When you think of a spring garden, you think of renewal and the promise of bounty soon to come. And a chance at renewal is what one local entrepreneur is bringing to a desperate corner of downtown Toledo.

Hundreds of men have been through the doors of the Cherry Street Mission and now they are trying to get their lives back together by digging in the dirt. Duke Wheeler brought more than 20 companies together this spring to hatch his plan: a victory garden for the men of the Cherry Street Mission.

The vacant lot behind the Mission at the corner of 18th Street and Monroe used to be filled with garbage and was a place for crime. Now, it is a place filled with fresh soil and a place for growing. “If we use this plot in a tough area of the city to revitalize, I think we can change the city from the inside out and come up with some great results,” Mr. Wheeler says.

Jaimon Schuster of Toledo is 30 years old and homeless. He’s stayed at the Cherry Street Mission for the past year. “This is the first time I have ever been out of work like this. I’m ready to help and I pitch in when I can.” He says he’s never done anything like this before and is willing to try to learn some new skills. “Everyone’s trying to pull together to make the best out of a bad situation, and that’s a positive, right?”

A brighter future

The dozen rows of raised vegetable beds hold food for the men of the shelter. Cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and kale have been planted, and soon tomatoes and sweet corn will be put in the ground. Chickens are roosting around the garden to help fertilize the plants. Volunteers brought in the soil and installed an irrigation system to keep the garden lush through the hot summer months.

Ed Munhollon has lived in the Cherry Street Mission for a couple of years. He is in the Caleb Transitional House nearby and says, “I’m no gardener, I’m a carpenter. But I talked to Duke and he said, ‘know somebody that can build me a fence?’ I said, ‘yeah, I can!’ ” Mr. Munhollon finished that fence and is on a new project to build a chicken coop for the garden’s permanent residents. He says, “It is all about giving back and getting back on our feet and being productive tax-paying citizens.”

The City of Toledo, Toledo Grows, and the Ohio State Extension Office are pooling their resources to keep the project on the right track. Amy Stone, Lucas County Extension Agent, says, “We can help them with the basics on gardening like what is a weed, what is a good insect, what is a bad insect and most importantly, what it takes to have a successful garden. And if they are learning next to someone that knows how to garden, they can only become better.”

Mr. Wheeler and his small army of Cherry Street Mission gardeners and other volunteers want to start other gardens like this around the city. He says, “It isn’t about the vegetables, it’s about giving the sense of pride, self-esteem to these men, a sense of worth to the people that have the least.”

It’s planting a seed in their lives to see their own bounty in the future. By Kelly Heidbreder, Toledo Blade