Santa Cruz Sentinel
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin selected the Homeless Garden Project as a 2025 California Nonprofit of the Year.
The Homeless Garden Project is one of more than 100 nonprofits that will be honored by their state senators and assemblymembers for their outstanding contributions to the communities they serve.
The Homeless Garden Project, founded in 1990, provides job training, transitional employment and support services to people experiencing homelessness. Integrated with the employment programs, the Homeless Garden Project operates a vibrant community education and volunteer program for the broader community. The programs operate in Homeless Garden Project’s 3.5-acre organic farm and in related enterprises. Over the past 10 years, 95% of Homeless Garden Project graduates obtained jobs in the community and 88% of graduates secured housing.
Enterprises include a Community Supported Agriculture program and a Value-Added Enterprise in which program participants create products using materials grown on the farm that are sold at the Project’s two Santa Cruz County store locations and online.
“For 35 years, the Homeless Garden Project community has been ‘Planting Seeds and Transforming Lives’ through our innovative and holistic program that offers so many community benefits, hand-in-hand. We are deeply humbled to be recognized by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin as a 2025 Nonprofit of the Year,” said Darrie Ganzhorn, Homeless Garden Project’s executive director, in a release.
Now in its 10th year, the California Nonprofit of the Year initiative provides the opportunity for each California state legislator to recognize a nonprofit organization doing outstanding work in their district. The program, sponsored by the California Association of Nonprofits, culminates with a celebratory luncheon at the Capitol on California Nonprofits Day, which this year is May 21.
“We are grateful for the work of the Homeless Garden Project and want to extend our congratulations for this well-deserved recognition,” said Geoff Green, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits, in a release. “Nonprofits provide critical services, advocate for our most vulnerable neighbors, and enrich the lives of all Californians. From the childcare program to the soccer team, from the art class to the health clinic, and from the community organizer to the animal shelter, nonprofits make our communities stronger”.