Kentucky continues to grapple with the devastating impacts of substance use disorders, which affect an estimated 279,000 Kentuckians. Recognizing recovery as a process that extends beyond clinical treatment, the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service launched the Recovery Garden Program, a collaborative initiative that integrates gardening, nutrition education, and leadership development into the recovery journey. With funding from a Kentucky Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Grant (PI: Dr. Nicole Breazeale) and support from the Kentucky Nutrition Education Program (project lead: Bethany Pratt), the initiative has expanded to 17 substance use recovery sites (up from 6), reaching approximately 675 participants across the state in 2023 and 2024. 1,681 pounds of produce were harvested across the two growing seasons, valued at $3,810.72. 

The Recovery Garden Program offers a structured model for integrating Extension-led gardening and nutrition education programming into substance use recovery centers. Its key components include:

• A 164-page Recovery Garden Toolkit with guidance on building sustainable collaborations, using de-stigmatizing language, integrating leadership pathways into programming, strengthening group bonding, and so forth
• One-on-one specialist support for Extension educators
• A statewide Community of Practice, with periodic professional development opportunities
• Collaborative mini-grants for garden infrastructure and programming

The program aims to build recovery capital—the internal and external resources individuals can draw on to sustain recovery (Cloud & Granfield, 2008)—by focusing on skills, relationships, purpose, and belonging. 

To assess the outcomes of the Recovery Garden Program, Breazeale and colleagues conducted Ripple Effects Mapping evaluations (Chazdon et al, 2017) with approximately 40 participants (mainly individuals in recovery, many who had already graduated from the center, but also center employees and Extension personnel) at three recovery centers in the Fall of 2024: The Healing Place (Taylor County), Owensboro Regional Recovery (Daviess County), and Comprehend Recovery Center (Mason County). These participatory, story-based evaluations uncovered powerful short- and medium-term outcomes across five domains of recovery capital. 

1.Human Recovery Capital (Building Skills and Self-Worth)
 Clients shared that the program equipped them with practical tools like cooking skills, gardening knowledge, budgeting habits, and healthier routines. Just as important, it helped them believe they could care for themselves and their families. One participant explained, “I have diabetes and because of my alcoholism, I have an enlarged liver. I didn’t use to take care of it. I used to eat what I wanted, not take medicine. Now I’m on medicine, I watch what I eat, and I don’t drink sodas. The garden and nutrition class taught me to make better choices and how to eat healthy, specifically with my diabetes.” Another shared, “Now I get to provide the people that live with me healthy food—and I teach the younger generation good qualities like raising your own food instead of playing video games all day.” Gardening also supported emotional regulation and stress relief, helping participants feel calm and focused, “I am at peace in the garden. I used to not be responsible and wanted to destroy stuff.  Now I know I can maintain something and be at peace. I feel good mentally and know I’m constantly growing.” Leadership roles—such as managing garden plots or mentoring peers—fostered deep pride. As one client said, “I’ve always been a follower, but [being responsible for the garden] gives me a sense of accomplishment. It built my pride, my self-esteem.” A center employee expanded on this point, “I see lots of false pride around here. They grab on to something to try to make themselves feel better. The garden is real pride. It’s not false. For example, nobody knew how to grow tomatoes. I got to see them learn and take on that leadership role in the garden. One guy would show another guy and take him under his wing. It’s amazing!”

2.Cultural Recovery Capital (Reconnecting with Identity & Purpose)

Engagement with culturally relevant values and traditions helped clients reconnect with their heritage and spiritual grounding, providing emotional strength. Gardening and cooking serve as vehicles for remembering ancestral knowledge and celebrating cultural identity, which is critical to recovery. One participant shared, “A bunch of the foods we made, me and my grandma used to make before I got high. I thought a lot about that…and those happier memories helped me get through my day.” Another explained, “I think about my memories of my grandmother when I’m working here in the garden. I know she is still with me. That’s real important. I’ve been looking forward to being close with her. Digging weeds and picking the vegetables, she’s looking down on me. This feeling helps motivate me to achieve something in my life.” This cultural reconnection creates a values-aligned pathway to wellness—one that feels familiar, joyful, and empowering, rather than clinical or punitive. A client shared, “[The Extension programming] brought back my childhood memories of gardening and caused a desire for more. Now I grow tomatoes at home. The cooking was also impactful too. I cook for myself more and try new things like ‘eggs in the basket.’ It refocused me on a dormant passion. It reconnects you with ‘who you were.’

3.Social Recovery Capital (Rebuilding Healthy Relationships)

Working side-by-side in the garden or kitchen fostered peer trust, accountability, and mutual support. Many hadn’t experienced this kind of healthy bonding for a long time. As one participant said, “The garden helped me socialize with other people. I used to not want to talk. It helped me get along because I felt peaceful out in the garden.” The program also restored family ties, as participants brought these shared activities into their homes, rebuilding trust and fostering social support. One participant shared a powerful story, “My dad stopped his garden when his dad died. He covered it up with a swimming pool, got rid of the strawberry patch, cut down the peach tree. He took his anger out on the garden because that was his thing with his dad. My son came along, and I told my dad I would come out with him and break the ground. I don’t do much. But it’s my time to watch my dad and my son growing things. My son is out there with his little plastic tool thinking he’s really doing something. And my dad treats him so soft and so good. And I love seeing that because he wasn’t that way with me. I reap the benefits from it and it gives me a reason to stop being so busy and go out and say, hey dad, we need to check the garden, stay connected…. And it’s because of me tying in those memories of my Mamaw and Grandad [and their green beans] and making that oath to myself to really do this.” 

4.Physical Recovery Capital (Meeting Basic Needs)

Participants gained tangible tools to improve food security and lower grocery bills. In the words of a participant, “It shows you that you might not have much money, but it gives you a way to survive and grow vegetables and all that.”  Another remarked, “I’m excited because I grew up gardening, and now I know that I can do it wherever. No one else is growing food in the projects, but these boxes are things I could bring back and put in!” In addition to the fact that gardens yield many pounds of free produce, clients learned how to read labels, stretch ingredients, and prepare meals that supported both recovery and tight budgets, “Those nutrition budgeting classes were key!  Because the next step for us was leaving here and going to sober living.  We learned how to take $5 and $10 and make 5 or 6 meals out of a small amount of money. When we went to transition, every single meal was split between us…We packed our lunches. Others got fast food, but we had that. It helped us survive.” Furthermore, participants who began growing food at home also shared harvests with neighbors, which increases food access and builds connections within the wider community. As one participant explains, “[I started] a garden at home, and it is actually tended by the whole community of people who live in the apartment complex. They all keep an eye out on it and water it. It’s nice keeping an open garden because it is helpful to have more than one family to take care of it.   Other people can also harvest and use the vegetables. Having this thing that we all do together has improved connection in our building. We are a lot calmer with each other because of these open lines of communication. It eases tension between neighbors who have lots of kids and pets because we all garden and cook and play together.” 

5.Community Recovery Capital (Re-embedding in Community and Growing Sober Spaces)
 Each garden became more than a space to grow food—it became a symbol of recovery and reintegration, fostering public engagement, visible progress, and opportunities to give back. Clients described how sharing harvests and offering extra produce to others helped rebuild their sense of purpose and belonging. One participant explained, “For a lot of us, it’s the giving back [that matters] because we’ve taken away so much. But now we’re doing stuff for the community!” The gardens also served as public-facing, drug- and alcohol-free spaces that strengthened connections with family and community members. As one employee shared, “We have a family day. And one of the first things you see when you drive by on family day is that they’re walking around [the garden] and seeing what the clients are up to while they’re here. Members of the community also drive by and see the beds and [are interested in them.]” Clients described how growing gardens at home extended these sober environments into the wider community, offering a positive, constructive use of time and opportunities for structure, expression, and staying grounded in recovery. One participant shared, “When I was raised, we grew gardens. I got so far away from that it wasn’t in my mind. I was reintroduced to it in this class. Now I grow my own garden, my own food. I felt like I had been living wrong for so long, being re-introduced to the positive way, I want to do this now. Not only clean from drugs, but doing life in the right way. It gives you a positive way to express yourself, keeps you busy in complacent, down times.”

In conclusion, while Extension’s role is not clinical, it provides essential community-based tools that complement formal treatment. The Recovery Garden Program helps grow not just food, but hope, identity, and resilience. It supports sustained recovery by helping individuals reconnect—with themselves, with others, with life-giving skills, and with a sense of purpose.