Visualize Everyone That Serves (VETS) is a nonprofit in Mobile, Alabama, supporting veterans to create self-sustaining community gardens. Founded in 2018, the organization partners former service members with experienced gardeners to benefit their local communities as well as their mental health. Focused on Africatown, a historic community in the city founded by the West African survivors of the Clotilda, VETS targets a host of issues, from food deserts to urban neglect: “We’re dealing with environmental injustice, at the same time as neighborhood blight,” VETS founder, Chief Jason Lewis, says. “We’re bringing pride into a community.” Lewis, a retired US Navy Chief, explains that VETS is also in the process of creating a memorial garden in the center of Africatown to honor local veterans: “We are uplifting these historical spaces in Africatown, where there are Buffalo soldiers and veterans buried who deserve to be recognized.”
VETS members gather following a community service day. Photo: courtesy of the organization.
VETS is supported by an executive board of six members, two master gardeners and two educators, while its founder is from Africatown, the predominantly African-American community the organization serves. The nonprofit, which fosters partnerships with agricultural community gardens in Mobile, has assisted some 400 veterans over its eight years, many of whom have a disability. In a state that suffers from a high rate of brain drain, the organization’s ambitious scope also involves youth mentorship and training in the community. Looking ahead, Lewis says VETS is focused on the completion of the memorial garden, which will feature raised beds for growing food, a mural to honor local veterans, and eventually, two reconstructed buildings on the property. Building community is at the heart of the project’s vision, Lewis says: “We have veterans from the community who are there simply to give back, in a way where people see that things can get done.”