(FOX40.COM) — One scoop at a time, with the right tools in hand, a group of Hmong elders in Sacramento are determined to create a flourishing “garden of hope.”

“Our Hmong culture, we like to garden,” says Ia Lo, program manager with Hmong Youth and Parents United.

The community-based organization in Old North Sacramento works to improve the lives of all individuals while celebrating and preserving the Hmong language and culture. 

The Hmong are an indigenous group from Southeast Asia and East Asia. Hundreds of thousands of Hmong now live in the U.S., primarily in Central California and in Minnesota.

“This garden has been a vision for such a long time because we wanted to again create a space for them to practice the culture of gardening but also infuse a lot of urban farming as well,” Lo said. 

The senior day program at the Hmong Hope Center began in 2018 and brings Hmong elders together twice a week. “To really provide a safe space for all the elders to come together, build a social network and create a space so they can really talk about what’s important to them,” Lo added. 

The safe space means so much to people like Tom Lor, a senior day program participant. “This center helps me a lot. I come here, I have lots of friends and we talk together and they help me, I help them,” Lor said.

Together, Lo says, the group of elders is focused on the task at hand, bringing the garden of hope to life. “This is for fun, but this is also for real,” says Lo. “This is where you’re going to be putting your heart, your sweat, you work here. This is where you’re going to make food for you to eat, and also share that food with other community members as well.” 

“It feels really happy. I love everyone together, happy,” says program participant Lu Lee. 

It’s that feeling of happiness, but also support during difficult times that echoes in the afternoon activities that follow, according to Lo. 

Activities include check-in time, where elders have a safe space to share what’s on their mind. 

“Sometimes it’s about things that they are going through that are very sad or some traumas that they have experienced, or just to have fun with one another and be out of the house but be in a very safe space and be with people who can talk their language as well,” Lo said. 

Seniors also work on craft projects, meditation, exercise and field trips, among other activities. 

Lo says that happiness also radiates in their latest project, the garden, which is a labor of love rooted in Hmong culture. 

“When we plant a seed, we want to make sure that we have the plant that is the strongest, that’s thriving and as every generation of the seed, it changes but it also has little remnants of the past and I think my Hmong culture, my Hmong community is a resemblance to that, where yeah every generation is going to change, but we’re going to reflect, we’re going to appreciate, we’re going to celebrate.”