Dear Friends,

Young sunflowers practice heliotropism, following the sun each day as the sun travels across the sky. Last night was the longest night of the year; now each day, little by little, we are turning toward the light, with longer days and shorter nights.

Vivek Murthy, who served as our country's 19th and 21st Surgeon General, says, "My belief is that we need to be a nation that is kind, where people take care of one another, where people step up for one another because they can and because they know that we are all better off when we are all, in fact, better off.

And I want us to be a nation where people are generous with one another, where they recognize that there are times all of us are going to be in need, where all of us may stumble and fall, but we have to help each other up."

I think of this too, as turning toward the light. At HGP, I witness daily acts of grace and tenderness. These seem to me essential ingredients in cultivating a nation of kindness. I hope you'll read on about our new manual, Homeless Garden Project: A Guide to Transitional Employment and Therapeutic Agriculture--we hope to spread our practices across our country and beyond.

Thank you so much to our many readers who have acted with generosity, care and kindness, contributing your time and money, shopping at our store, and sharing your presence. I hope our 2025 highlights inspire you to continue to support this amazing work. We currently have a $70,000 match from an anonymous donor, so your gift will have twice the impact this Holiday Season.

Below I begin to share some 2025 highlights and will continue Part 2 in a future newsletter

• Winter into Spring, 2025
• Summer 2025
• Our Opioid Prevention and Recovery Grant
• Our 262 page comprehensive, fully illustrated manual

A good farmer grows crops, a great farmer grows soil and

an extraordinary farmer grows people.

This year, we grew, tended and harvested more than a whopping 37,000 pounds of produce for CSA shares, Feed 2 Birds shares, Farm Stand sales, events and trainee lunches!

Watch the Video of the Summer Sustain Supper

Hear from:

• Chef Katie Reicher of Greens Restaurant
• Keynote Speaker: Manjula Martin author of The Last Fire Season, Introduced by Jonathan Franzen
• Echelcon team, who we honored for making critical repairs to our 30 West Cliff Drive office
• Voice of Experience: Chris Beresh, Introduced by Kyle Franks, HGP Graduates

"The healing I'm talking about is the relationship that is cultivated when people and plants provide mutual care for one another. That relationship, that care, is where the hope for the future lies."

--Manjula Martin, from her keynote address at the Supper

"During my time in the program, I stayed focused on staying clean, creating a good work ethic, and setting achievable goals with my Social Worker. I learned to show up to work everyday and be a dependable employee. One of the goals I set with my Social Worker was to find full time employment. I did a mock interview with a woman named Shelby from New Leaf and later found out that they had open positions."

--Chris Beresh, who now works full time at New Leaf Community Markets, Willingness to Change

Back in 2024, the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency’s Behavioral Health Division and Santa Cruz County Community Foundation awarded over $800,000 of the Santa Cruz County Opioid Settlement Funds Community Grant Program distributed among seven nonprofit organizations, including Homeless Garden Project, with us receiving $47,341. The funds support organizations to provide prevention, early intervention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery of opioid-related disorders and harm. To learn more about the grant program, please see the press release.

Our pilot project, "Developing Purpose and Community" serves people in recovery who want to get back to work to participate in a brief program of job preparation workshops and on-the job training. We ran two sessions in 2025 and will run an additional session in early 2026. Our proposal was inspired by one of our trainees who spoke about how our program supported his recovery and re-integration into the community.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) explicitly recognizes employment support, particularly supported employment approaches, as evidence-based practices that contribute to recovery from substance use disorders, including opioid use disorder, by improving quality of life, social integration, and sustained recovery outcomes.

Meaningful work supports recovery goals by increasing financial stability, fostering daily structure and routine, enhancing self-confidence, and strengthening social connectedness--all key goals of our holistic program.

In September, we joined with other grantees for a Learning Exchange, connecting our work to the work being done across the county. (see photo). We are so grateful for the opportunity to do this work and to learn from fellow grantees.

"...May the shelter and nourishment of all the good you have done, the love you have shown, the suffering you have carried, awaken around you to bless your life a thousand times...."

--John O'Donohue, A Blessing for Beauty

"We know that when people struggle with that sense of disconnection from one another — loneliness — when they don’t feel like they belong, it actually impairs their function in the workplace. It reduces productivity, creativity, and engagement, and ultimately retention. It impacts how students perform in school. It impacts our level of civic engagement. Think about this. In a society, especially a democratic society like the United States, we require and — not require — but we rely on the participation of people in communities to help make it better, to advocate, to vote, to help and serve. But that suffers also when people feel disconnected."

--Vivek Murthy, transcript from his On Being interview

"It's a clear-cut finding in social science: *Generosity makes you happier.*"

--Chris Anderson, Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading