Veterans earn, learn and grow in the garden

In the five decades since the Veterans Garden first sprouted at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, the green oasis has seen its share of ups and downs.

At its height two decades ago, the garden employed dozens of Veterans in a work therapy initiative before falling into disrepair after the program ended. For the last four years, VA Whole Health Program Manager and Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Allen has been working hard to bring it back to life.

Now, through VA Whole Health and with the support of community partners, the garden is recapturing its therapeutic roots while blossoming into something even bigger. The 15-acre haven has officially become a job training site and burgeoning regenerative farm.

Ultimately, this first-of-its-kind effort will cultivate thousands of pounds of organic produce to prevent and treat food insecurity and diet-related disease among Veterans, while providing critical mental and physical health programming to help them thrive.

“I’ve seen firsthand how working in the garden can be transformative for Veterans,” said Allen. “Now, we have the chance to exponentially expand that impact and prove that food is medicine in more ways than one.”

Storied past, bright future

Over the last four years, Allen and her team, along with community partners and Veteran volunteers, have helped to revitalize the garden, adding more than 20 raised beds, purchasing new tools and equipment and, most recently, constructing an outdoor classroom. They’ve also offered ongoing gardening classes, hosted events and turned the garden back into a campus hub.

Since August 2024, the garden has donated over 600 pounds of produce for Veterans and facilitated over 350 clinical encounters with Veterans living both on and off campus. The future is even more ambitious, with plans to produce thousands of pounds of produce per year.

While there are other Veteran horticulture programs, the Veterans Garden is now the largest farm on a VA campus in the nation. It’s also the first to combine paid job training in regenerative agriculture with clinical programming for Veteran patients as part of this innovative new model.

Improving clinical outcomes

The impacts of gardening are profound, said Allen, including helping to reduce key suicide risk factors in Veterans.

According to the 2024 study, “The impact of gardening on well-being, mental health, and quality of life: an umbrella review and meta-analysis,” research confirms gardening has a positive impact on many mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety symptoms, stress, mood disturbance and cognitive functioning.

“We asked ourselves, if horticulture therapy is providing all these benefits, why aren’t we doing it?” said Allen.

To measure the garden’s impact, the team also adopted a “thermometer” tool, developed by VA Bronx Healthcare System, to assess pain, depression, stress and loneliness in Veterans before and after working at the garden. Preliminary data has shown reductions in all these areas, said Allen.

Education, healing and nutrition

Interested Veterans can apply for the training program through VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation program, which provides job training, education and employment opportunities as an integral part of recovery.

Veterans who work in the garden will engage in 300 hours of training over the course of three or four months of flexible employment. The program is tailored to each Veteran’s goals, with an emphasis on both professional and personal development.

“They’ll learn regenerative farming and the basic principles of organic gardening like no-till gardening, natural pest management, rotational growing, companion planting, composting and other key skills,” said Allen.

They’ll also get to bring home nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables grown in the garden, as well as distribute the produce to food-insecure Veterans in the community. This addresses a critical gap: ensuring Veterans have access to the foods they need to prevent and treat chronic disease.

Getting to their goals

If funding allows, the program plans to welcome 30 trainees over the next year and has ambitious plans for the garden’s future, including planting an orchard with 40 fruit trees, refurbishing the on-site greenhouse and much more.

For Army Veteran Stephen Passmore, one of the garden’s first trainees, working in the garden has helped him see the bigger picture.

“I would challenge any Veteran that is missing the excitement or connectivity of being in active duty or in a combat zone to come to the garden and face the challenges that are here,” he said. “These are different challenges, but challenges, nonetheless. The opportunity to grow as an individual is deeply connected to the ability to grow something.”