Homeless Farmworker Training Program Raises $3.5M For Bigger Site

SANTA CRUZ, CA — The Homeless Garden Project has raised $3.5 million to hopefully expand from its 2.5-acre site into a 9-acre site in the Pogonip open space area, where it can continue offering job training, transitional employment and services to homeless participants, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.

The project currently operates out of a space near Shaffer Road and Delaware Avenue, but seeks to secure a long-term lease for a Pogonip-area site off of Golf Club Drive, where the nonprofit plans to build a barn, greenhouse and kitchen building in spring, the Sentinel reported. The new site will have space for fruit orchards and organic vegetables, herbs and flowers.

The Homeless Garden Project seeks to provide job skills, recent work history, connections to social service agencies, a social network and improved self-esteem to its trainees, according to the nonprofit's website. It offers participants training on flower arrangements, agricultural techniques and more.

A quarter of the nonprofit's income comes from sales at its store, From Our Garden.

Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.