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Decades ago, the space employed hundreds of Veterans with mental illness in a gardening work therapy program before it was discontinued and the site fell into disrepair, said VA Whole Health

Program Manager and Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Allen. Allen has been working to revitalize the garden for the past four years.  Now, the garden is recapturing its therapeutic origins

through an innovative new partnership between VA Whole Health, the nonprofit GrowGood, and UCLA Health. The 15-acre garden has now become a job training site and burgeoning regenerative

farm.  Regenerative farming aims to improve the health of an agricultural ecosystem, starting with the soil. This holistic approach works to sustain growth while also enhancing natural

resources that support the farm, leading to increased biodiversity, improved water flow, more carbon storage, and greater resilience. Ultimately, the garden will cultivate thousands of

pounds of organic produce to prevent and treat food insecurity and diet-related disease among Veterans while providing critical mental and physical health programming.     “I’ve seen

firsthand how working in the garden can be transformative for Veterans, and now, with this GrowGood partnership, we have the chance to exponentially expand that impact and prove that food is

medicine in more ways than one,” said Allen. BREAKING NEW GROUND Since 2011, GrowGood has been using urban agriculture as a tool to transform lives and communities by growing food, creating

jobs, and providing nature-based mindfulness programs. This is GrowGood’s first training program that’s focused exclusively on Veterans, said Executive Director for GrowGood, Meghan Steed

Garvey. Their main location is the Bell Farm, adjacent to the Salvation Army Bell Shelter in Southeast Los Angeles.  Garvey said that the Veterans who’ve worked at the Bell Farm inspired the

team to create this program with VA.  “One Veteran who graduated from our program told me, ‘You saw in me something that no one else saw, you gave me this chance and helped me take the next

step,’” said Garvey. “But it wasn’t that we saw something in him – it was that we helped him see his own value. This is really meant to be a step along the pathway to a new future for

them.”  CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO ABOUT THE GROWGOOD PARTNERSHIP! Army Veteran Stephen “Ro” Passmore sought out the garden as an opportunity for healing and rehabilitation after spending

three months at the West LA VA Medical Center Domiciliary, a Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation and Treatment Program.  As one of the first three GrowGood trainees, he said he’s

already seeing the benefits of his time in the garden. “By seeing the external growth at the garden, I’m able to translate it to my own internal growth. It’s been extremely exciting and

fulfilling for me.” “The foundation of Whole Health is that we’re helping Veterans build skills and empowering them to live their best lives,” added Allen. “This program is a way to give

them meaning and purpose as they continue on their healing journeys.” STORIED PAST, BRIGHT FUTURE After the work therapy program ended in the early 2000s, the garden fell into disuse. Then,

in 2021, Allen, along with other dedicated partners, began bringing it back to life, creating an opportunity for Veterans to volunteer and attend classes on site, as well as cultivate fresh

produce to donate to food distributions on campus.  Since August of 2024, the garden has donated 392 pounds of produce for Veterans, as well as facilitated over 300 clinical encounters with

Veterans living both on and off campus. As part of the process of creating the GrowGood program, the team met with farm and gardening programs at VAs nationwide to explore best practices.

Across the board, these programs showed positive results for Veterans, said Allen.  “We asked ourselves, if horticulture therapy is reducing key suicide risk factors, why aren’t we doing

it?” she said.  To measure the garden’s impact on Veterans, the team decided to adopt a thermometer tool, developed by VA Bronx Healthcare System, to measure pain, depression, stress and

loneliness, before and after engaging in clinical programming at the garden. “The preliminary data has shown significant reductions in all these areas”, said Allen. While there are other

Veteran horticulture programs, the Veterans Garden is the largest farm on a VA campus in the nation. It’s also the first of its kind to combine paid job training in regenerative agriculture

with clinical programming for Veteran patients, all as part of a unique healthcare-agriculture partnership.  “Looking at jobs also as a way of healing, we know that working in nature, being

outside, and getting your hands in soil is proven to help with healing from PTSD, depression, and anxiety,” added Garvey. “The setting itself for this work really changes people.” EDUCATION

AND NUTRITION With GrowGood, Veterans will engage in 300 hours of training over the course of three or four months of flexible employment. “They’ll learn regenerative farming and the basic

principles of organic gardening like no-till gardening, natural pest management, rotational growing, companion planting, composting, and other key skills,” said Allen.  The program is

individualized to meet each Veteran’s goals, including a focus on their professional and personal development. They’ll also complete a capstone project focused on a subject they’re

passionate about.  Many Veterans who have experienced homelessness have been chronically unemployed, said Garvey, and this program will give them recent work experience and job references,

as well as new and transferrable skills. Veterans will also be connected to the phytonutrient-rich fruits and vegetables essential to achieving optimal mental and physical health, said Dr.

Kaitlyn Fruin of UCLA Health’s Preventive Medicine division. “Suboptimal nutrition is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, but as clinicians we are not

able to prescribe the nutrient-dense foods our patients need to prevent and treat disease,” she said. The Veterans Garden is a “gamechanger” in this arena, she added, with tools to optimize

Veterans’ metabolic, mental, and financial health. “When we think about food as medicine, we should think about how every single dollar can be spent supporting our Veterans' health,”

she said, including employing them in agricultural jobs, connecting them to nature-based physical activity and mental health programming, and giving them access to the freshest foods. In

keeping with that mission, the garden will provide fresh, organic produce to the Veteran trainees and countless others who are food-insecure through the new on-campus Food Hub and other

distribution sites. The Food Hub is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Building 258, Room 119, and Veterans are welcome to come take what they need. GETTING TO THEIR GOALS

Passmore said his goals for the GrowGood program are to learn the full process from seed to harvest, then harness this knowledge to create something of his own. “I’d like to take the skills

and the connections I’ve gained here and apply them to my own land,” he said. “I’d like to be able to farm sustainably and share with others in my community.” If funding allows, the

GrowGood program plans to have 30 trainees over the next year and has many plans for the garden’s future including planting an orchard with 40 fruit trees, refurbishing the on-site

greenhouse, building an outdoor classroom and more.  The goal is to have something harvestable in the garden every week, said Garvey. “We’re so excited to see this all come to fruition.” 

For Passmore, working in the garden helps him see the bigger picture.  “I would challenge any Veteran that is missing the excitement or connectivity of being in active duty or in a combat

zone to come to the garden and face the challenges that are here,” he said. “These are different challenges, but challenges nonetheless. The opportunity to grow as an individual is deeply

connected to the ability to grow something.” To become a GrowGood trainee, interested Veterans can apply through VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation program, which provides job training,

education, and opportunities for Veterans as an integral part of their recovery.  *Communications Specialist Cara Deptula assisted with interviews for this report.