Planting Seeds
by Warren L. Maye
A single intervention will not change the world, but people must work together, over time, to protect God’s creation and regenerate the earth— for our children and grandchildren and the vulnerable among us
—DEUTERONOMY 11:13–15
I was deeply moved recently when I heard Don Cheadle say, “Climate change is about the air we breathe, the water we drink, whether our children have access to parks, green spaces, and whether we feel safe and healthy in our own homes.” That night, the award-winning screen actor received theGrio Award for his environmental activism.
Cheadle said the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was a typical example of the catastrophic health, social, and financial problems that climate change inflicts on communities. “Black people are the most impacted in this country and the most at risk. Sixty-eight percent of us live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, leading to disproportionate rates of cancer and asthma,” he said.
As Cheadle spoke, my mind went back to when, as a kid, I lived near a rocky brook in Ohio. Over time, I saw the clear, clean water turn gray and odorous. One day in my teens, determined to understand why, I ventured through the woods and followed the sound of the water until I arrived at the source of the problem. I was astonished to learn that the foul smell and muddy liquid flowed from a corrugated pipe that emptied into the brook.
When I got to the top of a nearby hill, I saw in the distance where the pipe came from—a massive power plant. I realized the pipe’s poison would destroy the lush landscape. But my heart sank. I felt helpless to do anything about it.
The memory faded as I heard Cheadle conclude his remarks. “It’s time to get behind ground-up solutions,” he said. “Organizations [working to fight climate change] need us, connected, behind them, supporting them.”
The Salvation Army is participating in efforts to address climate change in ways both big and small. For example, Captains Bradley and Rachel Moore of the Batavia, N.Y., Salvation Army Corps started a garden in 2022 in response to needs expressed by members of the community. Little did the corps officers—pastors—realize that their seemingly small but generous contribution to the neighborhood would become a catalyst for community development in ways they couldn’t have imagined.
“I think there’s something tangible about watching, you know, a seed come to life. That fits right in with the whole message that we have about faith,” said Captain Bradley Moore. “Just a little faith can move mountains. It’s cool to see what’s happening in our community.”
A garden grows
On a sunny September day, the Moores partnered with volunteers from National Grid, an energy company, which endeavors to assist the communities it serves by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Paul Gister, a jurisdiction manager for National Grid, described the project to a reporter from the Batavia Daily News. “Today we’re building gardens for The Salvation Army. This is what we call Project C. This is what we are doing in communities in our territory and across New York state.”
The Salvation Army project was just one of many scheduled that day. “We have 15 volunteers working at this site, but overall, we have 2,000 volunteers from Long Island to western New York working today. The reason we chose this garden is because three years ago The Salvation Army had this goal to grow fresh vegetables for their clients and to offer people from the community a chance to participate in the garden. It was the Army’s goal to build this garden, but they didn’t have the resources to do it. So, that’s why we’re here.”
That six-hour project has since attracted people to the corps who enjoy tilling the soil. “The Salvation Army is improving community interaction and engagement,” said Gister.
National Grid volunteers wore colorful T-shirts and caps that bore the slogan “Our communities, our commitment.” Strong men wielded rakes, shovels, and digging machines and hefted bags of soil and mulch. Their smiles revealed the satisfaction such a project can birth in one’s spirit.
“They prepped the ground and got us up and running,” Captain Bradley said.
“This happened during the offseason, so we went back again the next year and had members from the community help plant things. We also partnered with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, who offered their expertise. But ultimately, we’re growing what it will become.”
Captain Rachel said children from the community also helped. “We have about 18 kids working on the garden right now. They come in the afternoon after school or whenever they show up. We planted watermelon, tomatoes, corn, peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and squash.”
“We have a pretty substantial food pantry here, so now we’re able to provide some of the fresh produce for it,” Captain Bradley said. “We also offer a weekly senior luncheon, and we’ve used some of the harvests for that and for other meals.
“Several people in the community come regularly to cultivate the garden. Sometimes they’ve asked if they can take items. I say, ‘Absolutely. That’s what it’s here for.’
“It’s still new. It’s kind of coming together, and it’s been kind of cool. It’s not right on the street, but you can see it from the main street as you walk by, and that’s how several people have come to help daily with the garden. They help tend things and offer to water the garden throughout the season. It’s been taking on a life of its own. We didn’t fully know what it would look like, but we know that we certainly have opportunities to use the produce. So yes, it’s been great.”
Building blocks
On a larger scale, The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Philadelphia partnered with Andropogon—a firm whose founders believe even polluted industrial sites can be transformed into vibrant green spaces that foster community and help heal the earth—to turn a blighted plot into a beautiful and functional stretch of property. In urban environments, well-engineered landscaping can be a beacon for hope, providing neighborhoods with facilities that promote individual health and ecological sustainability.
The Landscape Architecture Foundation did a case study for its Landscape Performance Series of the Philadelphia Kroc Center development and found that it successfully reduced the rate of stormwater runoff, capturing the first inch in a series of rain gardens. The design also included a small farm for growing produce, and more than 500 trees and shrubs were planted, which should absorb over 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.
These features increased the ecological quality of the area by “34 times that of the former site, as measured by the Plant Stewardship Index, an assessment of native biodiversity,” according to the case study.
The landscaping strategy also saved the Kroc Center $575,000 in fees that would have been paid to remove 17,500 tons of material from the site, which would have entered landfills. Instead, 100% of existing pavement was crushed and carefully reused on-site.
The Philadelphia Kroc Center isn’t alone in its focus on sustainability and community. The Kroc Center in Camden, N.J., works in partnership with the Camden County Family Support Organization. This collaboration has produced hundreds of pounds of vegetables to support the Kroc Marketplace, which serves over 10,000 area residents through the Kroc Center’s Melvin Williams Memorial Garden.
“For many years, Melvin Williams was the custodial supervisor here,” Benjamin Ovadia, community resource and development director at the Kroc Center, told SAconnects. “Sadly, he passed away, but he was the hardest worker, the first person in, the last out. We wanted to dedicate the garden in memory of his welcoming spirit.”
Partners at the Division of Disability Services, New Jersey Department of Human Services, Backyard Gardens, and Rowan University provided funding and construction of the inclusive garden. It offers features such as wheelchair-accessible pathways and garden beds, accessible parking, and bilingual signage.
Regeneration
The beloved 2018 documentary The Biggest Little Farm—beautifully and empathetically filmed in the hills of Apricot Lane Farms in Southern California—also shows how even barren ground can be regenerated into healthy, biodiverse land that can nurture our bodies and souls. Changing the earth and improving the environment starts with appreciating its smallest organisms and how they serve as the building blocks for our world.
With guidance from an expert mentor, and the help of many volunteers connected through the group Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, John and Molly Chester slowly, over the course of seven years, transformed 234 acres of exhausted soil into a thriving organic farm.
A runner-up for the Sundance Festival Favorite Award in 2019, The Biggest Little Farm illustrates how life can be wonderfully birthed through the generosity of God who created the heavens and the earth. The movie has had a profound impact on the way its viewers value the planet (a 30-minute special, The Biggest Little Farm: The Return, premiered on Earth Day 2022 and is available to stream on Disney+).
To this day, visitors come to the farm from all over the world to see the progress and results for themselves.
The climate crisis
In a typical community garden, wooden dividers separate rows of tomatoes, beets, and squash. These carefully nurtured spaces represent small steps toward improving local environments. But what about sustainability on a global scale?
F. Stuart “Terry” Chapin III, an ecologist and leading advocate of earth stewardship, is concerned that the earth is on a dangerous trajectory, a collision course with society that will result in irreversible losses of flora and fauna if nothing changes.
Rather than focusing on “the global problem,” Chapin believes that greater success will come from creating leverage and collaboration at the grassroots. “If we can have this dialogue about potential solutions rather than just about the problems, people will feel more interested and empowered to seek those solutions and move toward sustainability. That would be my hope,” he said at a European Ecological Federation meeting in Avila, Spain, in 2011. “We need you to get involved in these issues.”
At the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden, Chapin described how his grandfather grew up in New York City but took his kids camping, on picnics, and fishing. Chapin’s father also took him outdoors to develop a connection to nature, which he’s passing down through the generations in his family. This graduate of Swarthmore College, known as the “Garden of Ideas” and nestled in the Scott Arboretum in Pennsylvania, now lives in Alaska and works with Indigenous people there to discover new ways to reduce unnecessary consumption of resources and support local agricultural businesses.
In “Earth Stewardship: Shaping a Sustainable Future Through Interacting Policy and Norm Shifts” (Ambio, 2022), Chapin and his co-authors point to a 2021 survey of citizens conducted by Global Commons Alliance, which showed that at least 58% of them are seriously worried about the state of the planet, and 73% believe that “we are close to dangerous tipping points in our biosphere because of human actions.”
But Chapin says that changes in our behavior, especially ones that are visible to others and easy to adopt—such as less frequent driving and air travel, more walking and bicycling; less use of disposable plastic, more recycling; less food waste, more eating of plant-based diets— can help shift social norms. And instead of measuring happiness by the things we own (impressive but fuel-guzzling cars, hard-to-heat multibedroom homes, flashy clothes), we can choose to focus on noncommercial things like time spent with family and friends. If we don’t take individual as well as collective actions to take care of the earth, Chapin told the audience in Stockholm, “it’s increasingly clear that our children and their children are going to face an extremely inhospitable environment.”
In your own backyard
So, the question becomes: How can something as small as a community garden, such as the ones that have taken root in Batavia, N.Y., and Camden, N.J., or even the elaborate and functional landscaping efforts at the Philadelphia Kroc Center make any difference for a global problem?
Chapin doesn’t believe that any one intervention can cause the transformation that’s necessary. But he does believe that collectively these projects, initiatives, and individual actions serve as “leverage points.” These levers can help overturn policies and break new ground, even in one’s own backyard. In a 2016 commencement speech at Swarthmore, he told the crowd, “Make it your responsibility to shape the future of our planet. Each of us must play an active role in seeking solutions, no matter how big or small, rather than assuming that someone else will fix the problems.”
Children at the Kroc Center garden in Camden, N.J.
The Salvation Army’s international position statement on the environment says: “The Salvation Army believes people are made in the image of God. He has entrusted us to reflect his personality by caring for the Earth and everything in it. The Salvation Army recognizes environmental degradation as one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, affecting us all. Its effects fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable, particularly in terms of health, livelihood, shelter, and the opportunity to make choices. The very survival of humanity depends on the health of the whole ecosystem.
“In addition to being compelled by lived experience, The Salvation Army also accepts the scientific evidence that demands action on all levels to lessen the effects of environmental damage. It is committed to sustainable environmental practices which are required to safeguard the integrity of creation.”
The power to act
Katharine Hayhoe is the author of a New York Times op-ed titled “I’m a Climate Scientist Who Believes in God. Hear Me Out.” In it, she calls caring about climate change “a profoundly Christian value.”
“Climate change will strike hard against the very people we’re told to care for and love, amplifying hunger and poverty, and increasing risks of resource scarcity that can exacerbate political instability, and even create or worsen refugee crises,” Hayhoe writes. “Real people are being affected today; and we believe that God’s love has been poured in our hearts to share with our brothers and sisters here and around the world who are suffering.”
She writes that God has given us “a spirit of power, to act rather than to remain paralyzed in anxiety, fear, or guilt; a spirit of love, to have compassion for others, particularly those less fortunate than us (the very people most affected by a changing climate); and a sound mind, to use the information we have to make good decisions.”
I pray you will be inspired to make changes in your daily life—and to encourage others to do the same. And hopefully, more community gardens will spring up in 2024 and beyond. If the Moores and their many enthusiastic neighbors in Batavia have anything to do with it, such change could be inevitable.
“We have one member that has been a longtime volunteer and attending the congregation for about maybe the last year,” said Captain Bradley Moore. “Gardening is her passion, and she comes regularly to help.
“She also has a good friend who does not attend church anywhere. But gardening has been an awesome kind of bridge to get her connected and involved. Just being able to witness to her, minister to her, and ask her questions, and her being willing to know us even more, is good. One day, she drove her tractor up here. She’s funny in a lot of ways, a real go-getter. She’ll be like, ‘I don’t really like it when people beat my head with the Bible.’ And I’ll say, ‘That’s not what we’re going to do.’”
Farmers of the future
The Moores’ three children also take part with enthusiasm. Their 7-year-old son is already contemplating a future in farming. “I thought it was maybe a fleeting thing since he was in kindergarten,” said Captain Rachel. “But he’s now in second grade and every time I ask him, even to this day, he says, ‘I want to be a farmer,’ and he is always wanting to just dig and play with the worms.”
Her son is one of many children setting out on the path of caring for the earth. “We have a program dubbed ‘The Journey,’ which meets every Friday night,” she said. “It was birthed out of COVID when we realized that people were not only looking for community, but they were looking for their entire families to have a place to belong, with everything shut down. We do a combined time together where kids can do their homework or play in the gym. During the warm months, they come out and start weeding the garden and doing those fun things.”
Captain Rachel believes community gardens help provide a sense of security from the ground up. “I think people would feel less insecure about food or where the next meal is going to come from when we have that sense of ownership. You know, God gave Adam and Eve that charge to take care of the garden and everything in it. People still carry that same responsibility to take care of God’s creation but also to enjoy it.
“I think that people should really have the essence of ‘owning’ the land but also owning their own circumstance: ‘I wouldn’t be so concerned where my food is coming from because I know how to grow it myself.’”
Next year, the program promises to move to another level. “We’re hoping to incorporate with the kids a small business practice component where they will be able to take their vegetables to the farmers market and sell them. They’ll have to figure out how much food $15 will buy, so we can buy more seeds to grow again next year.”
With projects like this, The Salvation Army is planting seeds of hope for the future.
A blueprint for change
People once believed that the transatlantic slave trade could not be stopped. In the book Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves, author Adam Hochschild writes about what he calls “the most brilliantly organized social justice campaign in history.” He points to the multiple leverage points that resulted in a successful shift in thinking, behavior, and ultimately legislation.
Leaders of the movement to abolish the slave trade, including Thomas Clarkson and Lord William Wilberforce, were deeply motivated by their evangelical faith. They formed societies, held rallies, gave speeches, and collected evidence of the evils of slavery. Gradually, over decades of advocacy, they built a political case that led to legislation prohibiting the trading of enslaved people within the British Empire.
Study of that history inspires social movements today. “They see an analogy to these abolitionists of 225 years ago who put an issue on the table … in the late 18th century,” said Hochschild in an interview with The Bridgehead. Activists are trying to use similar tactics to achieve their goals, including in the fight against climate change.
About the Author: Warren L. Maye
