6 FEATURES

NORTH TEXAS DAILY

FEATURES 7

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2014

M ELISSA WYLIE

Managing Editor

n a cold Saturday morning, a small group of Denton gardeners bundled in

hooded jackets and padded gloves
hunch over rows of tilled soil, planting onions. Their exhales hitting the
cold air resemble puffs of smoke.
The volunteers fix their eyes on
the soil, as its too early and chilly
for chatter. The men and women
understand the significance of braving the frost to put food on the plate
for someone who might otherwise
go hungry.
At 14 1/2 acres, Shiloh Field is
the largest community garden in
the U.S., according to the American
Community Garden Association.
Last year, nearly 24,000 pounds of
produce were harvested to benefit
the needy in Denton County, where
one in five people live at or below
the federal poverty line and nearly
one-third of residents do not earn
a livable income. This year, the total harvest is expected to exceed
30,000 pounds.
Shiloh Field provides fruit, vegetables and eggs to local shelters,
food banks and families.
Nonprofit organizations benefiting from Shiloh Field include crisis
center Friends of the Family, soup
kitchen Our Daily Bread and childcare center Fred Moore Day Nursery.
They feed little kids, low-income moms and dads, single parentssometimes three meals a
day, says Gene Gumfory, master
gardener and mastermind behind
Shiloh Field. And when I can carry
them some green beans, corn, carrots and things like that, they probably eat better there than they do at
home.
The expansive co-op community
garden is designated for donation,
while 152 personal plots allow individuals to plant their own crops.
In addition to yielding vegetables,
Shiloh Field produces a number of
inedible benefits, such as fostering
relationships and building a sense
of community between those who
give and those who receive.
It teaches leadership, Gumfory
says. It gives people who like to
volunteer a place that they can go
and make a difference in someone
elses life.
Starting Shiloh Field
As spring approaches, the brown
field gives way to signs of the
greenery to come. The grass still

Field of Dreams

TWU nursing freshman Aljean Santos throws picked weeds into a wheelbarrow while volunteering at Shiloh Field. Santos helps out to accumulate hours for the
honors program at TWU. Photo by Melissa Wylie, Managing Editor.
crunches from the winter months,
but saplings can be spotted peeking
through the soil. Preparation in the
personal plots is evident, as several
display rows of tilled soil awaiting
seeds. Some already have flowers
boasting early blooms.
The 15 by 15 feet plots near the
gardens entrance are available to
anyone at no charge, as is assistance if needed.
We get a lot of folks that dont
know how to garden, that dont
have the money to buy seeds,
Gumfory says. We have a lot of
low-income folks that work out
here and they raise this themselves.
Thats good, thats what its all
about.
Gumfory, 74, is giving back to a
community that has been good to
him. He found success as a local
restaurant franchisee and created
an opportunity to aid those in the
county who are less fortunate.
In July of 2009, Gumfory attended a service at Denton Bible Church
and listened to a passage from the
Bible he had heard many times

before. The excerpt describes God

planting a garden and putting a
man in charge of it.
The words spoke to Gumfory,
a lifelong gardener who first grew
vegetables with his father as a
young boy in Cleburne, Texas.
For the first time, and I cant tell
you why, it meant something different, Gumfory says of hearing
the passage. I said, Hey, I can do
that.
That summer, he decided to
share his skills with his community.
Gumfory looked around town for
an acre or two that would be a suitable start for a community garden.
He received a call from his own
church promising it would donate
14 1/2 acres to the cause.
Denton Bible Church owns the
land Shiloh Field sits atop, but the
garden operates entirely on donations of money and supplies. Gumfory will occasionally check the
available funds he has to work with,
but says he pays little attention to
figures.
After each weeks spring and

summer harvest is weighed and

measured, Gumfory loads the back
of his pickup truck and hits the road
to deliver the produce to the various organizations.
I really like gardening. I really
do, he says. And its so neat that
Im able to grow things out here and
take it to those who have a need.
The givers
A week after the frigid Saturday
morning, the sun sits high in the
midday sky. Shielding his eyes from
the brightness, Greg Scott adjusts
the irrigation system along rows of
newly planted onions. He turns the
soil over with his hands, familiar
with dirt under his fingernails after
a lifetime of landscaping.
He started volunteering at Shiloh
Field in January when the garden
needed his knowledge of greenhouses. Before being asked to help
out, it had been a few years since
Scott made use of his degree in
landscaping and horticulture.
Scott says he recently rediscovered what life has to offer after ex-

periencing the loss of stability and

shelter.
Five years ago, he went through
a rough and unexpected divorce.
The national economic recession
hit at the same time, dooming his
successful landscaping business.
With his upper-middle-class lifestyle uprooted, Scott found himself
homeless. He camped among trees
behind the railroad tracks between
Denton Bible Church and Shiloh
Field, drinking heavily and contemplating suicide.
I had it all and I lost it all, Scott
says.
He became aware of the things
he took for granted when he had a
paycheck, like haircuts and showers, and often suffered ridicule for
his appearance.
Homeless people are still human beings, Scott says. But nobody thats regular wants to be
around them.
Scott spent time at Vision Ministries, a branch of Denton Bible
Church that assists people who
are in poverty or homeless, which

is how he was connected to Shiloh Field. A few greenhouses were

donated in January and Scott was
asked to help set them up.
Now, Scott has found a place of
his own and is planning to start a
new landscaping company in the
spring.
I got a totally different outlook
on life, Scott says. Two years ago
I was ready to give it up and now
Im ready to start over again. Its one
day at a time.
Scott shares his gardening expertise with a number of volunteers at
Shiloh Field. He says gardening is
laborious, but the volunteers return
week after week because their efforts have tangible results.
People have a passion for this
kind of work because its rewarding, Scott says.
Anywhere from 10 to 40 volunteers in the community can be
seen in the co-op garden on a given
Saturday, planting and harvesting
vegetables to give away. The volunteers can also take as much home
as they like in exchange for their
time.
Despite his retirement, Warren
Richards has given Saturday mornings to the garden for four years.
Its such a worthy cause, Richards says.
Richards sees a mix of all ages
helping out. A woman once brought

TOP: Volunteer Bruce Wakefield drives a

tractor through the co-op garden at Shiloh
Field. He uses the tractor to spread mulch
for walking paths between rows of seeds.
BOTTOM: Denton resident Paul How prepares to plant tomatoes in his garden plot,
which hes had for nearly five years.
Photos by Melissa Wylie, Managing Editor.

her teenage son, and his initial begrudging attitude changed as he

spent more time at the garden.
Within a couple of weeks, he
was into it, Richards says. Once
he got to see some of the things he
planted grow, and we got to harvest
it.... he came out and had fun and
enjoyed it all.
Community Impact
One of the gardens donation sites
is Fred Moore Day Nursery, the only
income-based childcare center in
Denton that cares for children below

the age of 2.
Office manager Lynda West says
the donated produce from Shiloh
Field saves the nursery a considerable amount of money on food and
provides a foundation for lesson
plans.
Any of us benefit from fresh produce over canned or something
thats been processed, she says.
Our teachers can incorporate that in
some of the lessons.
The staff at the nursery uses the
fruits and vegetables to teach the kids
about nutrition and making healthy

food choices. West says the kids look

forward to Gumforys regular visits in
the spring and summer.
I think its just phenomenal, West
says. I think its an amazing thing for
the community to have something
like that.
Gumfory, the gardens founder, is
a strong advocate for spreading community gardening. He says one of the
biggest challenges is finding enough
hands to do all the work the garden
requires.
In the garden youve got things
that got to be done in a certain time

for it to all balance out, Gumfory

says. All vegetables, to some degree, are on the clock.
He stands looking out over the
rows of freshly planted seedlings.
Despite all the years Gumfory
has spent gardening, he remains
mystified by process of growth.
I really like to just watch it
grow, he says. Its just a miracle. It really is.
A version of this article originally appeared in The Dallas
Morning News.