Eat The Yard co-founder James Jeffers (left) and a group of volunteers recently planted a rooftop garden on at Mecca Design. Watermelon seedlings, spinach and cucumbers were planted in repurposed buckets. Photo by Mona Reeder.
The work e...
Eat The Yard co-founder James Jeffers (left) and a group of volunteers recently planted a rooftop garden on at Mecca Design. Watermelon seedlings, spinach and cucumbers were planted in repurposed buckets. Photo by Mona Reeder.
The work ethic instilled by the military makes vets a good fit for farming, advocates say.
By Marc Ramirez
Dallas News
May 19, 2013
An assemblage of soil-filled plastic buckets stood at the ready, and Operation Rooftop was officially underway. For former soldiers Steve Smith and James Jeffers, it was just another mission in their quest to change Dallas’ eating habits through an urban farming enterprise they call Eat The Yard.
With the aid of a winch, a scissor lift and a half-dozen volunteers, they hoisted buckets of soil 30 feet up through an opening in the ceiling of a West Dallas design studio. There, on the roof, the buckets would be dotted with the starts of watermelons, lemon cucumbers and Malabar climbing spinach.
“Part of why I love this after being in the military is there’s a lot of problem-solving,” said Jeffers, who deals with the lingering effects of traumatic brain injury suffered after a car bomb blast in Baghdad. “It’s given me meaning and drive.”
Eat The Yard is among a growing number of farming programs started by or for veterans around the country. Besides offering ample job opportunity and the benefits of working outdoors, advocates say the work can be therapeutic.
“You’d be surprised at the things you get off your chest,” said Smith, who, like Jeffers, did two tours of duty in the Middle East. “You may not want to talk to a psychiatrist, but out here you’re weeding and pulling strawberries and the next thing you know, you’ve just gotten a bunch of stuff off your chest. We’re doing group therapy in the dirt.”
Buried issues
According to a 2008 Rand Corp. study, nearly 20 percent of military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression.
“I don’t think anybody who goes over there doesn’t come back a little stressed out,” Smith said. “You come back different, that’s for sure.”
Traumatic experiences buried deep are hard to unearth in a counselor’s office. Farming and gardening can offer comfort unavailable elsewhere, even for those who insist they don’t need help.
“You get a bunch of vets together, and it’s a way to sneak in a little therapy without hurting any egos,” Smith said. “All they really need to do is talk about it. Like our grandfathers did.”
Smith and Jeffers met in the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division but lost touch when Jeffers was deployed for his first tour in Iraq. They randomly reconnected in Kuwait several years later.
Both served two tours in the Middle East, but it was Jeffers who suffered the most damage: He’s got memory issues, the result of his brain injury and concussions suffered in a series of other close calls.
He had come back to Dallas, not doing much of anything and frustrated to be on disability. Smith had already been growing vegetables in his yard and talking with others about the idea of for-profit urban farming but couldn’t find anyone willing to do it.
“James was just sitting around collecting disability checks,” Smith said. “He said, ‘I need to do something.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it, then.’ I wanted to help him out, and I wanted a buddy I could trust. It just worked out.”
With help from the Farmer Veteran Coalition, a Davis, Calif.-based group offering resources and education to veterans pursuing farming careers, they bought a tractor, then found grocers like Oak Cliff’s Urban Acres willing to buy their goods.
Next they found local property owners willing to offer land in exchange for produce, and since then, Eat The Yard has blossomed from a two-lawn operation to half a dozen Oak Cliff yards covering about an acre in all. A Preston Hollow resident has offered land for an orchard, and several other businesses are considering rooftop gardens too.
Smith and Jeffers strive to be green,