Six years ago, local boat captain Nathan Pendleton packed a couple of duffel bags and set off for Nicaragua armed only with $600 and a desire to “help poor people.”
Today, the St. Augustine-based charity Pendleton founded provides nutritious food to 9,000 children each day, along with access to clean water, afterschool programs, therapy for special needs children and more. The charity — Deeply Rooted Grounds — became a reality after Pendleton visited a friend who was adopting two children in Nicaragua, the Western Hemisphere’s second-poorest nation.
“I saw how these children were living — tin shacks with dirt floors, no food, no running water — and God just overwhelmed my heart,” said Pendleton, a U.S. Army veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division. “I stayed for six months as a volunteer, then came back to St. Augustine and set up the nonprofit.”
While in Nicaragua, Pendleton met and married his wife, Maria Celeste. He soon learned that Maria and her mother were sharing what little food they had with three local children, who would come by each evening for a spoonful of rice, beans and tortillas. He resolved to do more.
“Those three children turned into seven, and then seven became 15 and so we bought a shack to use as a base,” he said. “We called it a ‘Dream Center,’ because when we asked the kids what they dreamed of doing with their lives, they didn’t know what we were talking about. For them, their ‘dream’ was having something to eat today.”
Today, Deeply Rooted Grounds’ Dream Centers operate six days a week, providing nutritious food and clean water to 300 children a day. The nonprofit has expanded its reach to thousands more by forming a network of 44 local pastors, who come to the centers, pick up food and distribute it in their remote mountain villages. The organization also operates a thriving afterschool education program, a maternal health program for pregnant women and new mothers and has even built new houses for villagers for as little as $6,000.
“Studies show that we can increase the overall health of a family by 70% simply by getting them up out of the dirt,” Pendleton said.
But the project closest to Pendleton’s heart, he said, is Deeply Rooted Grounds’ new “Miracle House,” which provides rehabilitation and therapy services to children like his 4-year-old son Isaac, who was born prematurely and has cerebral palsy.
“We have three full-time staff who are helping these children,” he said. “Isaac is doing so much better, and it’s amazing to see how his life is helping so many other children.”
Supported by a volunteer board of directors based in St. Augustine, Deeply Rooted Grounds initially raised funds by selling locally grown coffee through individual “coffee subscriptions.” After political unrest in Nicaragua resulted in the United Nations imposing sanctions on the country, however, the nonprofit is now only able to distribute its coffee in bulk, primarily through churches.
To support its services, the nonprofit offers mission trips as well as child sponsorships beginning at $20 a month, whereby donors can support a child’s nutrition, education and/or therapy services. Pendleton is currently traveling across the United States seeking support for Deeply Rooted Grounds’ most ambitious project to date: the purchase of an existing open-air conference center the organization hopes to transform into its base of operations, providing nutrition, education, health and therapy services as well as a spiritual center, all at one location.
“We’ve experienced very organic growth,” said Pendleton, who plans to call the new center Centro Cristiano el Rio, or The River Christian Center. “God is just doing amazing things.”
For more information on Deeply Rooted Grounds, to make a donation or to sponsor a child, go to deeplyrootedgrounds.org.
