Organization: Abundant Grace Coastsider Worker Inc
Mission: Transforming the lives of Coastsiders experiencing or at-risk of homelessness through meaningful employment, food justice, skill training, community-building and other supports.
Activities: The Full-Circle Food Justice Program had over 70 people participate in 2019, most of whom were experiencing homelessness, or at-risk of homelessness, to grow and harvest organic produce at nearby Potrero Nuevo Farm, resulting in more than 20,000 pounds of food. Twice each week, a crew of 10-12 workers met in town and travelled together to the farm, where they tended and harvested crops for three hours each session. Abundant Grace used the fruits and vegetables for our twice weekly free breakfasts and also gave them away for free at our twice weekly produce distribution. Approximately 5,400 free breakfasts were served this past year. Produce was also shared at the Table of Plenty free dinner on Thursdays, St. Vincent de Pauls three weekly food distributions and the Episcopal Churchs monthly food distribution program; bringing the number of people impacted by our programming to 6,000.
The Coastside Clean Team is a job readiness program that puts homeless and low-income people to work cleaning the beaches and neighborhoods of Half Moon Bay and protecting our ocean. Clean Team workers met 4 days each week for 3 hours each session. In 2019, we picked up over 20,000 pounds of trash. Residents, city leaders and our workers consider this a huge success, and it has been funded by the city again for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
Our newest project has been the purchase of a commercially zoned 2-bedroom house at 515 Kelly Ave. in Half Moon Bay. The purchase was researched, planned and negotiated in 2019 and completed on January 9, 2020. This new site will be where we stage our job readiness programming, provide case management with the collaboration of Coastside Hope and LifeMoves, and offer basic services like showers, laundry, breakfast and lunch. Special effort will be put into trying to direct people towards opportunities for employment and housing, as well as mental and physical health. Plans and permits are near completion and we anticipate renovations to begin in July 2020.
NTEE category: Housing & Shelter
Secondary category: Community Improvement & Capacity Building