be cleared and leased as well to provide a garden area for more residents and an area for the homeless. Also, a "Youth Garden" is now being planned. This winter Gloria will meet with young people through the church. She did not start this section until now because she wanted to have an example for the young people to see that it can be done and that things really do grow, even in the most unlikely places, if you care for the earth and cultivate it.

Prompted by NACRE and Choyce Hall, Gloria applied for a grant from the ELCA to get seed money for the urban garden project. Here is a list of the tools, seeds, and related expenses Gloria figured she needed to get started with the "Power of Hope" garden:

 

Partners in Stewardship
"Partners in Stewardship" was conceived as a way to help low-income families help themselves by growing their own food. The program also promotes responsible use of natural resources through wise stewardship of the land.

Through this program, Bethel Lutheran Church coordinates a Seed Bank and secures requests for seed through order forms which are distributed at Frederick County Food Banks and through area churches and social welfare agencies. In addition to signing up for seed, families may request technical assistance, tools, fertilizer and lime. Sponsors are identified for families who request on-site assistance.

The gardens have proved successful, yielding prodigious quantities of produce in return for a minimal investment of time and effort by the sponsors. Most importantly, the families do all the hard work themselves and gain a renewed sense of self-worth.

Individuals interested in the Partners in Stewardship program should contact:

The Rev. Muriel Nordsiek Heichler
Bethel Lutheran Church
9664 Opossumtown Pike
Frederick, MD 21702
(301) 898-3013 or (301) 694-8280

Dr. Tara Baugher
Coordinator, Partners in Stewardship
(see above)
(301) 898-3982 (after 5:00 pm)

With this array of farming implements Gloria got started. She requested 28 truck loads of free leaves from the City and invited folks from around the blocks bordering on Shields Place to come and work with her. To their pleasant surprise they became gardeners for the first time and began to raise their own fresh food.

With the summer and fall now giving way to winter, the "Power of Hope" Garden lies dormant, waiting for the spring. But Gloria is already alive with new plans. First she wants to meet with the young people a couple of times during the winter to help them prepare for their gardening adventure this coming year. The "Youth Garden" is one dimension, and the plot for the homeless is the other additional gardening space she is planning for the coming spring.

This is not all! Her long-range plans focus on an extensive urban garden being turned into a place for "urban farming" year-round! How is this possible? Well, Gloria Luster and Choyce Hall dream of constructing a low-cost hydroponic greenhouse for raising vegetables and flowers for the urban market all year. They figure it is both socially important and financially feasible. Who knows what after that! Maybe a farmers' market year round?

And finally, who knows what is possible in your own town or city where you least suspect a garden of any kind is possible?!

Donald B. Conroy, S.T.L., Ph.D., is president of the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology (NACRE) and chair of the Consortium on Religion and Ecology-International (CORE-Int'l). After receiving his doctorate in religious studies and sociology of religion, Dr. Conroy taught at Duquesne University. He then moved to Washington, DC, where he founded the National Institute for the Family and became involved in research on socio-cultural and environmental change. He also worked as a consultant on projects with the Rodale Institute and the World Bank Environmental Division. In 1990 he coordinated the Intercontinental Conference on Caring for Creation and the Scholars' Symposium on Ethics, Economics and Global Environmental Change. In 1992 he represented the North American religious community at both the Earth Summit and the '92 Global Forum.

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