Farming Hope

Farming Hope is a culinary program and social movement promoting self-sufficiency by creating equitable opportunities in local food businesses. Our mission is to employ and empower neighbors experiencing or at risk of homelessness to grow food and feed others. We place an emphasis on employment training and skills building to set our employees up for sustained employment on their journey out of poverty. This is accomplished through employment in our food business, our kitchen gardens, and through programming exercises that emphasize setting and working toward goals, work readiness, and community engagement. Farming Hope was born out of the Stanford Design School and we use key principles of Human Centered Design in our operations. We encourage feedback and leadership from employees at all levels of the organization. Special focus is placed on developing an exemplary model for food as a tool for community organizing.