How Lawn Care with a Purpose is Far More Than Mulch, Mowers and Maintenance

Every time Lawn Care with a Purpose mows a lawn, a child gets closer to success in school. This social enterprise from Corners Outreach does more than make yards beautiful — it also helps build brighter futures for underserved students.

It’s a part of Corners Outreach that uses the business of landscaping to raise funds for its after-school tutoring program, Corners Academy, while employing parents of the students and others in the community. Ten percent of Lawn Care with a Purpose’s profits go directly to the Academy, and employees are paid a living wage far above the industry average, ranging from $17-$25 an hour.

Corners President & CEO Larry Campbell started this company when he surveyed parents of Academy students and found most were already working in landscaping.

“We’re able to work on both long-term education and short-term poverty intervention,” Larry said. “Both those two things are needed so our kids can have a better life.”

Jose Vichez runs Lawn Care with a Purpose’s day-to-day operations and said his crews come to work excited to do their best each day. 

“All my guys are willing to go the extra mile for the good of the company,” he said. “They feel like they belong to something; they aren’t just another number or another piece of the company. No, they are like a family. That’s how I see them and I treat them, and that’s the environment we have around here.”

Jose has been with Lawn Care with a Purpose since it started in 2018. The journey that led him to the company wasn’t an easy one, but it has made nurturing the values of stability, community and purpose in others important to him.

Jose grew up in El Salvador but had to flee the country with his family when he was 12 because of the civil war there.

“After the war was over, we had a problem with the gangs, so I couldn’t go back to my own country,” he said. “So I grew up in Honduras, and then in 1998, I came to the United States.”

Jose owned his own construction company in New Jersey, but lost everything after the recession hit in 2007. In 2009, as he was starting over, Jose met Larry who was an elder at the church he found.

When Larry started Lawn Care with a Purpose, he asked Jose to come help run it.

“I feel grateful to God for putting Larry in my life and giving me this opportunity to take this challenge — it has been a challenge in the last few years, but I have been growing and learning,” Jose said. “It is a process, but it makes me feel like I found my purpose in life.”

Jose is responsible for managing three lawn maintenance crews and a hardscape crew. He also handles all the irrigation services with one other employee and does all the client estimates. 

It keeps him busy, but he wants to hire more employees to grow the hardscaping side of the business and gain more commercial accounts. No experience is necessary, only a desire to learn and be focused on the purpose of the company.

“I’m willing to train whoever is willing to work,” he said.

Jose said his customers are happy to support Lawn Care with a Purpose not just because of the quality of work they do, but also because they know that it’s helping Corners Outreach accomplish its mission.

“They know exactly what we are doing with the community, that we are helping others to do better,” he said. “When somebody hires our service, they are helping others. They are not making anybody rich, they are helping other people have a better life.”

Want your lawn to make a difference? Text or call Jose at 404-457-7130 for a quote — and know that your next service is helping a child thrive in school.