“ a farm called hope
teaching, empowering & inspiring healthy eating
educating our children transforming warriors into farmers building a community of health changing the way we eat
we grow more than food
CONTENTS
04/
ABOUT US
Recipe for Success Foundation and Hope Farms Mission, Goals and Vision
07/
TEACHING HEALTHY EATING
Cooking and Gardening Classes Kids' Camps Cook the Harvest
09/
EMPOWERING HEALTHY EATING
Growing Food Transforming Warriors Into Farmers Seeding New Urban Farms Rolling Green Market
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INSPIRING HEALTHY EATING
Robert & Janice McNair Children's Garden Robert & Grace Cavnar Chefs' Kitchen Garden Love Tito's Community Garden UnitedHealth Foundation Gathering Barn Earth Day Family Festival farmers marKIDS & Field Trips Chefs in the Field & Summer Nights
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OUR VISION PLAN
The Campus Vision Phase One Phase Two and Three Meet Our Team
24/
ON GIVING
Give Your Name Make a Philanthropic Investment Gifts of the Heart
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hope farms/
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envisioning a world where healthy food is appreciated , shared and celebrated..
teaching, empowering & inspiring healthy eating
Recipe for Success Foundation was founded in 2005 to combat childhood obesity by changing the way children understand, appreciate and eat their food and to educate and mobilize the community to provide them with healthier diets. We are transforming lives in Houston and beyond by making healthy food fun, tasty, affordable, easy and Our Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™
Over
curriculum for elementary schools has
today are obese or already on the path
empowered over 50,000 children to
to becoming obese adults with life-
make healthy eating decisions. Now, we
threatening chronic diseases. Obesity
are implementing our award-winning
has many causes, but research identifies
programs to teach, inspire and empower
the major culprit as the food we eat and
healthy eating at Hope Farms—a seven-
the way we eat it. The loss of connection
acre site in the shadow of downtown
with food sources, reluctance to eat
Houston where we grow affordable, fresh
fresh fruits and vegetables and reliance
produce for Houston families, train new
on processed fare are some of the key
urban farmers and provide a place for
contributors that we work to eliminate for
the entire community to learn about and
children and families.
celebrate fresh, locally-grown food.
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million
American
children
J U S T T W E LV E M I N U T E S F R O M D O W N T O W N H O U S T O N , O N S E V E N A C R E S A L O N G SIMS BAYOU IN THE HEART OF SUNNYSIDE, WE ARE BUILDING A C O M M U N I T Y T H A T C E L E B R A T E S H E A LT H Y F O O D .
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teaching healthy eating Hope Farms expands our capacity to teach anyone healthy eating skills using the same tactics that have worked so well in our school classrooms for over a decade. Our culinary team shows fans and skeptics alike that healthy food can be delicious and fun. Our cooking classes connect with real staying power, using easy to understand and execute recipes designed to fire up all the taste buds while staying within a modest budget.
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Our vibrant farm setting allows us to offer seasonal classes for kids and adults who changing the way get to harvest the food they will transform into healthy meals we understand, using delicious recipes that are appreciate and eat easy to replicate at home. With our our food hands-on classes, students learn how to plant, nurture and harvest a garden as well as how to prepare fresh produce and plan quick, easy meals that the whole family will love. Hope Farms offers a full range of cooking and gardening classes for every age, young and old, as well as Scout programs, summer camps, private classes for team building and birthdays and a weekly, free Cook the Harvest class during our Saturday market.
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W E A N N U A L LY G R O W 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 + P O U N D S O F H E A LT H Y P R O D U C E IN THE MIDDLE OF A BARREN FOOD DESERT.
growing healthy food Since breaking ground on 7 acres in the spring of 2016, we have systematically transformed a former school's campus playgrounds into fields of seasonal
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produce and orchards. The grounds left compacted by supporting classrooms for nearly 100 years, are now covered with rows of raised beds and farm buildings. Ultimately we will have four acres in food production, including, beehives, chickens and greenhouses with the rest devoted to buildings, roads, pathways and parking areas. Our team uses organic methods and permaculture principles to build our soil health and establish productive fields to take advantage of our moderate climate empowering and grow year-round crops, which healthy include classic favorites like tomatoes, kale, melons, squash, eating salad mix, collard greens, okra and field peas; plus chef requests, including rare heirloom varietals of green beans, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and edible flowers. We harvested over 140 different crops in our first year and use our hoop house and Chefs' Kitchen Garden to continuously trial new varietals. Our orchards are laden with peaches, figs, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit and persimmons. Every season of the year will produce thousands of pounds and dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables from the familiar to the exotic.
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seeding more urban farms
hope farms co-op & food hub empowering healthy eating
W E E N V I S I O N A N E C K L A C E O F U R B A N FA R M S S C AT T E R E D T H R O U G H O U T T H E F O O D D E S E R T S O F H O U S T O N A S M E M B E R S O F H O P E F A R M S C O - O P.
transforming warriors into farmers At Hope Farms, we empower veterans to continue to serve their community as trained professional urban farmers who help us transform lives by making healthy food accessible and affordable for everyone in our city. Our farm team trains U.S. military veterans as agri-preneurs. Then we incubate their new enterprises with our Hope Farms Co-op and Food Hub, which is designed to market, sell, promote, process and distribute their products. Fueled by grants from UnitedHealthcare Foundation the USDA and others, in collaboration with the University of Houston, Hope Farmer veteran trainees are awarded a scholarship that includes a living stipend and a 480-2,000-hour formal curriculum of horticulture, financial literacy, accounting, banking, marketing and business planning to empower their efforts to establish their own farms. DATA HAS INDICATED THAT VETERANS
We offer flexible training tracks to veterans: a full-time, forty hour week over twelve
SUFFERING FROM PTSD RESPOND VERY
weeks which can be supplemented by master classes scheduled over a year pursued
WELL TO HORTICULTURAL THERAPY, MAKING FARMING AN EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-SUITED
CAREER
CHOICE.
THANKS TO A $1 MILLION GRANT FROM THE USDA, WE ARE TESTING TRAINING PROTOCOLS
TO
MEET
during an extended apprenticeship. Upon graduation, the Hope Farms Co-op and Food Hub incubates our new urban farmers, helping with land acquisition and providing growing and business advice, plus access to supplies and equipment to help launch their businesses.
VETERANS
Thanks to support from Wells Fargo Foundation and others, we also offer a twelve-week, 480 hour Growing Urban Farmers class that is open to everyone.
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EMPOWERING HEALTHY EATING OUR FARM STAND IS OPEN WEEKLY ON SATURDAY MORNINGS AND WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS
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5 0 % O F O U R C R O P S A R E S O L D AT B E LO W O U R C O S T T O OUR NEIGHBORS WHO RESIDE IN SURROUNDING FOOD DESERTS.
ROLLING GREEN MARKET
Our FARM STORE maintains regular hours to offer specially priced produce to any neighbor who stops by Hope Farms. But, we are intent on expanding access throughout the city, so our ROLLING GREEN MARKET delivers reducedpriced fresh fruits and vegetables from Hope Farms directly to families who are marooned in Houston neighborhoods known as food deserts without easy access to affordable, healthy food choices. With cooking demonstrations and tastings, the Rolling Green Market encourages increased consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and good nutrition to all Houstonians and empowers caregivers to provide a healthy diet to Houston’s children, which will help reduce serious health risks.
ANY HOUSTONIAN CAN STOP BY THE FARM OR SUBSCRIBE TO SEASONAL SHARES OF HOPE FARMS PRODUCE DELIVERED WEEKLY TO THEIR HOMES AND OFFICES 13
INSPIRING HEALTHY EATING
E
nclosed by a child-decorated picket fence, our Robert and Janice McNair Children’s Garden is scaled for little hands. Themed areas—like Three Sisters, Butterfly, Herb and Rainbow Gardens— present interactive elements to tickle all the senses. Designed to engage kids of all ages, The Children's Garden also boasts a colorful tire mountain and hula hoop tunnel along with child-sized picnic tables and a listening circle, making it a popular spot for families on Saturday mornings. Hope Farms host thousands of kids on hundreds of School Field Trips each year when the students have an opportunity to meet our chickens, check out the bees, walk the fields and harvest some produce, which they then prepare into a lunch or snack to enjoy on a farm picnic. Then they take home the recipe and an invitation to take the VegOut! Challenge. Houston area campuses are invited to participate in our farmers marKIDS DAYS events at the farm during our annual Earth Day Festival when entrepreneurial kids sell their school or home-grown produce.
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EACH YEAR, WE HOST 1,000+ CHILDREN ON FIELD TRIPS FROM AREA SCHOOLS TO HELP THEM M AKE THE SEED-TO-PL ATE CONNECTION.
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Chefs across the city purchase our produce each week to feature on their restaurant menus. And we grow our Chef Brigade's favorite heirloom varieties in the Chefs' Kitchen Garden to inspire home gardeners.
a place to gather/
inspiring healthy eating
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When you see how food is actually created instead of packaged in a store, it gives you a real sense of awe.
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B.J. Novak
W
e welcome everyone-residents, neighbors and tourists, to enjoy Hope Farms during regular open farms days and for special events. Our Grace and Robert Cavnar Foundation Chefs' Kitchen Garden is an inspiration to all. Featuring our Chef Brigade members' favorite seasonal produce, the traditional parterre's abundant crops paint an enchanting backdrop for both classes and social gatherings. The
Love Tito's Community Garden offers 20 raised beds to our neighbors who want to grow their own food. Our UnitedHealth Foundation Gathering Barn hosts a robust schedule of annual and special events designed to celebrate and share the harvest. We welcome all Houstonians to honor Earth Day with us each year at our Free Family Festival & Picnic or attend our Summer Nights in June, July & August to enjoy handmade pizzas and cocktail tastings. We are delighted to welcome our most generous patrons to seasonal Chefs in the Field suppers, which feature multi-course meals prepared by celebrity chefs. The Chefs' Kitchen Garden, Children's Garden and Gathering Barn are open to visitors during market days and special events and may be booked for private classes and events.
O U R G AT H E R I N G B A R N , FA R M S TA N D, C O M M U N I T Y G A R D E N , CULINARY CLASSROOM, CHEFS' KITCHEN GARDEN, CHILDREN'S GARDEN, O R C H A R D L A BY R I N T H A N D C H I C K E N C O O P A R E AT T H E H E A RT O F O U R FA R M .
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THREE PHASES WE ARE BUILDING OUT THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF HOPE FARMS IN THREE PHASES
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E A C H P H A S E B U I L D S U P O N T H E L A S T T O S Y S T E M A T I C A L LY
E X PA N D O U R R E A C H
A N D I M P A C T I N H O U S T O N ' S F O O D D E S E R T S A N D A C R O S S T H E C I T Y.
PLANNING A FARM FOR IMPACT
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WHY AM I TRAINING TO FARM?
After 13 years and four deployments as a helicopter pilot, I took medical retirement. When you’ve been surrounded by death, hate and tragedy, being in a field surrounded by life--soil, plants the sounds the wind, it’s extremely therapeutic. Healing does happen.
Daniel Smith
Veteran & Hope Farmer Trainee
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M Y K I N D E R G A R T N E R S T A R T E D C O M I N G H O M E R E A L LY E X C I T E D A B O U T F R U I T S A N D V E G E T A B L E S . H E ' S M A K I N G H E A LT H I E R C H O I C E S A N D T E L L I N G M E W H A T I S H O U L D A N D S H O U L D N ' T E A T.
PHASE ONE ACTIVATIONS
Completion of
PHASE ONE will
give Hope Farms the
resources
and infrastructure to grow 80,000 pounds of produce a year while training annual cohorts of veterans and others to become urban farmers; operate a robust schedule of public cooking and gardening classes;
and
produce
special
events to celebrate the power of shared meals to inspire healthy eating and build community.
4 ACRES OF AGRICULTURE WATER WELL & IRRIGATION TRACTORS & EQUIPMENT THREE GREENHOUSES ROLLING GREEN MARKET MULTI-PURPOSE GATHERING BARN CULINARY CLASSROOM FARM STORE FARM OFFICE & STORAGE WALK-IN COOLER VEGETABLE PROCESSING STATION POLLINATOR GARDENS CHICKEN COOP BEEHIVES WATER CAPTURE SYSTEM SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM CHEFS KITCHEN GARDEN CHILDRENS GARDEN WALKING TRACK FIRE PIT CHEFS GRILLING TERRACE ACTIVITY LAWN 21 LIGHTING PARKING & DRIVEWAYS
PHASE TWO BUILD OUR FOOD HUB
O
nce our army of trained urban farmers grows beyond four, we will need a Food Hub to fully support their entrepreneurial efforts and provide the operational backbone for our Hope Farms Co-op. The focus of PHASE TWO, our GAPcertified Food Hub will consist of a commercial-sized produce intake, processing and distribution facility; a certified production kitchen for those who want to create value-added products; storage areas for equipment that can be borrowed by Co-op members; and offices to house the marketing and operations of the Co-op. We are currently designing this two-story, 5,000-square-foot space to be located directly east of the Chefs' Grilling Terrace, served by the farm's internal road system.
PHASE THREE will allow us to consolidate our Museum District Foundation Offices and co-locate our entire team at Hope Farms. We will also incorporate an airconditioned Community Center with a commercial kitchen to support larger education programs and food events--perhaps even a field-to-table restaurant operated in partnership with our Chefs Advisory Board and many university partners.
COMMUNITY CENTER & FOUNDATION OFFICE PHASE THREE 22
We build community through food.
CHEF RYAN PERA, FOUNDING CHEFS ADVISORY BOARD, CHEF OF THE YEAR 2015 & PARTNER AGRICOLE HOSPITALITY
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MEET OUR FARM TEAM
T
he advice, counsel and exuberant support of Recipe for Success Foundation's 24-member
Board
of
BOAR D O F DIR E CTOR S
Directors,
30 Community Advisory Board members, 100+ Chefs Advisory Board and our S.P.I.C.E. Guild leadership has been critical in helping our team build the organization to a national scale and launch Hope Farms. Members are actively involved in a variety of committees—including the very active Executive Committee
to
the
CEO—make
significant
philanthropic investments in our work, both personally and through their organizations, and are regularly seen smiling at our special events.
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GRACIE CAVNAR FOUNDER AND CEO
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Hope Farms is a critical layer to expand our mission to combat childhood obesity by addressing community health in a powerful new way.
S TA F F
N OAH
R AT TL E R
FARM MANAGER
S H AN N A
CR E W
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
M ARY
BRUNSON
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
C ARLOS
M E LT Z E R
CULINARY DIRECTOR
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name
Give your
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Build out our Composting Loo
$15,000
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Raise up a veggie bed
$5,000
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“
Thank you Sun Club for powering-up our Solar Energy with your
$77,000 gift.
To Healthy
Eating “
Plant a Fruit Tree
$1,000
“
Cook-up our Peg Lee Culinary Classroom
$50,000
N GIVING
A GIFT THAT COUNTS Every dollar committed to this Capital Campaign helps us accomplish our goals for Hope Farms. We provide a broad range of recognition and benefits for supporters who make gifts of $1,000 or more.
Custom adventures for your friends, family, colleagues or employees offer hands-on experiences at the farm and the opportunity to share and celebrate your enthusiasm for our mission. The possibilities are diverse and plentiful, ranging from building projects to daily activities on the farm like planting and harvesting crops, minding the produce stand and helping us with cooking and gardening classes.
Building an endowment to ensure the future for Hope Farms programs is critical to our sustained success. Forty percent of our campaign will endow a farm manager and perpetual scholarships for veteran trainees including one annual scholarship reserved for a woman. Named endowments are available for your designation.
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This is the power of gathering; it inspries and delights us Alice Waters
Do well by doing good PHASE 1 $1,300,000
PHASE 3 $3,500,000 PHASE 2 $3,600,000
TOGETHER $8,400,000 TOTAL CAMPAIGN
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TO LEARN MORE OR SCHEDULE A TOUR OF THE FARM Contact Gracie Cavnar 713-520-0443 or Gracie@recipe4success.org
Hope Farms is a project of Recipe for Success Foundation P.O. Box 56445, Houston, Texas 77256 Visit: www.HopeFarmsHTX.org or www.Recipe4Success.org