Veterans Day 2020: PEOPLE Honors Heroes Who Find Sweet Ways to Serve Others After Active Duty

When he left the Air Force in 2008, several years after his father’s death in a motorcycle accident, former Air Force Senior Airman John Mahshie felt “alone and isolated.” And he figured other vets might be struggling as well.

“I wanted to create a community for fellow veterans who needed a sense of belonging,” Mahshie, 38, tells PEOPLE. “I had this vision of growing a ‘healing farm’ . . . [because] it’s just as important to feed the body as it is to feed the spirit.” 

So in 2013 Mahshie vets a new transformed a nine-acre plot of land in Hendersonville, N.C., that his family had used to raise pigs into lush farmland filled with organic fruit trees, berry bushes and medicinal herbs and flowers. 

“I learned pretty much everything about planting and growing by watching YouTube videos,” says Mahshie, who, with his wife, Nicole, 34, now invites former service members to volunteer as needed to help keep Veterans Healing Farm running. 

The vets — who often stay on the property in shipping containers transformed into bunkhouses — “learn new skills but also find purpose in life,” says Mahshie, who’s convinced that in addition to producing nutritious foods, farming provides the vets with numerous therapeutic benefits, including physical exercise and vitamin D from spending time in the sun.

Equally important, the farm offers a natural environment where former members of the military, some of whom have been struggling with unemployment, depression or homelessness, can gather together amid the woodpeckers and the bees and “continue their military mission of service before self,” says Mahshie.

In addition, over the past six years the group has given away more than 35,000 lbs. of veteran-grown produce and flowers to other local veterans and their caregivers.

“What we do is give veterans a new community that they can be a part of with other veterans, caregivers and civilians,” says Mahshie. “The need is so significant. We grow plants, but we cultivate life through building community.” 

—Reporting by SUSAN KEATING