By Suzanne Labry Contributing Writer |
Just about every Saturday morning in the Central Texas community of Killeen, something rather unusual happens: a varying group of students, ranging in age from as young as 10 to as old as 18, comes to a special garden to work from 9:00 a.m. until noon. They are all there because the Killeen Municipal Court Judge has ordered them to work in the garden in lieu of paying a fine or doing an alternate form of community service. You see, these kids have gotten into trouble with the law and they are trying to set things right.
Their offenses include such minor infractions as curfew violations, shoplifting, speeding and other traffic violations. No drug or alcohol-related crimes or any violent incidents are eligible for community service. On average, 14 young people are assigned to the project each week, although the number is determined by the Municipal Court Judge and can vary widely. The students are always accompanied by Municipal Court personnel and sometimes a parent or other family members.
In 2008 Barbara Weaver, who was Killeen Municipal Court Judge at the time, visited a garden in Sugarland started by one of her counterparts in that city to provide community service opportunities for non-dangerous youth offenders. Judge Weaver was so impressed with what she saw that she set about to create a similar situation for youth offenders in Killeen. The Killeen Municipal Court approved the idea and Judge Weaver approached the Bell County Master Gardener Association (BCMGA) for help. It wasn’t long before the Bell County AgriLife Extension Office and a variety of local businesses and individuals also signed on to assist.
From its inception, the project had three objectives: First, to provide an opportunity for the Municipal Court Judge, the Teen Court and the Bell County Master Gardener Association to offer life-changing community service and educational opportunities for the numerous young people (in Bell and other counties) who appeared before and were fined by the Killeen Municipal Court. Second, to develop a “demonstration garden” that was not only attractive but that would also educate garden visitors about plant selection for the Central Texas area. And third, to produce a variety of vegetables and fruits for delivery to area food banks and senior centers.
The garden has come a long way in the six years since it was started. There are now seven raised beds featuring herbs and flowering plants that do well in the Central Texas area: a “desert” garden planted with cacti, succulents, native grasses and other low-water, low maintenance plants; trellised and square-foot beds that demonstrate various gardening techniques and landscaping possibilities; a “farm” area that in the past three years has produced 7,275 pounds of vegetables for distribution to food banks and senior centers in the Killeen/Harker Heights area; an orchard with pecan trees and a variety of fruit trees; Earth-Kind roses; composting bins; and a demonstration rainwater collection system. Texas AgriLife Extension has designated the whole space as an Earth-Kind Landscape Demonstration Area.
The Municipal Court Garden was an idea that found immediate and ongoing support in the city that is probably best known as the location of Fort Hood, one of the largest U.S. military installations in the world. The City of Killeen allocated space for the garden on city property behind the Killeen Civic and Conference Center. The Bell County master gardeners provided startup funds for supplies. A variety of individuals and businesses donated a gazebo, a storage building, fencing materials, bedding plants, shrubs, trees, a tiller and other equipment. The local Home Depot and Lowe’s stores provided materials to build the garden’s raised beds. Benches around the gazebo were built as part of an Eagle Scout project and troops of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies volunteered time at the garden to earn service badges. The City is putting in sidewalks around the garden and is planning to incorporate the area into the local hike-and-bike trail.
While the entire community has rallied around the garden, the Bell County Master Gardener Association is the crucial source of support and stability that holds the project together and keeps it all running smoothly. BCMGA member Edie Campbell is in charge of organizing and directing the garden workdays. “There are about 15 members that I can count on to show up every Saturday year-round, and even weekdays during harvest time, weather permitting,” said Campbell. “We have a monthly schedule where different people take responsibility for watering, weeding and harvesting. It’s a lot of work, but everyone really enjoys it.”
What the master gardeners enjoy most is working with the kids assigned to the garden on Saturdays. The students help with everything from tree planting and pruning to weeding, watering and harvesting produce. “In all the time we’ve been doing this, we’ve only had one problem with a student,” said Campbell. “They are a delight to work with and we’ve been very impressed with them. It makes us all feel good to think that we are helping them learn to give back to the community.”
BCMGA members who work with the students are often surprised by what the young people do not know about the food they eat and where it comes from. For example, when tasked with picking tomatoes, one teenager didn’t know the difference between tomatoes and onions. Another young girl, who’d been harvesting okra, told her cohorts that she’d been picking bananas. Clearly, the garden offers many opportunities for learning. “When kids come here to work and they tell me they don’t like vegetables, I ask them if they like pizza,” said one of the master gardener volunteers. “Of course they always say ‘yes,’ and then I show them all the different herbs and vegetables that go into making pizza taste good. That really seems to hit home with them.”
Johnny Brooks is the City of Killeen Municipal Court juvenile case manager and Nancy Chavez is the juvenile clerk. Either Brooks or Chavez (or both, depending upon the number of youth offenders assigned at a given time) always accompany the students on Saturdays. “We expect the students to be respectful when they’re working. They’re not allowed to use their cell phones and they must comply with a strict dress code — no sagging pants, no earrings, that sort of thing,” said Brooks. “Sometimes some of them will start out with a little attitude, but they quickly lose it as they get involved in working with the master gardeners. We’ve even had some of them ask if they can come back to help out after their community service is over.”
The youth offenders have the option of paying a fine instead of doing community service. When asked why he chose the Municipal Court Garden, a teen named Vi replied that he wanted to do something outside. “I help my Grandmother in her garden,” he said. “I dig holes for her plants and help her pick tomatoes,” he said. “I like doing gardening. And it makes me feel pretty good to say I worked on something that helps give people food to eat.”
Giving people food to eat is certainly a successful end result of all the gardening activity, as hundreds of pounds of vegetables harvested each season are shared with a variety of local food banks, soup kitchens and senior centers. “One time we got a standing ovation from the people at a senior center when we delivered vegetables there,” Campbell said with a laugh.
Families in Crisis, Inc., is a Killeen nonprofit providing a range of services to victims of abuse and the group often receives a portion of the garden’s bounty to help feed people being housed at the shelter. The president of the Families in Crisis Board is also one of the master gardeners who works at the Municipal Court Garden. “Being able to offer families fresh produce from the garden is such a benefit,” he said. “It lets our clientele know that there are people in the community who care about them.”
Barbara Weaver is no longer a municipal court judge in Killeen, but the garden she envisaged during her term now bears her name. Community pride in the garden’s existence manifests itself in a variety of ways, from the happy fact that it has never been the target of vandalism to its use as a site for local weddings. It seems clear that everyone involved in the Killeen Municipal Court Garden — youth offenders and their families, city personnel, master gardeners, the numerous recipients of produce and the many individuals and businesses who have donated time and materials — benefit from its creation. Barbara Weaver should be proud.
