"It is different out here," Wright said, wiping sweat from his forehead after spending the morning hoeing rows of potatoes and harvesting cabbage. "It's made me think about things I never thought about before, how things grow and change and mature."
John Wise, 46, another mission resident, agreed.
"It gets a little hot out here, but it gets me out of the city for the day, out here where the air is pure. I like it," Wise said.
Each year, the mission provides temporary shelter for about 3,000 people and serves more than 180,000 meals. It started "growing its own" three years ago to cut the cost of producing as many as 900 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners a day and the food baskets it provides the working poor who need help with their grocery bills.
The number of needy people has increased as a result of the faltering economy, while donations of fresh food from casinos, restaurants, and other local sources have decreased.
The mission wanted to continue to include high-quality produce in its meals and the 30 to 40 baskets it distributes daily from its pantry, said William Southrey, the organization's president and chief executive officer.
Menus featuring the fresh vegetables and fruits have been devised to provide greater nutrition, he said.
Last year, the project harvested about 30,000 pounds of tomatoes, corn, watermelon, squash, beans, and other produce grown from seeds and seedlings.
George Riess, a mission employee who supervises the farm operation, wants to build a greenhouse at Bruised Reed so the plantings can be raised from seeds to cut the cost of having to buy flats each spring.
