Washington DC VA Medical Center staff, Veterans, and community volunteers are working together to grow and provide fresh produce to Veterans, encouraging wellness through nutrition, preventative health, and healthier lifestyles.
What started out as an idea to improve the Veteran experience at the Washington DC VA Medical Center has grown into a collaborative effort which supports the promotion of a healthier lifestyle for Veterans across the District of Columbia and areas of Maryland and Northern Virginia.
The idea of a garden initially began with DC VA Medical Center registered nurse, Kim Ezell, as a way to offer Veterans receiving care at the medical center greater access to fresh fruits and vegetables which may help to improve their quality of life. The Freedom Garden, located in what was once an unused courtyard of the medica center’s Research Building, originated nearly three years ago during a VA staff leadership meeting where the staff were asked to consider ways to improve the health care experience of Veterans. At the meeting, Ezell, went on to propose creating a garden that could grow fresh produce for Veterans. Having received support from the executive leadership and teams across the medical center, the idea began to take root. Registered nurse Ezell collaborated with fellow staff members including other nurses, physicians, grounds team members and others from various departments throughout the medical center, many of which volunteer their time and offer donations to build and sustain the garden.
Today, the Freedom Garden grows a variety of produce, including okra, peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, and carrots. Whenever the produce is in season and is ready to be harvested, the medical center’s Facilities Management Service and Compensated Work Therapy teams will collect the ripened produce so that it may be distributed to local Veterans, some who may be experiencing food insecurities. Also, the Freedom Garden team provides produce for Veterans staying in the transitional housing program which is co-located with the VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Southeast Washington, DC, where the onsite staff will cook the fresh produce and distribute it among Veterans.
The Freedom Garden team often works in collaboration with DC VA Medical Center Nutrition and Food Service dietitians to help support the monthly Veterans Mobile Pantry program which offers support to Veterans in need or experiencing food insecurity.
For Ezell, the Freedom Garden is a preventative health project. She spent many years working as an Emergency Room nurse prior to working in preventative health. Throughout her nursing career, Ezell saw patients receive medication and medical treatment for their immediate health concerns, but she also recognized that a patient’s health extends beyond the care they receive in the hospital. Having a master’s in public health, Ezell always knew how diet and lifestyle choices are important factors in a person’s general health.
“The goal is not only to provide fresh produce, but also to help Veterans understand how to prepare and incorporate fresh foods into their daily diets. This initiative is especially important for those Veterans who live on fixed incomes, given that the cost of fresh produce may sometimes make healthier living choices more difficult,” according to Kim Ezell, RN.
With the continued help of very engaged staff volunteers and donors such as Dr. Nickie Lepcha, who has engaged other providers and staff from the DC VA Medical Center Community Living Center, and grounds lead Ricardo Daniels and others, nurse Ezell hopes for the Freedom Garden project grow into a “food pharmacy”. Ezell hopes that one day Veterans can regularly pick up fresh produce grown at the Freedom Garden while receiving recipe cards which provide them with easy, at-home preparation instructions. In the near future, the team is looking to expand the garden to include purchasing a greenhouse that could allow produce to grow year-round. There are also plans to make produce available to additional Veteran groups throughout the medical center and in the community.
Dr. Lepcha notes that she would like to see the Freedom Garden accessible to Veteran-residents of the VA Community Living Center, the onsite long-term care facility, where they are able to assist with gardening which may be therapeutic for some. The goal would be to make the Freedom Garden space safe and accessible to Veterans who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices so that they are able to plant, prune, harvest, or simply enjoy the natural beauty of the pesticide and chemical-free garden.
The Freedom Garden Project has united VA staff, Veterans, and volunteers with the goal to find new avenues of supporting Veteran health. “If each one of us gives back, imagine how we could change this world,” Ezell said. “I think that’s our mission here at the DC VA Medical Center, we are employees who give back in different ways through supporting different initiatives!”
To support the DC VA Medical Center’s Freedom Garden through donations or volunteerism, please email Ryan.Hinley@va.gov to connect with our Center for Development and Civic Engagement.
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