The Power of Shopping with a Purpose In a world where gift-giving can sometimes feel routine, choosing a gift that gives back brings a deeper meaning. At the Homeless Garden Project, every item sold supports our mission to empower individuals experiencing homelessness through job training, skill-building, and transitional employment. Our products are crafted with care, but even more importantly, they …
My name is Alison Alkon and I’m a professor in the community studies program at UCSC. I do research and write and teach about food justice, meaning the ways that inequalities like race, class and gender affect who gets access to healthy food, so clearly an organization like the Homeless Garden Project, that helps folks who are struggling to both …
Volunteers are the heart of everything we do at the Homeless Garden Project. Everyone who joins us has their own story, their own reason for showing up. In this series, we’re handing them the mic to share why they volunteer, what they’ve learned, and what this community means to them. Take a read, get inspired, and maybe even join us! …
This testimonial was delivered at HGP’s October First Friday event, Hope Renewed, at the Downtown Store on October 4th, 2024, following a talk from Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley. Hello, my name is Charles Ian Stange, a 43-year-old originally from Berkeley, California, born on September 17, 1981, at Alta Bates Hospital. My mother, Jill Marie Blough, was just 17 and …
We are pleased to share this keynote talk from HGP’s July 20,2024 Sustain Supper by Anne R. Kapuscinski, Director of Coastal Science and Policy program & Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz & Chair of Board of Directors, Union of Concerned Scientists. Video of the full presentation is at the bottom of the post with Anne’s talk …
I left home after the tremendous family loss of my mother, and then my dog. I spent the next 5 years just running around partying, not caring about much, but I had my friends and my grandma to back me up. I was fine living on the side of the mountain year after year, all wet in the rain. But …
April 15, 2024: UCSC Newscenter, by Sandra Messick, Rose Miyatsu, Emily Cerf This article has been shortened. Please see full article here. UC Santa Cruz announced the recipients of the 2023 Chancellor’s Innovation Impact awards, recognizing the outstanding research and creativity taking place across the university. Awards for Innovator of the Year, Lifetime Achievement in Innovation, and Community Changemaker were presented …
When Darrie first asked me to speak today, at first I thought I might not be the best person for it. After giving it some thought I remembered Martin Luther King Jr. had said “As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or seek …
Published in Santa Cruz Sentinel: October 5, 2023. By JESSICA A. YORK Visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in his native Washington, D.C. this summer, Paul Goldberg and his family made a smart turn at the 11-ton elephant specimen looming over the grand rotunda and, there, found a piece of home. Amidst an interactive temporary exhibit titled “Our Places: Connecting …
