This volunteer grows fruits, vegetables, fellowship

Tom Jones gardened for 40 years. His lettuce and zucchini flourished, but his acorn squashes were tiny, and the strawberries shriveled. His onions didn’t come up at all.

He sought advice from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Rob and Melani Walton Urban Farm.

Jones is blind, so the first time he visited, Taylor Scarpelli, the associate farm manager, described what fruits and vegetables grew there, providing fresh produce for the nonprofit organization’s dining rooms and food boxes.

At home, Jones grew produce for himself and his wife Betsy and a neighbor or two. He realized he could do more.

Now every Wednesday, Jones volunteers, planting seeds in trays, watering and helping harvest, all by touch. Last week, he sorted newly picked greens, separating the leaves into baskets.

As Jones works, he prays, for the seeds to sprout, for the people who grow and prepare the food, and for the families who otherwise wouldn’t have enough to eat.

“I pray they would get the benefit of the joy God has given me,” Jones said.

Digging in the soil, growing things and helping others gives him a sense of peace.

Jones, who’s 75, began losing his sight in 2007, his field of vision narrowing over the years. While he knows his blindness can affect what he’s able to do, he’s now doing things he’d never had time for.

He retired from the car wash he owned and volunteers mentoring kids. He teaches Sunday school.

And then there’s the farm, where more than plants grow. So does fellowship.

“I know there is a very beautiful world out there that a lot of people don’t know about,” Jones said. He feels it with his hands and smells the flowering buds and the damp earth.

“It is just heavenly, shall we say?” Jones said.