Take Back Santa Cruz

Advocating for a Safe and Clean Santa Cruz

  • About
  • Get Involved
  • Blog
    • Latest Articles
    • In the Press
  • Resources
    • Storm Resources
    • Bike Theft/Registration
    • Cal Trans
    • City of Santa Cruz
    • County of Santa Cruz
    • Needles in Public Spaces
  • Events
  • SHOP
  • Contact
You are here: Home / TBSC Spotlight / TBSC Non-Profit Community Spotlight – Homeless Garden Project

TBSC Non-Profit Community Spotlight – Homeless Garden Project

March 5, 2016 by TBSC 6 Comments

HOMELESS GARDEN PROJECT:  Edible Monterey Bay LOCAL HERO WINNER 2016 BEST NONPROFIT

Helping over 600 people find a
place they can grow, succeed and put down roots; a
local nonprofit serving the homeless will now
be able to put down stronger roots of its own!

TBSC and its Executive Committee warmly congratulate Santa Cruz very own Homeless Garden Project on their Edible Monterey Bay Local Hero Winner nonprofit of the year for 2016!

In December 2015, the Santa Cruz City Council approved plans for Homeless Garden Project (HGP) to take over a 9-acre section of the 640 acre city owned landmark greenspace known as Pogonip. Originally part of Cowell Ranch, Pogonip was the site of a famous golf and polo grounds in the early 20th century. More recently, its rustic clubhouse appeared in the cult favorite vampire movie, Lost Boys, in 1987.  The famous film was centered in the fictitious beach town of Santa Carla (AKA – our very own Santa Cruz). Pogonip is now a very popular mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding area serving Santa Cruz and beyond.

Full scale community capital campaign to finance the improvements

HSC DonateThe city of Santa Cruz is now finalizing the lease of Pogonip’s Lower Main Meadow with HGP.  The plan for the leased land by HGP is to build a small administrative office, a barn and a greenhouse by year end 2017. The organization is planning a full scale community capital campaign to finance the improvements at their new Pogonip property.

Having a permanent site will give the Homeless Garden Project the ability to plan for the long term. The initial lease will be for 20 years with three 5-year renewals available, for a potential total lease term of 35 years.  HGP was thinking about this long term plan before1998, when the city of Santa Cruz placed the concept in the Pogonip master plan. The current plan for the property, if all goes as envisioned, is to plant a cover crop in 2016, spend 2017 preparing the site and building up the soil and have its first crops for actual harvest in 2018.

Long time TBSC favorite nonprofit community group

A long time TBSC favorite nonprofit community group, Homeless Garden Project has always been about healing and engaging people’s spirits by reconnecting them with the land. Now HGP will have its own land to deepen and strengthen its own community roots.

The nonprofit, recently celebrating its 25 year anniversary, is currently on a monthly lease at a four-acre farm near Natural Bridges State Park. The site serves as its CSA operations, u-pick farm and workshop. Its administrative offices are located at another site. Pogonip will allow the organization to combine all of its operations at one site for the 1st time. A huge benefit to the organization and all those it serves.

Homeless Garden Project provides job training, transitional employment and support services to people who are homeless

The farms expansion at Pogonip brings the opportunity to help more program participants. 600 plus homeless people have participated in the program since the program began in 1990. The program teaches the homeless how to grow and harvest crops, develop needed social and job skills to increase marketability, provides counseling and social service support to manage other parts of their lives more successfully and helps the individuals to find housing.

HGP currently serves about 17 trainees and hopes to triple the number of people it serves at the new farm site in its long range plans, while still maintaining the high quality of the current program.

Additional plans range from more volunteer opportunities, increased donations of produce from the farm to nonprofit programs feeding the hungry to new events, including a health fair to promote eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. The Homeless Garden Project’s new home is envisioned as a resource beyond the shores of Monterey Bay and a gem for the city of Santa Cruz and for visitors from near and far.

Homeless Garden ProjectHomeless Garden Project
Downtown Santa Cruz Store: 110 Cooper St., Suite. 100G (@ Pacific Ave)
Farm and Farm Stand: Shaffer Road @ Delaware Avenue
831-426-3609
Web Address: homelessgardenproject.org

NEW! Our Downtown Store has year-round hours.

Address Map
110 Cooper Street, Suite 100G
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone 831.295.6217

Extended Holiday Hours: November 16-December 24 Open: Everyday, 10-8. Closed Thanksgiving, closing early December 24

Downtown Store Regular Hours:
OPEN: Friday & Saturday, noon – 7 PM; Sunday, noon – 6 PM

 

Share Button

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Share on Facebook Share
Share on TwitterTweet
Share on Pinterest Share
Share on LinkedIn Share
Share on Digg Share

Filed Under: TBSC Spotlight

Comments

  1. Tricia S says

    March 5, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    Love the store downtown!! My go to place for holiday and birthday gifts. Highly recommend 🙂 When you check out with your purchase, you are able to add a donation right there on the spot.

    Reply
    • TBSC says

      March 5, 2016 at 12:14 pm

      Thanks Tricia! We do to!

      Reply
  2. Suzie S. says

    March 6, 2016 at 11:24 am

    Love this organization! Thank you for honoring it.

    Reply
    • TBSC says

      March 6, 2016 at 11:27 am

      Thanks Suzie for your comment! We agree <3

      Reply
  3. Margie says

    March 6, 2016 at 11:51 am

    Thank you Homeless Garden Project for being there to help our community. I try to give what I can, even if it is small amounts. I buy gifts here because it makes a difference. I want to share this with all my neighbors, the more neighbors that know about it the better.

    Reply
  4. Richard says

    March 22, 2016 at 8:41 pm

    Trainee “Laurie” in the picture is the Bubbly Bandit, Laurie Soderman. Good to see her rehabilitating herself.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

<h3>Comments Rules of The Road</h3><h2>Please follow these rules when commenting on our site or Facebook page:</h2> <h3><strong>Be relevant</strong></h3> <p>Discuss the story and stay on topic.</p> <h3><strong>Be respectful</strong></h3> <p>Keep things civil. Avoid abusive or offensive language, threats, hate speech, libels and calls for violence. And please, don’t make jokes about the misfortune of others. Imagine it was your loved one in the story and show some restraint.</p> <h3><strong>Be honest</strong></h3> <p>Use your real name. Don’t post commercial messages. Don’t publish copyrighted material that belongs to someone else.</p> <h3><strong>Be discreet</strong></h3> <p>Don’t publish telephone numbers, addresses or other personal information about yourself or others.</p> <h3><strong>Be responsible</strong></h3> <p> </p> <h2>Commenting terms of use</h2> <p>Commenting is a privilege that will be revoked for violations of our terms of use. Inappropriate comments may be deleted. Users who violate the rules will be banned from commenting, perhaps with their previous comments deleted.</p> <p>Users are solely responsible for what they post and can be held responsible for violations of the law. Take Back Santa Cruz cannot verify the content of comments and does not vouch for their accuracy.</p> <div style="padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;" class="hupso-share-buttons"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - http://www.hupso.com/share/ --><a class="hupso_toolbar" href="http://www.hupso.com/share/"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/static.hupso.com/share/buttons/share-medium.png?ssl=1" style="border:0px; padding-top:5px; float:left;" alt="Share Button" data-recalc-dims="1"/></a><script type="text/javascript">var hupso_services_t=new Array("Twitter","Facebook","Google Plus","Tumblr","StumbleUpon","Digg","Reddit","Email","Print");var hupso_background_t="#EAF4FF";var hupso_border_t="#66CCFF";var hupso_toolbar_size_t="medium";var hupso_image_folder_url = "";var hupso_url_t="";var hupso_title_t="TBSC Non-Profit Community Spotlight - Homeless Garden Project";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://static.hupso.com/share/js/share_toolbar.js"></script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --></div><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-twitter-2627" class="share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text" href="https://takebacksantacruz.org/tbsc-non-profit-spotlight-homeless-garden-project/?share=twitter" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Twitter" ><span></span><span class="sharing-screen-reader-text">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)</span></a></li><li class="share-facebook"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="sharing-facebook-2627" class="share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text" href="https://takebacksantacruz.org/tbsc-non-profit-spotlight-homeless-garden-project/?share=facebook" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Facebook" ><span></span><span class="sharing-screen-reader-text">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)</span></a></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div> <div id='jp-relatedposts' class='jp-relatedposts' > <h3 class="jp-relatedposts-headline"><em>Related</em></h3> </div><div class='apss-social-share apss-theme-1 clearfix ' > <div class='apss-facebook apss-single-icon'> <a rel='nofollow' title="Share on Facebook" target='_blank' href='https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://takebacksantacruz.org/tbsc-non-profit-spotlight-homeless-garden-project/'> <div class='apss-icon-block clearfix'> <i class='fab fa-facebook-f'></i> <span class='apss-social-text'>Share on Facebook</span> <span class='apss-share'>Share</span> </div> </a> </div> <div class='apss-twitter apss-single-icon'> <a rel='nofollow' href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=TBSC%20Non-Profit%20Community%20Spotlight%20-%20Homeless%20Garden%20Project&url=https://takebacksantacruz.org/tbsc-non-profit-spotlight-homeless-garden-project/&" title="Share on Twitter" target='_blank'> <div class='apss-icon-block clearfix'> <i class='fab fa-twitter'></i> <span class='apss-social-text'>Share on Twitter</span><span class='apss-share'>Tweet</span> </div> </a> </div> <div class='apss-pinterest apss-single-icon'> <a rel='nofollow' title="Share on Pinterest" href='javascript:pinIt();'> <div class='apss-icon-block clearfix'> <i class='fab fa-pinterest'></i> <span class='apss-social-text'>Share on Pinterest</span> <span class='apss-share'>Share</span> </div> </a> </div> <div class='apss-linkedin apss-single-icon'> <a rel='nofollow' title="Share on LinkedIn" target='_blank' href='http://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https://takebacksantacruz.org/tbsc-non-profit-spotlight-homeless-garden-project/'> <div class='apss-icon-block clearfix'><i class='fab fa-linkedin'></i> <span class='apss-social-text'>Share on LinkedIn</span> <span class='apss-share'>Share</span> </div> </a> </div> <div class='apss-digg apss-single-icon'> <a rel='nofollow' title="Share on Digg" target='_blank' href='http://digg.com/submit?phase=2%20&url=https://takebacksantacruz.org/tbsc-non-profit-spotlight-homeless-garden-project/&title=TBSC%20Non-Profit%20Community%20Spotlight%20-%20Homeless%20Garden%20Project'> <div class='apss-icon-block clearfix'> <i class='fab fa-digg'></i> <span class='apss-social-text'>Share on Digg</span> <span class='apss-share'>Share</span> </div> </a> </div> </div>

Loading Facebook Comments ...

Stay Connected

EZ Fat Footer #3

This is Dynamik Widget Area. You can add content to this area by going to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress Dashboard and adding new widgets to this area.

© 2015 Take Back Santa Cruz · Disclaimer · Privacy Policy · Sitemap | Site designed by Foxxr

Go to mobile version
 

Loading Comments...