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HomeGrown Nutrition Program - Current News

The Faces of Homegrown Nutrition

In recent editions of Radical Grace I have described many aspects of the Homegrown Nutrition Project (CAC’s garden project that helps families who live on the former Juarez, Mexico dump grow some of their own food). I have described the four-foot-by-four-foot micro-intensive gardens that we take.  I have described the “continual harvest method” that we teach the garden recipients.  I also have described the types of vegetables that people in Juarez are growing and incorporating into their diets. 

I would now like to talk a little about the people who are involved in this project. 

When the Homegrown Nutrition Project (HGNP) began in the Fall of 2003 I imagined that I would be driving down to Juarez with one or two other people to drop off the gardens and to do a little bit of training.  What has happened though is that on each trip there has been between five and eight people who have gone to Juarez with me. Since the Fall of 2003 I have had between 40-50 different people go to Juarez with me.  Some of these people have gone once or twice and a few have become part of an informal team that goes on most trips.  Fellow CAC staff members are expressing interest, as are gardener friends of mine.  My church, Albuquerque Mennonite Church, has supported HGNP financially and has had at least ten of its members travel to Juarez with me.  What began as a garden project has now grown into a two-day border awareness experience of sorts.  I enjoy having people join me on the trek to Juarez and am grateful for their fresh perspective and energy.   

The other group of HGNP participants is the residents of Juarez who receive the gardens and the training.  They graciously and patiently welcome our groups who descend on them with good intentions but often with a naiveté or romanticism about their hard living conditions.  The people in Juarez who are recipients of gardens through HGNP are people who work in the assembly plants (maquiladoras), struggle to find the money to keep their kids in school, and live in fear of the awful violence that pervades Juarez.  They are parents who want a better life for their children.  They are mothers and fathers who cry at the sight of their malnourished children.  They are people of faith who, despite being dealt a difficult hand in life, remain faithful, loving, and kind.  They are also people who get beat down by their difficult life and greatly appreciate the helping hand they receive from HGNP.

One of the greatest joys of my role as facilitator of HGNP is getting these two groups of people together.  The cross-border relationships and cross-cultural awareness and sensitivities that have developed have become as important to me as the fresh organic produce that the gardens are producing.

- Chuck O’Herron-Alex

Chuck is an organic gardener at the CAC and the founder of the HGNP.

All contributions to HGNP go to paying for gardens, soil, seed, and other garden materials.  To make a contribution please fill out the donation form and mail it along with your donation to The Center for Action and Contemplation P.O. Box 12464 Albuquerque, NM 87105.