Our Work
Farming Hope manages a culinary job training program for community members who are overcoming obstacles such as former incarceration or homelessness. Our paid employment program helps adults transition to personal well-being and employment while nourishing neighbors who are food-insecure and rescuing food from landfills. The need to be needed informs the work we do at Farming Hope, and fuels our pursuit of lasting social change in our community. Our mission is to empower folks experiencing major barriers to employment to grow and cook food to sustain themselves and their communities.
Job Training
Farming Hope works within a diverse ecosystem of support services and partners to guide our Apprentices on their road to resilience. We provide our Apprentices with: on-the-job paid culinary and hospitality training in our kitchen, opportunities to feed it forward by cooking for our food insecure neighbors, inclusive community meals and events, and culinary, professional, and life skill courses.
Food Programs
We work with like-minded community organizations to identify those families most in need of nutritious and culturally relevant meals. Our Community Meals program alleviates the financial burden of feeding a family, removing food insecurity and allowing families to concentrate on other factors contributing to their economic precarity. Consistent, reliable, prepared meals are an essential component of creating the stability needed to transition out of poverty. Learn more about our food security work at our anchor kitchen, Refettorio San Francisco.
Food Recovery
We source cosmetically imperfect product through our network of farmers and suppliers. Recovered product gets received, assessed, and its use planned by our creative culinary team through flexible menus. We find ways to use the product in its entirety, including any of its byproducts; kale or chard stems get turned into kimchi and corn husks into broth. We “do more with less” by shifting our perspective on what is usually considered usable product. Learn more about our food recovery at our anchor kitchen, Refettorio San Francisco.
Our Impact
Since January 2022
Community Meals Served
Hours of Paid Training
Pounds of Produce Recovered
About Farming Hope
Our Mission
Together we empower folks experiencing major barriers to employment to cook food to sustain themselves and their communities.
Our Vision
To build inclusive communities where all are needed.
Our Values
Respect: We recognize that every story is important in contributing to our community’s strength.
Empower: We take ownership and responsibility for bringing our vision to life every day.
Achieve: We achieve high standards with every meal we prepare. Our actions affect the entire team; we can only achieve together.
Thank you to our supporters
Funded by a grant from the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) through California Climate Investments.
Join us in the fight
Farming Hope is different — we pay Apprentices while they learn in our program.
Paying people makes sense, but costs dollars.