Emma Stahl-Wert is growing hope, one vegetable at a time.
As garden coordinator for the Primavera Foundation, Stahl-Wert plans and manages community gardens at transitional housing properties in Tucson, Ariz., where she is in the middle of her two-year term with Mennonite Voluntary Service, a Mennonite Mission Network program.
Each week, Stahl-Wert, 22, works alongside residents, many of whom were formerly homeless, as they care for the gardens and harvest their own fruits and vegetables. Together, they grow produce all year long—peas, potatoes, carrots, corn, melons and squash.
The purpose of the project is to increase food security by teaching garden skills, providing fresh, healthy food for the tenants, and engaging people in life-giving collaborative work, Stahl-Wert said.
Many of the residents at the two main properties where Stahl-Wert works had no prior gardening experience and were initially skeptical that the gardens would be fruitful. Much of Stahl-Wert’s early work focused on teaching people gardening basics and convincing them the project was worth their time. As plants began to sprout, optimism did too.
“These are people who have lived rough lives, who were very cynical about the gardens in the beginning,” Stahl-Wert said. “But after a year of continuity, of watching the idea grow, they get very excited when they see the vegetables. It’s a tangible sort of joy.”
At first Stahl-Wert was the only person to tend the community gardens on a regular basis; now, four women from one of the housing properties routinely work with her. Sometimes the women even prepare meals together. Stahl-Wert will never forget the first time she invited her gardening friends to cook dinner together using their own produce.
“They claimed to not like vegetables,” Stahl-Wert explained. “But once they tried the dishes, they said they loved every single one. That night they ate ridiculous amounts of vegetables.”
Stahl-Wert, who earned a degree in environmental sustainability in 2011 from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., was not sure what she wanted to do after graduation. The Pittsburgh native didn’t feel her skills were marketable and was not interested in working simply to make money.
When she came across the MVS garden coordinator position in Tucson, it seemed like the right fit. For Stahl-Wert, an avid gardener, MVS offered—and continues to offer—the perfect intersection of her interests in environmental science and social justice.
“It’s awesome because I get to garden as a way to connect with the homeless,” Stahl-Wert said. “It’s a small piece of a larger task, but it’s a starting point to building community.”
Community building does not end at Primavera, Stahl-Wert says. Shalom Mennonite Fellowship, the local supporting congregation, has been an integral part of her community experience. Although the congregation is not formally connected to Primavera, church members maintain ties to the garden project and provide support in times of need.
Once, early in the year, Stahl-Wert had a big digging project she needed help with, so an older couple from Shalom volunteered to chip in. Together, the three of them dug the entire garden. At other times, church members have helped to collect Tupperware containers in which to plant seedlings. Stahl-Wert says she feels lucky for all the generosity the church shows.
“I feel like Shalom is a real community that I could call on for physical or other assistance as needed,” Stahl-Wert said.
In addition to the church community, Stahl-Wert enjoys the simple, communal living she experiences in her MVS unit house.
“I think that learning to live well with others, and live well on a shoestring budget, are both important skills for anyone to learn, particularly if that wasn’t a part of their life growing up,” Stahl-Wert said.
That level of responsibility and resourcefulness is also a feature of Stahl-Wert’s garden work.
“I have been happily surprised to find myself in a voluntary service position that has a lot of responsibility and space for my own creativity,” Stahl-Wert said. “[Primavera was] interested in starting gardening programs, but didn’t have the resources to create a full-time staff position to do it. Without a volunteer, like me, to get the garden program running, it may have never happened. That’s a pretty cool role for a recent college grad and first-year MVSer to play!”
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For immediate release.
Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
