There are going to be times in life when all of us need a helping hand but some people may need it more than others. One group of individuals who has seen their fair share of troubles in life and sometimes suffer as a result of those problems are veterans. They may struggle with various issues and some of those issues could be as serious as depression, homelessness, and drug abuse. One Air Force veteran who was a Senior Airman when he left the Air Force in 2008 and struggled with mental health problems is John Mahshie. He has now dedicated his life to helping other veterans by producing something he calls a ‘Healing Farm’ on a plot of land in North Carolina.
Mahshie admits that he was feeling ‘alone and isolated’ after leaving the Air Force and he was sure that other veterans felt similarly. He said: “I didn’t have a way to process my dad’s death. I just sucked it up and pressed on. I knew that other veterans felt like I did, in many ways. Maybe they didn’t feel exactly how I felt for the same reasons, but they were struggling in their own way.” That is when he started transforming a 9-acre plot of land in Hendersonville into something amazing. Originally, it was used for raising pigs but since 2013, it is growing organic fruit trees, medicinal herbs, flowers, and berry bushes.
“I wanted to create a community for fellow veterans who needed a sense of belonging,” he explains. “I had this vision of growing a ‘healing farm’ because it’s just as important to feed the body as it is to feed the spirit.”
He got the idea to start Veterans Healing Farm when he took a number of mission trips to Mexico with an Air Force chaplain. They would work together to help poor communities.
Mahshie works along with his wife, Nicole, as they bring service members to volunteer on the farm and keep it running. They stay in converted shipping containers that are now bunkhouses and that is where they learn ‘new skills but also find purpose in life’. He feels that healing farm produces more than fresh produce, it also helps veterans to benefit from the experience therapeutically.
“You don’t get that in civilian life,” the founder explains. “In civilian life, relationships form and evolve at a different pace. Veterans feel the difference when they get out of the service. Here, veterans learn that they can trust other people and that they are valued.”
“The acts of growing and harvesting help them form friendships with people who share the same mission. It’s so gratifying to see these relationships form. What we do is give veterans a new community that they can be a part of with other veterans, caregivers and civilians,” says Mahshie. “The need is so significant. We grow plants, but we are growing much more than that. We cultivate life through building community.”