Keeping the Garden Alive at CCWF

In mid-June, CCWF received a memo: the institution's well was dangerously close to dry. No landscape watering would be allowed until a new well could be dug.

For a garden that feeds the spirit as much as it feeds people, this was serious. Calliope, our Central Valley Regional Lead, and Maggie, our Central Valley Program Associate, got resourceful fast. Working with a local woman-owned water delivery company, they arranged for 3,000 gallons to be delivered to the garden, set up temporary holding tanks, and began coordinating with Planting Justice to keep the tanks filled on an ongoing basis using waste water from their new hydroponic project. About 1,000 gallons from the delivery were donated to a holding tank serving water to the general population.

The garden got the drink it needed. But one of the most memorable moments came from the delivery driver himself. On his way back after the delivery, some COs flagged him down and pointed to a dying tree. One of the older officers sat under it every day, and they'd been giving it what water they could. He stopped and gave it a long drink.

A prison's lawns were brown, the heat was brutal, and a water truck driver paused to tend to a tree because someone asked him to. Sometimes that's what it looks like when care moves through a place.