Just behind the administrative offices and dormitories of the Little Rock Compassion Center at 3618 W. Roosevelt Road is a garden that helps supplement the meals fed to the center's residents and members of the community.
Mark Hughes is showing us around the roughly 40-by-60-foot plot on an oppressively hot June 13 morning. Hughes, who lives and works at the center, is pointing out the bounty that the garden has produced this spring.
"We have greens, cabbage, romaine lettuce. There is an assortment of peppers -- jalapeno, banana, habaneros, bell peppers. Then we have 50 tomato plants. Over here we have yellow squash and zucchini, cucumbers."
On the shady east end of the patch are a few struggling melon plants.
"We were supposed to have some watermelon and cantaloupe, but they won't take off," Hughes says. "There's too much shade."
Nearby are rows of sunflowers that attract bees to help pollinate the crops.
The nonprofit, Christian-based Compassion Center was founded in 1998 by Pastor William Holloway and his wife, Rosemary, to provide food and shelter for people without housing or reliable access to food. It offers a recovery program for those with addictions to drugs and alcohol. Other services include job placement, providing clean clothes to those who need them as well as educational services and help with accessing Social Security benefits.
Through its 75-bed Arkansas Women & Kids Educational Nook (AWAKEN) facility, the center also offers shelter to women and children.
SEVEN DAYS A WEEK
The center, which operates solely on private donations, serves lunch and supper seven days a week, and in 2021 dished up 183,000 meals, Holloway says. Growing its own vegetables helps offset some of the cost of those meals, especially now when, according to the USDA, food prices are up almost 10% over last year.
"That garden provides a lot of the food here," Holloway says.
The 63-year-old Hughes, a Little Rock native and recovering alcoholic, first came to the center in 2005 and started the garden about a year later.
"We have to be self-sufficient," Hughes says. "Donations are alright, but as a shelter that doesn't take government funding, we have to support ourselves. What better way to get involved and feed the people of this neighborhood? This place is not meant to just feed the people that go through this program, but the community."
Hughes learned about gardening from his grandfather, Thomas Bell of North Little Rock.
"His whole backyard was a garden, and he fed the neighborhood," Hughes says.
After a relapse, Hughes left the center for several years (he's back in the program, now, he says, and recently celebrated his third year of sobriety). In his absence, the garden was taken over by Henry Sullivan.
"God gave him the gift of gardening," Hughes says.
"If you've ever seen anyone with a green thumb, it's Henry," Holloway adds.
DIGGING PAST ADDICTION
Sullivan, 65, first came to the center in 2007, struggling with substance abuse.
"I came to there with problems just like everyone else," he says from his home in North Little Rock. "I was looking for a free meal, and that's what I got. I started coming back and got into the drug and alcohol recovery program."
He was asked by Holloway to be a part of the ministry and is now the center's resident manager.
The garden, he says, is "my way of giving back, and it's quite successful. We get a lot of beautiful vegetables out of it each year."
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Sullivan, who grew up on a farm in the Springfield community in Conway County, adds that none of the money donated to the center goes to fund the garden. Instead, he collects the aluminum cans from the center's soda pop machine and sells them to a recycling center. That money is used to buy seeds, gasoline for his tiller and whatever else is needed to maintain the garden.
His favorite from the garden is tomatoes.
"I've got Arkansas Traveler tomatoes, Roma tomatoes and Big Boy tomatoes. They should be getting ripe in a week or so."
Melissa Caulder is the kitchen manager at the center and uses the garden's harvest to feed those at Compassion's men's shelter on Roosevelt Road, across the street at AWAKEN and the shelter for women at 4210 Asher Ave.
600-750 PEOPLE A DAY
Across the three kitchens, the center feeds about "600-750 people a day, depending on the day and what time of month it is," she says. The center also offers food boxes for people to take with them.
Hughes, who works as a cook in the kitchen, says, "The people who come here to eat, eat well. If you're worth a penny or a million dollars, you deserve the best you can get."
Holloway says the center has recently been seeing "more people in worse shape," because of higher food prices and inflation.
"There are a lot of people here who have fallen through the cracks," Holloway says. "There are people coming in whose dollar can't stretch any farther. They're living on a limited income, so if it wasn't for the food they get here they'd be missing a couple of meals a day."
Holloway says he'd like the garden to continue expanding. To that end, Sullivan plans to soon plant purple hull peas.
"People love purple hull peas, and they should be ready around mid-August," he says.
Depending on the weather, the garden should provide for the center through September, Hughes says.
"We've been supplied with rain lately, but the heat is here," he says. "Now we are going to have to start dealing with that."
HELPERS WELCOME
Sullivan and Hughes have done most of the gardening work, with Sullivan coming by on his off days -- Tuesday and Wednesday -- to tend the crops. Volunteers are welcome to help with weeding, watering, harvesting and other chores and can contact the center at https://lrcompassioncenter.org or by calling (501) 296-9114.
"It's not easy work," Hughes says, "but once you get into it, it's fun."
"Come help," Holloway says. "We will find something for you. There is plenty of work."
For Sullivan, who first came to the center 15 years ago looking only to be fed, growing produce that helps feed others is rewarding.
"There's this satisfaction of people coming there and enjoying a good meal, fresh stuff that they normally couldn't afford to buy in the store. We serve the best we can for those who want the service."
Gallery: Compassion Center Garden
