An ambitious young activist is using the local food movement to help break the cycle of incarceration.

On a 4-acre farm a few miles south of the Fulton County Jail, Abiodun Henderson swung a pickax into the soil at her feet. She kept at it until she was winded and sweating on this brisk October morning. Around her, 10 young men and women tentatively swung their own tools at the ground, loosening the soil for a set of raised beds where turmeric and ginger plants would grow inside a hoop house through the mild Georgia winter.

“This is how deep we’re going!” Henderson shouted over to Derriontae Trent, one of her trainees, as she pointed to a rusted spike hammered nearly a foot down in the soil. “Teamwork makes the dream work!”

Trent, a smart and wiry father in his early 20s, had recently completed a 2-year prison sentence for multiple weapon and drug charges. He figured that with a rap sheet longer than his résumé his only choice might be a return to the streets.