Inmates learn about good food in jail garden

It looks like any other garden — green tomatoes ripening on the vine, zucchini plants blossoming and green peppers spilling out of a bushel basket.

What is not usual is the chain-link fence and sheriff’s deputies cars parked outside, reports the Kalamazoo Gazette. This garden is at the Kalamazoo County Jail and it helps feed the inmates.

Excerpt:

Sheriff Richard Fuller estimated the garden will save “easily” $1,000 in food costs during this growing season. So far, the garden produced 23 bushels of cucumbers, green beans and zucchinis, saving the sheriff’s office an estimated $440 on food costs.

Eight hours a day, low-risk inmates who are in jail for offenses such as shoplifting or not paying child support tend the garden.

It is a time for them to learn how to garden — a skill that few inmates know, especially since many have never seen an egg plant before or tasted acorn squash.

“There’s a real sense of pride in being able to grow something from the ground, to be able to pick it and eat it,” said Kalamazoo County Commissioner Ann Nieuwenhuis, who donated garden supplies for the project. “It’s learning that pride of what hard work can produce.”

To find out how the garden could be used to teach inmates further skills, read the entire story.

Source: Kalamazoo Gazette