Homeboy's Got the Goods

“Would you like to try some Le Rouge?” Angel Delgado asked market-goers on Tuesday at the farmers market in the Whizin Market Square. He was motioning for them to try the bite-sized pieces of reddish-looking bread inside the Homeboy Bakery booth.

Some took him up on his offer and proceeded to purchase the wheat bread with cranberries and red wine for $8, thus the name Le Rouge or “the red.” 

“Homeboys” coming home

With his tattoo-coated arms, Delgado may not be your typical baker or bread vendor. But the former gang member or “homeboy” has come a long way and likes to recount his colorful story with pride.

He met Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J. and founder of Homeboy Industries, the parent organization of Homeboy Bakery, while he was in a juvenile detention center. After serving his six-year sentence, he reconnected with Fr. Boyle and the kind priest helped him find a job.

The Jesuit priest founded Homeboy Industries 23 years ago while assigned to Dolores Mission Church, the poorest parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Fr. Boyle determined that the only way to break the vicious cycle of gangs, crimes and imprisonment among the neighborhood’s young men was through employment.

To date, the non-profit organization has provided services to members of more than half of Los Angeles County’s 1,100 known gangs. “It’s like a one-stop resource center,” said Delgado, who also works in the job development program at the center. “We have mental therapy services, housing assistance, job development counseling and even tattoo removal.”

Based in Downtown Los Angeles, two blocks from Union Station, Homeboy Industries is now a thriving organization that includes Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Cafe and Catering, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Maintenance and Homeboy Merchandise.

Revenues help cover the costs for the free services they provide year-round to “homeboys” like Delgado. “We have a 93 percent job placement success rate,” Delgado proudly stated.

More than baked goods

Ray Moreno, another “homeboy,” was assisting Delgado and attending to patrons. “The Le Rouge sells really well here, and also the cookies and pastries,” he said.

The cookies and pastries were priced at $2 up each. Baguettes were priced at $3 each while the sour dough loaves were priced at $4 each. All the baked goods were baked that morning at the Homeboy Bakery facility in Los Angeles, according to Delgado.

There are more baked goods to choose from in the bakery, including pies, bagels and cakes. Aside from maintaining a presence in over 15 farmers markets in the LA area, Homeboy Bakery also supplies bread and pastries to coffeehouses and restaurants.

According to Delgado, Homeboy Industries reportedly makes $6.5 million in annual revenues but needs $13 million to cover operating expenses. “We get the rest from private donors and grants,” he said. “We’re just grateful that there are people like them who are giving the ‘homeboys’ a second chance.”

 *The Agoura Hills Farmers Market is open on Tuesdays, from 3 to 8 pm, at 28914 Roadside Drive in the Whizin Market Square parking lot.