Farm, gardens provide community for developmentally disabled adults

The intro to a feature from The News & Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., about the L'Arche Farm and Gardens:

Out by the driveway, a man named Greg is carefully shoveling rich compost from a wheelbarrow into a machine that noisily sifts the organic material.

In a nearby greenhouse, a woman named Debbie is placing soil and plants into small pots. Like Greg, she is going about her task with the utmost care.

In another greenhouse, a man named Les sprays water from a hose onto
lushly growing plants. Carefully, like the others.

These folks are fastidious workers.

They’re hard workers.

They’re developmentally disabled workers.

They’re part of a group of people called core members of the L’Arche Farm & Gardens agricultural complex in rural Pierce County.

Located about 12 miles southeast of Tacoma on Vickery Avenue East, it’s a small farm – 8 acres with a farmhouse, a barn and four greenhouses on the property. But it has a large mission, one that goes far beyond the growing and harvesting of foodstuffs.

“L’Arche is dedicated to the marginalized and those who have always been cast out. We were founded on the Gospel values of the New Testament and the Beatitudes,” said Patrick Toohey, the farm’s manager.

Much of the food the residents eat in the homes comes from the farm. As originally conceived, the farm was intended to produce enough food to feed Tacoma-area core members in the adult homes with a little left over to sell at farmers markets. Shoppers at the Tacoma, Sixth and Proctor farmers markets may recognize the farm name. L’Arche workers sell fresh produce and nursery starts weekly at those markets.

It’s a community where people with developmental disabilities learn life skills by working alongside people without handicaps. A privately run nonprofit organization, L’Arche receives partial funding from Pierce County Human Services as well as area charitable organizations.

The Tacoma-area farm is part of a worldwide network of L’Arche communities. The term is French for “the ark,” referring to Noah’s ark, and the organization was founded in 1964 in Trosly-Breuil, a village in northern France, by Jean Vanier, a spiritually inclined French-Canadian layman who dedicated himself to sharing his life with and helping people with developmental disabilities.