Taking Initiative: SDSU's Mustard Seed Project takes charge in homelessness advocacy

By Hannah Ramirez, Staff Writer

With the rise of homelessness in the San Diego area, it has become a complex matter in the community, especially when it comes to finding a solution for unhoused individuals.

Last year alone, San Diego reached a record high of 10,264 individuals experiencing homelessness. This was a 22% increase from the previous year tracked in a census by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness.

With recent floods displacing San Diegans in January and drop-offs by U.S. Customs and Border Protection leaving migrants stranded, local governments and nonprofits have faced limitations on providing aid to communities in need.

However, a group of San Diego State University students have taken it upon themselves to help out in the community as part of an organization known as the Mustard Seed Project.

Founded in 2017 at the University of California, Riverside, the Mustard Seed Project (MSP) is a grassroots nonprofit run by student volunteers who aim to support homeless individuals in their community. Outside of UC Riverside and SDSU, there are currently four other MSP chapters at UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Oregon.

At SDSU, the organization has been active since 2019 with around 45 members for the spring 2024 semester. The club works with other local nonprofits to distribute donations to unhoused communities three times a week.

On Fridays, the organization delivers clothes from Sharia’s Closet, and, on Saturdays, members work alongside the Blue Wagon Ministry to hand out hygiene supplies and other resources.

According to the club’s current president, Maeve Howlett, Sundays are her favorite outreach day as SDSU MSP is student-led. Members of the club distribute 60-80 bags of food supplied by the Lucky Duck Foundation.

“Sundays go by really fast just because the need is so high. We’ve had outreaches that take like 20-30 minutes and then we’re out of supplies,” Howlett said. SDSU MSP’s initiatives extend beyond short-term help, however.

Members who have been involved for over a semester can become “volunteer service navigators.” In this role, individuals become trained in case management and can take on up to three clients at a time, whom they check in on periodically and connect to services.

Additionally, volunteer service navigators can disperse money from the club’s community fund to help meet clients’ needs when available. The community fund is made possible through fundraising, donations and member dues.

One time, when using their community fund, SDSU MSP helped a client buy gas to drive up to Los Angeles to pay off pending parking tickets accrued while sleeping in their car.

“If they weren’t able to do so, that would have been another thing on their record, which would have made another barrier to them getting out of that situation,” Howlett said.

Aside from helping those experiencing homelessness, the club has empowered its members. Logan Goverman, the former president of the SDSU chapter, is just one example.

Goverman said that he is eternally grateful for how the club has changed his perspective on life.

“I get to interview the people that we serve and find out about the things that inspire them, the things that give them hope,” Goverman said in his current role creating content as a marketing and advocacy strategist with Interfaith Community Services. “I get to just be one piece of, you know, telling their story and hopefully bettering our system.”

Originally, he wanted to become a filmmaker but decided to join the club after wanting to find a way to give back to others after the COVID-19 pandemic. After graduation, the organization paved the path for his job at Interfaith Community Services.

Howlett was initially unsure at the start of college about what she wanted her career path to look like. But after falling in love with the work she is able to do with SDSU MSP, she hopes to follow a similar path.