Planting purpose: the impact of gardening at this Fredericton shelter
Oak Centre cultivates well-being for homeless residents, helps eliminate stigma
Talk of gardening echoes through the cafe at Fredericton's Oak Centre.
Residents sit in small groups, sipping their morning coffee while giving updates to each other about how their plants are growing in the community garden.
It's music to the ears of peer support worker Donald Parker who knows first hand how important it is to have something to look forward to.
"They're excited to come out in the mornings and weed and plant," Parker said.
Oak Centre is a supportive housing complex operated by the John Howard Society for people experiencing or who have experienced homelessness.
Now in its fourth season, Parker has seen the difference the centre's community garden has had on residents.
"They're proud of what they're doing. They feel like they got a purpose. They feel like they matter. You know, they're not thinking about the stigma that people put on them," he said.
The community garden is surrounded by a wooden fence, where grape vines hug one corner. Inside are 43 raised garden beds and a shed to store gardening tools.
Parker got involved after his own struggle with addiction and mental health.
"I had my own dark demons and I had my own addictions that I had to deal with," he said. "For years I was addicted to cocaine and was drinking and doing other pills."
After a stay in a rehabilitation centre, he began working with others and eventually trained to become a peer support worker.
His past experience in carpentry made him the ideal person to turn the idea of a community garden at Oak Centre into a reality.
"They knew what they wanted, they just didn't know how to put it together," Parker said.
He understood how important a space like a garden could be because when he returned home from rehab, he remembers needing something to do.
"My whole life at that time was the place that I went."
Parker said his personal experience helps him relate to residents.
"Having a key and a front door is a big thing and once you do house these people, they need something to do."
For many, that something is gardening.
"They get in here, they plant their own stuff, tomatoes or cucumbers, they use it to go up to their units and cook their own tomato sandwiches," Parker said.
"I heard some stories about them making pizza out of the tomatoes and basil that they harvested from this garden," Beyonce Guiao said.
Guiao is working as a summer student at Oak Centre. She applied for the job because it looked like a fun gardening gig. But the job has become so much more to her.
"I realized it's not just gardening. It's also being able to be a part of something that helps foster a sense of community in this place and it's such a fulfilling job," Guiao said.
She's responsible for maintaining the garden, signing up residents to participate, and getting donations like seeds and gardening tools.
Parker said many materials needed to build the garden were donated.
"It's great how the community comes together and reaches out at a time like this," Parker said. "That's what helps eliminate the stigma that comes around with living rough, you know, it's just beautiful to see."
Parker said the garden just opened for the summer a week ago.
"These people are brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, mothers, fathers," Parker said. "They're people. They matter and they need to be recognized as such and need a purpose. And you know, this is what we tried to give them as a purpose."
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