The Oasis Vineyard Church in Hermiston, OR has taken practical steps to address food insecurity in their area by planting a large community garden. What started as a simple idea has flourished into a thriving ministry, producing over 9,000 pounds of fresh vegetables and herbs last year. While this meets a conspicuous need in their community, it has opened up many Kingdom opportunities by creating more space for hospitality, connection, and service.
Lead Pastor Dan Mahon shared that his church moved to the property 20 years ago, and a couple of years later, a woman in the church felt that God had spoken to her about planting a garden. “She wasn’t a farmer, she was a retired school counselor, but she started the garden and then built a team and fostered it. She passed away last summer in her late eighties, and she had continued volunteering in the garden until the end.”
Oasis volunteers do all of the garden and harvest work and then they partner with local food pantries and ministries to distribute the food. When Dan and Sarah Mahon became the lead pastors in 2021, they began forming relationships with local ministries. The garden ministry expanded even further last year when Les, a recent retiree, took on the leadership role of overseeing the garden. Together, they brainstormed ways to broaden the impact. A $6,000 grant from Amazon helped double the footprint of the garden to 5,000 square feet, which more than doubled production—from about 3,600 pounds to 9,151.6 pounds in a single year. With strong community and church support, 34 of the 150 Oasis Vineyard attendees now regularly volunteer in the garden.
Les’ eyes light up when he talks about the tomatillos and the lemon cucumbers they grow in the garden, but they also fill with happy tears when he talks about the people he is able to connect with through the rows of tomatoes. One of the church’s partnerships is with a local homeless shelter, Stepping Stones, which recently expanded to a year-round shelter that contains huts where the unhoused can work their way into a space of their own with increased privacy and stability through community service. Les says, “At first I was like ‘Oh gosh, what did I get myself into?’ I had no experience working with the unhoused population. I prayed and asked for God’s heart.” Les described several encounters where he was able to encourage volunteers and watch the way their faces changed. “You can tell it’s been a long time since anyone has spoken to them that way. You’re putting life into people, and when they can tell it comes from a place of honesty, the connection with people is incredible. Plus, they get to walk away with a big box of vegetables!”
Oasis Vineyard has made it clear to the members of their church and their neighbors that the garden is for the community and everyone is welcome. “We have people come by with baskets who aren’t able to volunteer regularly, but they gather a basketful for themselves or a neighbor who is isolated. There are a number of people in the community who used to garden but aren’t physically able to anymore, and receiving fresh produce deliveries really brightens their spirits.” Les and Dan’s wife Sarah even took a wheelbarrow full of veggies around the neighborhood and invited people to stop by anytime and grab what they need. “It’s changing our church to look for these simple acts.”
The garden has no shortage of volunteers. Les says they used to hold interest meetings to recruit volunteers, but now people are getting really excited about it, asking when they can start helping, and doing research about how to increase vegetable production. “It’s an easy entry point to service for people who are new to the church. Families can easily serve together, and Oasis Kids Ministry even gets involved on Sunday mornings, which provides a lot of great opportunities for using seed planting and weeding as illustrations. We also use the produce in the meals we make for our leaders’ dinner in November.”
With so much production, the garden team has had to get creative with how to use the produce before it spoils. They once picked 1000 lbs of tomatoes in one day! They currently have ten ministry partners who help distribute the food. Some people from other nearby churches have started canning tomatoes and sauces, which are then used for dinners they provide for Stepping Stones throughout the winter, or events they do in the local park with another organization called Made To Thrive, where they distribute hundreds of pounds of veggies and provide a chili feed. At one of these events, Dan and another local pastor met an unhoused man and ended up taking him to Stepping Stones. Dan says, “Two months later he showed up as a garden volunteer helping Les. He’d moved through the program and was in a hut.” He remembered Dan and they were able to reconnect, and he ended up getting a job with Les’ encouragement. “This is just a very cool example of partnership.”
While their goal is to serve the community, Dan says that it’s challenging the people in his church to become more like Jesus. “Your attitude towards the homeless changes when you put a name and story to it. And for those coming from Stepping Stones, their perspective of the church shifts, too. Instead of seeing the church as always taking, they see people of faith giving back.”
Les dreams of expanding more into food prep in the coming years as a way to stretch their impact throughout the year. “We experimented with storing green tomatoes in the greenhouse to let them ripen slowly, and that expanded our distribution window by six weeks. We applied for another Amazon grant and are hoping to build a large shed that we can use the same way. If we can extend the ripening season of the produce, and jar and can more prepared foods, we can have fresh produce to prepare meals with and give away all year.” They are very excited for all the future Kingdom opportunities that this community garden will continue to provide.
