SANTA ANA, Calif.—In an alleyway strewn with litter and occasional graffiti, the dull colors of concrete and asphalt give way to lush greenery in the back lot of the Catholic Charities of Orange County.
“I think when I came through that door, and I looked out here, the first thing I saw was concrete all around,” Alan Smith, 74, of Newport Beach, California, told The Epoch Times while pointing at the doorway to the Garden of Hope fruit and vegetable garden that produces food for the Catholic Charities’ food pantry ministry.
