Courtesy Photo | Soldiers assigned to the Fort Riley Soldier Recovery Unit, Kan., maintain a hoop house...... read more read more
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ARLINGTON, Va., -- The garden at the Fort Riley Soldier Recovery Unit, Kansas, has a history of impressive harvests. It also affords Soldiers in the Army Recovery Care Program opportunities to learn about gardening, pour energy into something positive or snag a quiet moment of relaxation.
ARCP supports wounded, ill and injured Soldiers as they transition back to the force or to veteran status. Adaptive reconditioning programs are part of that mission. They offer activities, like gardening, that help Soldiers improve their wellbeing and achieve short and long-term goals.
The Fort Riley garden is inside a hoop house, or high tunnel, which is a metal infrastructure with plastic on top and side walls that can be raised and lowered, Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant Rick Vandegrift explained. It’s currently home to herbs, flowers, bell peppers, hot peppers, lettuce, okra, corn, pumpkins, watermelon and a variety of tomatoes. Methods are practiced to keep it as organic as possible, such as pulling weeds by hand and growing plants that bugs dislike.
The garden produced more than 600 pounds of produce last year. Twice in the past five years, it yielded more than 1,000 pounds of produce. Given the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, Vandegrift anticipates that they will harvest several hundred pounds of produce this year.
“There’s this huge variety of effort from volunteers to Soldiers to staff to keep it going,” he said.
Soldiers can learn what it takes to manage a garden, enjoy seeing the harvest and relax. Vandegrift believes that growing things, especially amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, allows Soldiers to channel energy into something positive and productive.
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Anthony Nistico finds gardening useful for relaxing and clearing his mind.
“It is like my mind is on recess,” he said. “I do not have to think too hard; I just have to water plants.”
Approximately 8-10 Soldiers participate regularly. Some are experienced gardeners and can be found in the hoop house teaching fellow Soldiers. Others are learning to garden for the first time. The hoop house is open day and night, so Soldiers can enjoy quiet moments, garden on a personal level or as part of their adaptive reconditioning. They can also attend agriculture tours where they learn about gardening and develop ideas and concepts. All activities are in accordance with Army COVID-19 guidelines.
Vandegrift sees the garden as a good example of the assortment of activities the AR program offers that can have a phenomenal benefit.
“You just never know how it’s going to touch people,” he said.
The Army Warrior Care and Transition Program is now the Army Recovery Care Program. Although the name has changed, the mission remains the same: to provide quality complex case management to the Army's wounded, ill and injured Soldiers.
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.27.2020 16:16 |
| Story ID: | 381855 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 102 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Garden yields hundreds of pounds of produce and unlimited opportunities for ARCP Soldiers, by Christine Aurigema, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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