By Lindsay Peyton

Menu planning can be a bit of a challenge for chef Sharon Setzer.

She prepares lunches and dinners at Riverton Place, a residential recovery program for men. The center is located at 3020 South 128th St. in Burien. 

Until recently everything that’s on the menu comes depends on what has been donated to the facility. And since donations change on a daily basis, Setzer is charged with thinking on her feet to make the best use of ingredients. 

She jokes that it’s like being on “Chopped” – the Food Network show where contestants use the contents of a mystery basket to create a recipe. 

These days, Setzer has a lot more options. 

The new garden at Riverton is ready for harvest. Sunflowers stretch to the sky, topping 15 feet up. Tomatoes are ripening on the vine. Corn is growing alongside fresh herbs, beets, squash and potatoes. 

“It’s wonderful to get fresh produce,” Setzer said. “We all need that for our bodies, to get the nutrients we need. It’s great to get canned food, but there’s nothing like fresh – and it’s organic too.”

Riverton Place is a program of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, a faith-based nonprofit that provides both emergency care and long-term recovery services to homeless people in King County. 

The organization started during the Great Depression, when it served soup to homeless and unemployed individuals. 

Today, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission has grown to include a number of programs – from search and rescue and prison ministries to women’s shelter and transitional housing. 

Riverton Place is where homeless men who want to recover from addiction may go. The facility can serve 72 people at a time. 

Each month, the center graduates three to seven men, which means they have been sober for a year. 

Riverton checks in with graduates to ensure they remain on the path to recovery – and reports having a success rate of 82 percent.

Dan Edmondson, manager of education and employment at Riverton, said the need to help the homeless community continues to be on the rise. 

“I live in Des Moines, and I know from just my drive to work, that there are way more people experiencing homelessness,” he said. “We want to be a part of the solution. Not everyone wants help. But if they do, we’re able to.”

The nine-month program includes counseling, job training, religious studies, legal services, a dental clinic and a computer lab. 

“Every single person leaves here with a job,” Edmondson said. 

Gardening and harvesting produce for the kitchen is one of the work-study options, he said. 

The green space is also meant to provide a place for reflection. 

“The main purpose of the garden is for them to find peace – and to be able to work with their hands,” Edmondson said. 

The land for the garden was donated to Riverton by Ron Steinman, owner of Boulevard Park Retirement Community, located just next door. 

Steinman said Riverton has been a long-time neighbor. “Over the years, we’ve used some of their residents who have graduated as employees,” he said. 

One of the employees told Edmondson about the retirement community’s garden, which features 25 raised beds. 

It wasn’t long before Edmondson and Steinman started talking. 

Edmondson was wondering if Steinman had ideas for how his residents could learn to work in a garden. 

Steinman had a better idea. “We have 12 acres and we obviously don’t use it all,” he said. “We’ve been trying to find ways to support what Union Gospel Mission does.”

Steinman decided to gift a plot of land and the raised beds last spring – and Riverton residents planted in May. 

“We just made it happen,” Steinman said. “It’s been a win-win.”

Edmondson plans to start up again about the same time next year – and to expand the garden to include a cornfield, bee hives and possibly chickens. 

Seattle's Union Gospel Mission is looking for donations and volunteers to keep the garden going – and to continue to help Riverton residents.

For more information, visit www.ugm.org.