Connecting with Community: Shepherd Community Center

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - On a summer day in Indianapolis, when the high temperature is 96 degrees, a few dozen teenagers work diligently in a community garden. The same garden they weed produces vegetables served for lunch later in the day.

"It’s hot out here, but it’s fun because we’re being productive and we’re helping people,” said 14-year old Chris Young.

The garden belongs to Shepherd Community Center – a faith-based organization on the near east side of Indianapolis that provides a daily summer camp for hundreds of kids. Working in the garden is reserved for the teens at camp who take harvested food to the kitchen.

"During the camp we do approximately 360 meals, twice a day, five days a week,” says Executive Chef Jim Bradford. “Then, when the school year starts we do 160 meals twice a day, five days a week. Then we have after school programs."

Shepherd considers food a part of its ministry. The center runs an on-site food pantry that provides up to 4,000 meals per week to East side families who otherwise wouldn’t have a steady, reliable source of food.

"You know, there's a lot of different factors working against these kids, but I think if they learn that work ethic and they're able to apply that belief system, they'll be able to break the cycle,” said Assistant Director of Sports Programs Aaron Shelby.

The cycle Shelby mentions is a shortened reference to the "cycle of poverty." It refers to a cycle prevalent in low-income areas where many generations, in a row, live in poverty. Some of the defining factors are a lack of education and not knowing where their next meal will come from.

By feeding children healthy foods they worked for, themselves, Shepherd Community believes the teens learn to value hard work and balanced nutrition.

"When you're a third generation in any socio-economic class, that’s all you know” says Tim Streett, Assistant Director of Shepherd Community Center. “You have very little contact with people outside that particular class."

One way Shepherd Community Center attempts to break the cycle of poverty is through higher education. Each summer, workers teach teens in an SAT prep class. They share laptops and test-taking skills to help them score higher on college entrance exams. Shepherd also takes teens on visits to colleges and universities to expose them to higher education.

Their efforts seem to help. 95 percent of the kids who go through Shepherd's programs graduate from high school and go on to either higher education, job training or the military.

"They're learning work ethic. They’re having models of behavior in the mentors, in their coaches," says Streett.