These, along with an orchard featuring an array of fruit trees including apricots, nectarines, oranges, lemons, limes, plums, peaches, figs, guavas and jujubes, plus a dragon fruit tower, are all part of the garden\u2019s common area. The fruit trees are all kept trimmed to under six feet for ease of harvesting. The 25 gardeners with assigned plots tend them cooperatively and share in their fruit while also having access to large common beds of strawberries, tomatoes and flowers.<\/p>\n
The 6,000-square-foot garden is an intentionally friendly, accessible place. Neighbors frequently stop by with questions for head gardener and garden chaplain Charles I. Lewis, a retired psychiatrist and passionate gardener of over 50 years who came to San Diego with the Navy and, like so many others, remained. The longtime Mount Helix resident is happy to share his knowledge and encourages residents to bring him their gardening queries.<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-010_232816882.jpg\")
New Hampshire Red chickens check out a visitor inside The Hennery at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center in El Cajon. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a teaching garden,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not really to provide food for the community but to teach people how to garden and provide people in the community a place to garden.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the garden participants are apartment dwellers living within a few blocks and are novice gardeners, Lewis said. Many are immigrants or refugees from the Middle East, Afghanistan, Latin America and the Philippines while others are native-born or longtime El Cajon residents eager to grow their own produce. Some had gardened in their native countries or elsewhere in the U.S. but were new to East County\u2019s hot growing conditions. But all lacked access to an appropriate gardening space at their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach family, or person, has a 4-by-4-foot section. You can see they grow chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. They can get a lot in a 4-foot section. And if they want extra growing space, I give them these fabric bags (filled with soil) that can be moved around and they can grow extra food, like eggplant or squash,\u201d Lewis explained.<\/p>\n
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The Good Shepherd Ministry Center, housed on the site of a former United Methodist Church. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-023_232816956.jpg\")
\nA \u201cblessings box\u201d holds food items. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-017_232816960.jpg\")
\nThe closet items at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center in El Cajon. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Joy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-020_232816978.jpg\")
\nJoy Hollmann grabs hangers out of the men\u2019s closet at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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The Good Shepherd Ministry Center, housed on the site of a former United Methodist Church. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n
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He pointed out the shoe bag-like fabric hanging organizers with pockets that can be filled with soil and used to grow lettuce and other vegetables.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to be watered every day. Right now, in the hot weather, we\u2019re not using them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some gardeners seek to recreate memories of home. An Afghan refugee, he explained, was eager to plant okra as he did in Afghanistan, while a large Russian immigrant family who volunteered to help Lewis build out the raised beds when the garden first started grows oats and grain as they did in Russia, enough to make a little bread.<\/p>\n
![\"Head](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-015_232816888.jpg\")
Head gardener and garden chaplain Charles I. Lewis waters in the community garden. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nThe community garden provides everything the gardeners need to grow plants: raised beds, appropriate potting soil mixed with perlite, earthworm castings and composted chicken manure, water, seeds, fertilizer and even tools for cultivation.<\/p>\n
The garden opened in 2022, Lewis recounted, and has had little turnover among the gardeners. It was a logical progression in GSMC\u2019s evolution and designed to address food insecurity in the community that grew increasingly apparent during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Lewis responded to a call from Susan Naslund, GSMC\u2019s director, to Foothills United Methodist Church (UMC) in La Mesa for volunteers interested in starting a community garden on the grounds of the former First UMC of El Cajon. The church had closed in 2017 after its congregation dwindled to just a handful of parishioners.<\/p>\n
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A monarch butterfly stops off in the community garden at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center in El Cajon. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-025_232816980.jpg\")
\nCharles I. Lewis explains the work being done in the community garden. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Fruit](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-006_232816850.jpg\")
\nFruit trees in the community garden are kept at a height to make harvesting easier. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-008_232816874.jpg\")
\nJohn Elder makes compost at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center that will be used in the garden. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Eli](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-009_232816878.jpg\")
\nEli Schneider looks inside a henhouse at the center. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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\nElder feeds the worm compost at the center. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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A monarch butterfly stops off in the community garden at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center in El Cajon. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)\n<\/p>\n
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Rather than sell off the property to support other, more thriving congregations as done in the past, the UMC\u2019s governing body appointed a pastor to assess potential uses for the church\u2019s valuable facilities and 1.65 acres of land. She recommended merging the church with Foothills UMC and converting the El Cajon campus into a ministry center to benefit the entire community under Foothills\u2019 umbrella, Naslund explained. Foothills embraced the concept and assumed the ministry center\u2019s stewardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we began this center, it was still a rather new idea. In our south district, part of the California-Pacific Conference, there are three ministry centers among 70 churches. Foothills is now one church with two campuses,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The center\u2019s initial focus was its market-style food pantry, which now aids about 300 local families, many from the immigrant and refugee community, along with providing other services, including a clothing closet, diaper bank and hygiene products (see sidebar).<\/p>\n
The original plan for the community garden, Naslund explained, was that it could provide fresh fruit and vegetables for their food pantry.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-014_232816902.jpg\")
The garden contains a grove of moringa trees, known for their nutritional and medicinal properties. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n\u201cThen we found that our gardeners are growing just enough for their own families. Any excess doesn\u2019t go far enough. Let\u2019s keep (the garden\u2019s produce) just for the gardeners themselves. We decided, let\u2019s make it a learning garden rather than a production garden,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
An increasingly important part of the garden is the moringa grove, which Lewis and moringa tree advocate Sheryl Huffman \u2014 the garden\u2019s moringa ambassador \u2014 began planting about two years ago as an additional tool in addressing food insecurity. They now have about 50 trees, with plans to plant more. Their goal is to teach the local community about the moringa (Moringa oleifera), a superfood called the \u201cmiracle tree\u201d because of its high nutritional and medicinal benefits, speed and ease of growing and harvesting, plus great drought tolerance. (See sidebar.)<\/p>\n
Supported entirely by private funding from Foothills UMC and other sources, including generous grants from the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club for fencing, the garden has thrived both to help plot holders feed their families and to provide gardening knowledge for the community.<\/p>\n
Education remains a strong component of the community garden\u2019s mission. As another tool to make gardening easier and more accessible, Lewis has begun recording short videos on gardening topics for posting on the GSMC\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-022_232816966.jpg\")
A dragonfly perches on a post in the garden. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nBeyond his work with the community garden, one day a week Lewis works with third to fifth graders at the adjacent bilingual EJE Academies teaching the next generation about gardening. A group of children from the elementary school helped build and fill the garden\u2019s strawberry beds.<\/p>\n
Both the resource center and the garden plan to continue nurturing the community \u2014 one conversation and one plant at a time.<\/p>\n
Expert garden volunteers are available to answer questions at the garden, located at 772 S. Johnson Ave. in El Cajon from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and from 9 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays.<\/p>\n
To contact Lewis and GSMC\u2019s gardening team, email them at gsmc@foothillsumc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![\""Mother](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-011_232816876.jpg\")
\u201cMother Hen\u201d Eli Schneider oversees The Hennery, where uninspected eggs from New Hampshire Red chickens are offered to church members for a donation. That generates money to buy commercially produced, inspected eggs to supply the food pantry. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nGood Shepherd Ministry Center provides wide-ranging community programs<\/p>\nLike many faith-based community-based programs, Good Shepherd Ministry Center, which opened in 2017, is proudly inclusionary in providing its services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are welcoming to everyone. The banner on our building reads: \u2018The GSMC welcomes all regardless of race, gender identity, marital status, physical condition, sexual\u00a0orientation, ethnic background, or economic situation. Kindness is everything.\u2019 We are not there to promote faith. We are there just to live out our faith,\u201d Naslund explained.<\/p>\n
With a small professional lay staff and a backbone of nearly 200 volunteers coming from Foothills United Methodist Church as well from many faiths and ethnicities throughout the community, they now assist about 300 local families every Saturday morning with services including a market-style food pantry with donated food from Feeding San Diego and local grocery stores. They always provide milk, eggs and fresh produce and offer a clothing closet with gently used clothing, diapers, hygiene supplies and even pet food.<\/p>\n
![\"Volunteers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-016_232816968.jpg\")
Volunteers in the closet sort clothing items at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center in El Cajon. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nIn addition, the center\u2019s Hennery, overseen by \u201cMother Hen\u201d Eli Schneider, raises \u201cvery pampered and charming\u201d New Hampshire Red chickens whose uninspected eggs they can\u2019t legally sell, but can offer to church members for a donation. These donations generate enough money to buy commercially produced and inspected eggs to supply the food pantry.<\/p>\n
GSMC also runs a composting program, using spoilt produce from the pantry and chicken manure from The Hennery, providing compost for the community garden.<\/p>\n
Wednesday nights feature Gentle Yoga classes at the center.<\/p>\n
In parallel, GSMC works with local nonprofits and schools to offer extra complementary community programs. Bastyr University Clinic<\/a> runs a free naturopathic clinic. Art Inspiring Change<\/a> provides art therapy to help refugee women process trauma through art. The Barrio Logan College Institute<\/a> assists students to become the first in their families to attend college.<\/p>\n
The center provides extra programming space to the neighboring bilingual charter elementary school, EJE Academies<\/a>, and English as a Second Language classes<\/a> partnering with the Grossmont-Cuyamaca College District.<\/p>\n
Good Shepherd Ministry Center is located at 772 S. Johnson Ave., El Cajon. For more information, visit foothillsumc.org\/good-shepherd<\/a> or email at gsmcmarketplace@foothillsumc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Nicole Sours Larson<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Sheryl](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-004_232816828.jpg\")
Sheryl Huffman, the \u201cmoringa ambassador\u201d at the garden, points out the tree\u2019s features and talks about its nutritional and medicinal qualities. The center has planted 50 moringa trees and plans to add more. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nMoringa: the \u201cmiracle tree\u201d<\/p>\nGood Shepherd Ministry Center volunteers Sheryl Huffman, GSMC\u2019s moringa ambassador, and Charles Lewis, their garden chaplain, discovered the powerful nutritional \u201csuperfood\u201d benefits of the moringa tree (Moringa oleifera) and began planting it in the community garden in July 2023. Huffman, who completed grower\u2019s and educator\u2019s certificates through Vista-based Moringa for Life (moringaforlife.com<\/a>), is a staunch advocate for planting the tree widely.<\/p>\n
![\"Huffman](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-002_232816816.jpg\")
Huffman displays a bloom from the moringa plant. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SUT-L-GOODSHEPCOMMGARDEN-09XX-013_232816900.jpg\")
A mature sunflower in the community garden at the Good Shepherd Ministry Center in El Cajon. (Alejandro Tamayo \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n