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 …
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 …
Good Afternoon Everyone and Welcome to the Cesar Chavez Day of service here at the Homeless Garden Projects Farm. So how was lunch? Let’s thank 1440 for providing us with such an outstanding & nourishing lunch! First-off I would like to thank each and everyone of you for not only taking the time to show up… but putting in the …
Good afternoon, welcome to the Natural Bridges Farm. My name is Eric, I’ve been a trainee here at HGP for the past 10 months. I initially came to the garden because I needed income. I came out here from Colorado to be with my girlfriend & help her get out of the homelessness she was stuck in. We were living …
“Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.”
From an early age I’ve been fascinated with food. Why do we eat what we eat? I wondered what unprepared foods looked like. How they tasted and worked together for nutrition. Where they came from. How they are sustained. For me this blossomed a passion for sustainability. How sustainable is one of the most important systems that we know? Food …
Not too long ago, I was in a marriage living in a home with my husband and children, and my mom lived close by. My dad died when I was twelve, and my mom and I have always been very close since then. I was married for fourteen years and have been through a lot with my husband. Addiction was …
Over the past 12 years, staff and faculty at the UCSC Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance have worked with HGP to document trainee growth and the transformative power of the farm. In addition to asking trainees to complete questionnaires at the beginning and end of their participation in the program, we have also been working to …
Donna spoke at our 2017 Downtown Store Gala Holiday Open House on December 1, 2017. The trainees had been working in the workshop for over a month, creating wreaths, decorating our beeswax candles, making our bath and body products, baking mixes, herb salts and much more! This Open House celebrated our trainees’ work and achievements. Hello everyone, welcome. I’m Donna …
Relationships, engagement, accomplishment and positive emotion all play an integral part in well-being. A strength of our training program is our investment in the whole person, so that trainees can sustain their well being after graduation. This is how trainees describe the effect the Training Program has had on their lives: “Social workers, volunteers, employees, and other trainees are a …
