Jamie Ondrik grabs a shovel and digs into the dirt inside Together We Grow’s high tunnel greenhouse, where the day’s bright sun has warmed the hot house to nearly 100 degrees.
He is working with Terri Miles, a supervisor with the nonprofit organization, to transplant a radish that accidentally germinated in a pot, which will die if it stays in the pot. But it’s not easy work since the ground is dry and hard, and the temperature is rising.
“I’m getting hot,” said Ondrik, 49.
“There’s water in the refrigerator if you need and you can step outside for a moment, Jamie,” replied Jennie Mason, 69, another supervisor, as she works with ZJ Lively, 38, a program participant with Ondrik, to finish planting the rest of the radishes. When they’re done, the entire group steps outside the greenhouse and into the shade of a smaller greenhouse.
The greenhouse complex is an important component of Together We Grow’s mission to combat food insecurity and enhance food access for anyone in Licking County. To accomplish this goal, Together We Grow has set up community Gardens across Licking County, with five in Newark, one in Utica, and one in Hanover.
Along with these community gardens, Together We Grow operates nine school gardens across the Newark City Schools district. One of these school gardens is the Heritage Greenhouse constructed on land owned by Heritage Middle School at 563 New Haven Ave., on the east side of Newark.
Another aspect of Together We Grow is a program that teaches and engages adults with developmental disabilities. It’s called Here We Grow Gardens, and they are helping host a plant sale from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, at the Heritage Middle School greenhouse.
They’ll offer a variety of organically grown vegetables and flowers for your garden and salads, including fresh tomatoes and peppers. All proceeds will help fund Together We Grow’s programs and mission, including the Here We Grow program for adults with developmental disabilities.
The program empowers adults with developmental disabilities by teaching hands-on gardening skills in a year-round greenhouse at Heritage Middle School. However, they do more than just plant seeds. Participants cultivate independence, community, and purpose while helping fight food insecurity across Licking County.
“It keeps me active and I get to help people,” Ondrik said. “I come back because I get to plant stuff, and I know that some of it gets given away, which means I am helping people.”
The greenhouse also has the organization’s only Aquaponics tank. Aquaponics is a system in which fish living in the tank below the plant bed supply nutrients to the plants, which in turn re-purify the water for the fish.
“The fish and the work keep me coming back,” said Timothy McLeod, 34, one of the participants of the program. “I enjoy gardening and being outdoors while I am here.”
The program is not only fulfilling for the participants but also for those who work at the greenhouse. Workers get to teach participants and watch them learn and grow. No one takes more pride in the program than its director, Jennie Mason.
Mason has been the program director since August of 2021. She is a Newark resident and a retired sales and customer service representative. After she retired, she knew she needed to do more than be at home all day. So, when the opportunity to work with Together We Grow presented itself, she jumped on it.
“It started when my friend took me to the community garden,” Mason said. “I didn’t know it would turn into a job, but I knew I enjoyed gardening. From there, I just kept getting more and more involved until one day they told me that I was doing too much work just to be a volunteer.”
She now spends five hours on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Heritage Greenhouse, working with and teaching adults with developmental disabilities, while also caring for the plants and gardening throughout the day.
“Raising a child as a single mother instilled a need to help others within me,” Mason said. “Getting to work with the groups that come to the garden is how I continue to help and serve my community. It’s also a bonus that it gets me out of the house.”
Along with Mason, Terri Miles, 69, the program’s assistant program director, works tirelessly to keep the program and greenhouse running.
“I came here on a Monday just to kind of look and see how the organization went, and then I haven’t left,” Miles said. “Probably my favorite part of it is working with the groups. We’re teaching them how to do stuff, which is really great.”
The program also allows volunteers to interact with members of the community whom they might not otherwise meet.
“I was kind of leery, because I never really worked with disabled adults before, and I wasn’t sure, but then once I got to know them all, they’re all so great,” said Ruth Meyer, 67, a program volunteer. “They make me laugh. It’s just really fun to plant and watch everything grow with them.”
The program, along with everything else Together We Grow does, is entirely grant-funded and self-funded.
“We raise money to do certain projects, and we don’t do projects until we have the money to do them,” said Vanessa Cross, executive director of Together We Grow Gardens.
To continue serving the community, they apply for numerous grants and funding from various sources, including the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities, which gave them $5,000 in 2024 for the Here We Grow Garden’s program.
“They used our funding to keep the greenhouse and its programs operating,” said Anna Jeffries, the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities Public Information Officer. “We were happy to help them offer programming during the winter months that otherwise wouldn’t have been available.”
Another way they fund programs is by selling plants and other products, such as luffa sponges and worm tea, throughout the year.
The Here We Grow program does more than just provide a space for adults with developmental disabilities to garden for an hour once a week. It provides them with a space to learn and practice life skills. It provides a new community centered around gardening for both participants and workers.
It also connects community members who would otherwise not meet, and it fosters smiles and joy throughout the community while helping to combat food insecurity in the area. While the program may be centered around the eight plant beds, two greenhouses, and one solar-powered shed that make up the heritage greenhouse, it reaches far beyond the eight-foot-tall black chain-link fence surrounding the garden.
Josh Thomas writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.