Pillar one · Urban Agriculture
Now runningRePlant
When you tend the earth, the earth tends you back.
Therapeutic horticulture and urban agriculture — where veterans rebuild routine, patience, and purpose through the work of growing food, tending space, and nurturing life.
- Cost
- Free for veterans and family members — always.
- Format
- Seasonal garden sessions in Columbus with local growers.
- Commitment
- One morning a week, April through October. No experience needed.
- Who it’s for
- Veterans who work best with their hands and want a steady, seasonal rhythm.
Questions before you start? Reach the RePlant team directly.
information@operationmeraki.orgAbout RePlant
Growing food, and growing back.
RePlant is a therapeutic horticulture and urban agriculture initiative for post-9/11 veterans and eligible family members in Central Ohio. Using the act of growing food and tending living things as a therapeutic modality, RePlant builds routine, patience, mindfulness, and a connection to purpose that many veterans lose after service.
Free for veterans and eligible family members. No referral, and no experience required.
How we show up
Three pillars of the RePlant experience.
Presence
We ask for full arrival — phone down, hands in the work, attention here. The garden responds to presence in a way no waiting room ever can.
Purpose
The work in this space is never just about vegetables. Every task — watering, weeding, planting — is an act of care that mirrors the inner work of healing.
Growth
We track the garden. We also track ourselves. Both need tending, time, and patience to flourish.
What we do
How RePlant works.
Therapeutic horticulture
Hands-in-soil weekly sessions
Veterans gather every week to plant, water, weed, and harvest alongside each other. The labor is real. The conversation is organic. The healing happens in both.
Skill building
12-week growth curriculum
A rotating curriculum pairs agricultural skills — seeding, composting, pruning, harvest — with personal reflection prompts tied to the veteran’s growth journey.
Personal growth
Growth contract
Each veteran commits to one thing they want to grow in themselves. Not performance. Just intention, tended over time.
Peer accountability
Grow buddy system
Every veteran is paired with a Grow Buddy for mid-week connection, accountability, and the simple act of checking in on each other.
Community impact
Food sovereignty & distribution
Harvested produce goes first to veterans and their families. Surplus is donated to veteran-serving food pantries in Columbus.
Veteran-led
The RePlant Grow Space
The therapeutic and operational heart of RePlant. Veterans work side by side in a space that values patience, growth, and the dignity of labor. It is not a farm — it is a mission.
“What I needed first was to put my hands back in the dirt. To tend something. To watch a seed I planted push through the soil.”
Michael Thomas · Founder & Executive Director
Grow Space culture
What the Grow Space stands on.
Leave rank at the door
Service history, rank, ego, and status stay at the gate. In this space, we are all gardeners.
No fixing — support only
We tend each other the way we tend plants — with patience and presence, without forcing growth.
Honor the time. Show up.
Plants need consistent care. So does this community. When you show up, it matters — to the garden and to everyone in it.
We grow together
When the garden thrives, we all thrive. When a fellow veteran struggles, the whole garden feels it.
Service beyond self
Veterans in RePlant grow food that feeds others. Their labor extends beyond the garden gate into the community they live in.
The road ahead
Growing the RePlant program.
RePlant is expanding from community-based garden sessions into a permanent urban agriculture facility as part of our East Main Corridor development in Columbus, Ohio.
Weekly grow sessions
Thursday morning sessions in Columbus, open to all veterans and eligible family members.
Growth contract system
Personal growth planning integrated into every 12-week cohort cycle.
Produce distribution
Harvest shared with veteran households and Columbus-area food partners.
Permanent grow space
A dedicated urban agriculture facility at the East Main Corridor site.
Horticulture certification
A formal therapeutic horticulture training pathway for veteran Grow Leaders.
Start here
Your hands built things for this country. Now build something for yourself.
RePlant is free for veterans and their families. No farming experience required. Come once. Put your hands in the soil. See what grows.
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