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TransPlant Project seeks to help ex-offenders while putting locally grown food on the table

Sandy Patrick picks tomatoes at Mulberry Creek Farm near Brookville for CSA customers at Dorothy Lane Market. Patrick is working on local farms as part of the TransPlant Project, which helps ex-offenders learn farming skills to assist them in becoming self-sufficient.

Jan Underwood/Staff photo Sandy Patrick picks tomatoes at Mulberry Creek Farm near Brookville for CSA customers at Dorothy Lane Market. Patrick is working on local farms as part of the TransPlant Project, which helps ex-offenders learn farming skills to assist them in becoming self-sufficient.

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By Mark Fisher, Staff Writer 5:12 PM Friday, July 10, 2009

CLAY TWP., Montgomery County — Lynne Kennedy and Sandy Patrick know how difficult life “on the outside” can be.

Each has served time in prison, and each is now making the most of an opportunity offered to them through a fledgling program called the TransPlant Project, in which prescreened ex-offenders work for local farmers helping to cultivate and harvest fruit and vegetables destined for the dinner tables of Dayton-area families.

“Most people look down on ex-offenders, and they make it so hard for us to find work,” said Patrick, who got out of prison in 2006 after serving a three-year sentence for illegal possession of drugs. “But we’re not bad people. We just made bad choices.”

Kennedy and Patrick spent a morning last week helping to pick squash and tomatoes at Mulberry Creek Farm on Ohio 49 near Brookville, which has its own Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and also is a primary source of vegetables for the Dorothy Lane Market Farm 2 Fork Fresh CSA.

Mulberry Creek’s co-owner, Glenn Stevens Shourds, said he didn’t hesitate to work with Kennedy and Patrick, or with others who “have decided they want a different life.

“I think it’s our Christian or human duty to help each other out,” Shourds said.

The TransPlant Project is the brainchild of Howard Solganik, who has operated restaurants in the Dayton area and consults with grocery chains and eateries. Solganik served on the Miami Valley Ex-Offender Task Force and is vice chairman of Miami Valley Grown, a Montgomery County-based group that seeks to connect local food producers with local consumers.

Solganik plans to expand the project so ex-offenders can cultivate organic fruits and vegetables on vacant lots in urban settings, while learning skills that can help them become productive and self-sufficient. The fruit and vegetables will then be sold through an online “virtual” market to Dayton-area restaurants and other institutions that serve meals or at a retail stand located in Montgomery County, Solganik said.

The former restaurateur is applying to several state and federal agencies for grants to help fund the expansion, and hopes to show that the TransPlant Project can reduce the rate that ex-offenders return to prison.

Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman, who serves as co-chairwoman of a local task force dealing with ex-offenders re-entering society, said the TransPlant Project “has the potential to significantly alter the job and life options for ex-offenders in Montgomery County. I am excited that an idea like this grew out of the Re-Entry Task Force.”

Solganik said, “If we can reduce the recidivism rate at all, we can save the county a lot of money.” He has been working with county commissioners on utilizing county-owned land as a training site for ex-offenders who want to enter the TransPlant Program.

To be eligible for the program, ex-offenders must demonstrate that they’re serious about turning their lives around by completing programs set up by PowerNet of Dayton, a nonprofit agency that specializes in helping ex-offenders re-enter society. They also must have a permanent address and have no convictions for offenses against a child or for sexual assault, Solganik said.

Kennedy, 51, of Harrison Twp., wants to make a living as a farmer, and the Transplant Project is moving her toward that goal, she said. “This is a wonderful opportunity,” she said.

She got out of prison in 2006 after serving four years for felonious assault, but she’s clearly proud of the progress she has made since her release — “I have custody of my children again, I’m a homeowner now, and I have a job,” she said — and is looking ahead to better days.

“Everybody needs a little helping hand at some point,” she said.

For more information about the Dorothy Lane Market Farm 2 Fork Fresh CSA, go to  www.dorothylane.com. For more information  about Mulberry Creek Farm, go to www.mulberrycreekcsa.com

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or mfisher@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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