Eliberto Quiroz and the Community Garden of the Center for the Homeless
By: Javaughn Fernanders
Tags: Food Justice, Homelessness, The Salvation Army, Gardening, South Bend

by Javaughn Fernanders

Photo by Kenan Kitchen on Unsplash

In the spring of 2009 Eliberto Quiroz was transforming a patch of weeds next to the Center for the Homeless into a rich garden of vegetables and a burst of flowers. He was also transforming his own life.

Up until then, and he was already in his fifties, Eliberto’s life had been very hard. He was born the fifth of twelve children to two Mexican American migrant workers. Before his mother settled in South Bend, the large family was always on the move from Florida to Texas to Michigan. “I even remember picking cotton in Oklahoma when I was about six or seven.” His father left when Eliberto was seven and that was a terrible blow for the boy. “Part of my life disappeared.”

Between his early twenties and now, Eliberto lost years of his life. After six years in the army, and a failed marriage, he found it hard to cope. Drugs and alcohol destroyed any dreams he had had of opening his own garage and using the skills he had learned in the army. Finally, early in 2009, he ended up in the South Bend Center for the Homeless.

He had been there only a couple of weeks when he noticed the Assistant Director digging in a small vegetable plot that was overgrown with weeds. He laughed because she was in her office clothes and called to her.

“Hey, it looks like you need some help?” From that moment Eliberto’s life changed. He became the main caretaker of what was to grow into the Community Garden of the Center for the Homeless. Every day he worked six or even eight and nine hours, landscaping, weeding, and tending plants.

Working with the soil brought his childhood back to him. His uncle had shown him how to grow corn, cucumbers and other vegetables, and from his grandmother he learned about flowers. Her front yard was a burst of hollyhocks, zinnias, black eyed susans and herbs. He remembered that she made a medicinal bathwater from the oil of sage leaves and that one time when he had badly cut his finger on a can, she wrapped it in cobwebs and it healed quickly.

Decades later with his hands deep in the soil, Eliberto says, “…it brought all that back to me.” Now Eliberto also can understand what his mother felt when she looked so lovingly at the roses, petunias, and “bellenes” in her garden. The bellenes were his favorite. He loved their delicate pastel flowers and the way the seed pots would explode in the fall. “Now that I work here, I understand what my mother got out of it.”

The garden gives Eliberto even more than a connection to his past. He becomes eloquent as he thinks about what he is experiencing.

“I have a sense of solidarity being with myself, a way to clear my mind and forget stress. It calms me and keeps me from losing sight of what I have to do. It keeps me sane and grounded. The work here is just so comforting.” And, he admits, it also makes him proud of what he has accomplished.

Eliberto tries to share some of his experience with the Center, especially the children. When he noticed that robins had built a nest in a hanging plant, he brought the children to observe the nest, then watch the three blue robin’s eggs and the hatchlings. On the day I talked with him, the last hatchling had just jumped the nest. And perhaps the best image of the transformative power of a garden is about to come.

A while ago Eliberto collected caterpillars and placed them carefully in some netting. Now he and the children are waiting to see the transformation into butterflies which they then will release in the garden.

The reward for all the hard work has begun. The harvest is rich: peas, beans, zucchini, cabbage, lettuce and more. “Every day I come in I find something more,” said Aaron, a young man and fellow Center guest who helps Eliberto and learns from him. Chef Troy of the Center is delighted to be able to cook with the fresh vegetables and herbs and every day Eliberto brightens the Center with zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, and petunias. Eliberto also shares basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme with the Food Bank and ….

The garden was sponsored by the Junior League of South Bend. A $15,000 grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County helped to make it reality. And once this start was made, a great number of local businesses helped out, too many to mention all. Foegley Landscaping helped with garden design and installed an irrigation system which was provided by Rainbird Corporation and Kenney Outdoor Solutions; a number of construction companies and architects as well as Carpenters Local 413 built a pavilion and a pergola. Herrmann and Goetz Services donated beautiful light fixtures and Electrical Workers Local 153 helped with their installation. A Junior League member donated a children’s playhouse. Materials for paving were donated by Kuert Concrete and C.M.A. Supply Company and the Schumacher Brothers gave their labor to create the walkways in their decorative concrete and set up the fountain.

The garden is the result of the community working together, donating time, skills, materials, and money. But Eliberto is the one who keeps it growing. As Amanda Miller, Events Coordinator for the Center, said: “We couldn’t do this without him.”