Directory of Gardens

SEARCH Community Garden

The SEARCH community garden is located on the grounds of the SEARCH homelessness program in downtown Houston. The garden includes two 40x5 foot beds where residents grow okra, watermelon, broccoli and other vegetables. The garden provides therapy for the residents, teaches them to grow food for themselves, and improves their nutrition and their diet.

 

SEARCH is one of the leading homeless service providers in greater Houston, serving more than 2,300 men, women and children each month. SEARCH provides employment, education, long-term and short-term job training, health services, and housing for the homeless. SEARCH was founded in 1989 by a coalition of ecumenical congregations representing diverse ethnic, social, and spiritual backgrounds. They responded to the overwhelming need for critical support services for the homeless.

 

The portal of entry into SEARCH's programs is the Resource Center and Mobile Outreach Program. Following an initial assessment, a plan of action is put into place with the participant and case manager working together to identify what they feel is needed to become self-sufficient. With this done, the case managers monitor the participants and assist him/her with accessing SEARCH's more structured programs. The Employment Education Center, Transitional Housing, and Children's Programs including the House of Tiny Treasures, serve as supportive services while the participants begin working on exiting their homeless situation.

 

Long-term housing is also available to residents that have serious permanent disabilities. One of SEARCH's long-term job training programs is the Culinary Arts. This program teaches instruction in kitchen sanitation and standard methods of food preparation. Food grown in the garden is donated to the on-site soup kitchen and prepared by their Culinary Arts Program students.

John Cleveland is an employee of the SEARCH Homeless Program and is their community garden coordinator. John has also been a past Board President at Urban Harvest. He teaches our fall class on composting and is the individual that developed the composting system we use at the Old Sixth Ward Teaching Garden.

 

The garden was originally started in 1998 in a different location. It was moved in 2002 to its present location, now joined with a tree-shaded sitting area. When the weather is mild, residents can be seen resting in the courtyard outside the garden gate. Residents at SEARCH vary from patients with advanced diabetes to substance abusers to AIDS patients.

Volunteers that have helped with the garden include Exxon-Mobil volunteers who came out for the United Way "Day of Caring". Exxon-Mobil volunteers weeded beds, cleared garden pathways, planted trees, helped transplant seedlings, and mulched and watered the garden.

For more information, visit www.searchproject.org.

 

 

 

2311 Canal St., Suite 122, Houston, TX 77003
713-880-5540 •