FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1) How did The Garden Project get started?

In 1982, Cathrine Sneed and San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey began a program for prisoners at the San Francisco County Jail known as The Horticulture Project.  In search of a more therapeutic environment, Cathrine Sneed, who was then a counselor at the jail, began to take prisoners outside to work on the Jail’s farm. The farm had been fully operational until the 1920’s.  Prisoners responded enthusiastically to the program. From the beginning, the Horticulture Project concentrated  on growing organic vegetables as a metaphor for the life struggles of the prisoners, many of whom were addicts. The prisoners donated the food that they grew to local soup kitchens. While in the program many prisoners made important progress on the personal issues that brought them to jail. However, when they were released from jail, they were once again confronted  by the same issues that had brought them to jail in the first place – poverty, homelessness, lack of employment, lack of job skills, alcohol and drug addiction.  Unfortunately, many of these people ended up returning to jail.  Recognizing the need for a post-release  program to help resolve the difficulties confronting former offenders,  Cathrine Sneed and Sheriff Michael Hennessey began The Garden Project in 1992.

2) What is the mission and vision of the organization?  Has the mission/vision changed with time?

In the beginning, the mission of the program was to offer structure and support to former offenders  through job training in gardening, counseling, and assistance in education.  Today we continue to respond to the changing needs of the population that we serve.  Essentially, we are working on crime prevention.  We want to give people the tools and skills they need to remain out of jail.  At the same time, we want to make an impact on the neighborhoods from which most of the prisoners in our local jails come.  Today, in addition to working with former prisoners, The Garden Project also has a program specifically for at-risk young adults, called The Earth Stewards Program.  As an organization that seeks to pool the resources and needs of local public and private organizations to make a real impact on individuals and their communities, we work with the Police Department, the Housing Authority, and local community groups.  Over time, we have increased this programming as we work with these groups to better understand the population we are serving.  For example, about 8 years ago, we were introduced to a community group in the Mission district of San Francisco, called the Mission Education Project, Inc. This gave us access to a community that we had not been serving effectively before.  Through that partnership, we are able to make an important connection with the Spanish speaking community in San Francisco.

3) How does The Garden Project operate?

Our farm and nurseries are learning tools for our participants.  We do employ a farm manager and supervisors who are not participants but, essentially, we allow our participants to learn about all the facets of the process. The vegetables grown by The Garden Project Apprentices are distributed at community centers to needy seniors and families.  Our vegetables also help to support cooking classes. The plants started in our greenhouse are donated to schools and other community organizations. Each year The Garden Project delivers hundreds of Halloween pumpkins to police stations that distribute the pumpkins to needy families.

In addition to our organic farm, we have a perennial ornamental nursery and a California Native Plant Nursery.  Garden Project Apprentices (former offenders) perform the daily tasks necessary to maintain the farm and make deliveries under the direction of a supervisor and the farm manager.  Earth Stewards Apprentices (at-risk young adults) work on projects as stipulated by our partner and contractor, The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.  In addition, Earth Stewards maintain the native plant nursery.

The Garden Project is more than just a farm; it is an organization committed to the personal goals and growth of our participants.  All participants also attend counseling and school to obtain a high school diploma or college credit.

4) How does The Garden Project manage and appropriately direct volunteers in the garden?

We take volunteers on a project by project basis.  For security reasons, we are unable to offer many volunteer opportunities.

5) How does the project integrate a diversity of people from the community into the garden, including low-income families, homeless individuals, and/or ex-offenders?

Diversity is built into the mission of the program.  Our program works to serve former prisoners, at-risk individuals and the communities from which they come – which are predominantly low-income minorities with little education.  In addition, their work serves a similar population as well as poor seniors, disabled individuals, and families.

6) How does The Garden Project foster a successful working environment with these groups of individuals in the garden?

The garden serves as a site through which our participants learn important life skills such as effective communication and working in a group.  Each work assignment fosters the development of these skills.  Participants also work with counselors and in academic settings that reinforce  these skills and allow for reflection on this process.

7) How does The Garden Project foster a clean, drug-free, safe environment in the garden?

Abstinence from drug and alcohol use is a basic requirement of the program.  Those who do not meet these requirements are fired.  Since most of the participants are on parole, abstinence is also required to meet the conditions of parole.  Because many participants are former addicts, the goal of The Garden Project is to provide a supportive atmosphere in which participants learn other ways to cope with stress and problems in their lives.

8) What outlets do The Garden Project have to move the produce from the garden and what system is in place to get the produce to the customer?

In past years, we sold the organic vegetables we produced to many of the finest restaurants and outlets in the Bay Area, including Chez Panisse, the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market, and Jardiniere.  But we came to realize that it was more important to meet the needs of the low-income seniors and families in our communities who often have may not any other access to healthy food, so instead of selling our produce, we donate our organic vegetables to needy communities such as senior citizens and youth centers.

Because our Garden Project Apprentices have criminal records, we do not allow them to have direct contact with many of the community organizations with whom we work. They deliver the produce and plants to community centers where the vegetables and plants are distributed.

9) How is The Garden Project funded?

The Garden Project is funded through government contracts and grants, foundations grants, and private donations.  We work under contract with the San Francisco Sheriff ‘ s Dept. and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. We partner with more than 25 community organizations to pool the resources and needs of these organizations to support our work.

10) How does the project market the garden?

Our website is www.gardenproject.org.

11) Who owns the land the garden is on?  What type of agreement does The Garden Project have with the landowners?

The Garden Project Farm is on the property of the San Francisco County Jail, owned by the City and County of San Francisco.

12) Describe the major challenges of the project? How did The Garden Project overcome these challenges?

Ongoing funding for the project continues to be a challenge. We work to overcome this by demonstrating our impact on the city of San Francisco and the effectiveness of our model. For example, a study published in American Jails found that less than 25% of Garden Project participants return to jail. Since 1992, we have planted more than 10,000 street trees in San Francisco. Each week, we’re feeding thousands of low-income families and seniors. These activities have direct impact – changing communities, reducing the costs of policing, incarceration, and social services. We are also providing services that many of these communities would not have access to without us.

13) Describe the major successes of the project.  What made these successes possible?

The Garden Project is a proven successful model for how communities can come together to effectively address a problem that faces every municipality in the country. People throughout the country turn to crime because they lack the skills to do anything else. Throughout the nation, people are released from jail in worse condition than when they entered. As the study in American Jails proved, we’re making a substantial difference.  More than just a program for former offenders, The Garden Project is an integrated, community-wide, systemic response to crime, high rates of recidivism, and unemployment – linking crime and poverty with stewardship of the environment and the community. The United States Department of Agriculture hailed The Garden Project as "one of the most innovative and successful community-based crime prevention programs in the country."