Garden gives opportunity for growth to SJ inmates

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STOCKTON – As he combed his hand through the vines, Michael Moore came across a ripe yellow squash and picked it off the stem.

“That one right there is about ready,” Moore, 43, said, explaining the summer harvests of squash, corn and melons.

Varieties of fruits and vegetables spawn in the garden as the seasons change, making it an everyday task for Moore and fellow inmates at the San Joaquin County Jail’s Honor Farm to sow seeds, tend to plants and pick them at maturity.

They do it, in part, knowing their labor benefits hundreds of individuals and families struggling financially.

The horticulture program was started and continues to be run by correctional officers George Lauchland and Scott Thomas. They are sharing their farming and landscaping skills with inmates in hopes they will prove valuable to them, as well as place food on the tables of the county’s neediest.

“We wanted to do something where we could really grow something tangible to give to some of the people in need,” said Lauchland, also a grape grower and president of the San Joaquin County Correctional Officers Association.

What started as a small garden, Lauchland said, has evolved into a full operation in which inmates produce about 500 pounds of fruits and vegetables a day. The goods are donated to food banks and other nonprofit organizations twice a week.

“It means a lot, number one, that they care about us and that they’re thinking about women and children,” said Brenda Castellanos, executive director of Haven of Peace, an emergency shelter in French Camp for women and children.

Fruits and vegetables are commodities the shelter rarely receives but are essential in providing nutritious meals to an average of 40 homeless women and children per day, she said.

“They give us watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, things we don’t usually receive from a food bank or that we can afford to buy,” Castellanos said.