Provo nonprofit's garden a fresh gift for the needy

PROVO — Kenneth Larsen meanders through 12 raised gardening beds looking for any ripe tomatoes. Several are on the vine, though none are quite ready, but he picks half a dozen green bell peppers in the next box over.

He hugs all the produce against his white chef smock as he makes his way back to the kitchen, thinking of all the meal possibilities for the fresh vegetables.

The raised beds had always been part of the landscape plan for the new building of the Food and Care Coalition, which serves meals seven days a week for Utah County's homeless, mentally ill, disabled and low-income residents. Their hope was to have clients tend and maintain the garden as a sort of therapy and growth.

The parallels between nurturing a garden and nurturing a person may be an old adage, but Brent Crane, executive director at the coalition, believes in the concept.

Crane hopes that in the next year the garden will be a place where residential clients can work and foster their own growth. But so far it's been helping cut down costs for the kitchen and improving the quality of the food.

Cooking at the Food and Care Coalition for the past four years has been a challenge for Larsen. At his previous job as a chef at the Skyroom at BYU, he had the luxury of ordering in anything he wanted: fresh fish, exotic ingredients and any fruits or vegetables. At the coalition, he's been at the mercy of the farmers and citizens who contribute from their own gardens.

For decades, Grant Holdaway, 80, owner of Vineyard Garden Center in Orem, has been giving his surplus of vegetables and fruit to the Food and Care Coalition to use in its kitchen: squash, watermelons, tomatoes.

Last year, with Holdaway's help, the garden at the coalition bloomed. He donated hundreds of plants, seeds, fertilizer and his 60 years of experience to get the garden started.

"Grant is a real inspiration to us," Larsen said, pointing out the sign "Grant's Garden" at the front of the plot.

Both Holdaway and the garden are humble in their beginnings.

"A chef by trade but becoming a gardener," Larsen said, describing himself.