CHICO — A vocational training program at the Jesus Center in Chico is soon to get a fair boost and a presence at the local farmers market, thanks to a grant creating paid stipends available to people living at its shelters or transitional housing.
An urban agriculture project grant of $300,000, one of 33 awarded March 5 by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, will help expand the nonprofit’s vocational farm program by creating additional paid stipends and procuring new planter boxes and greenhouses, the nonprofit announced Thursday.
Jesus Center Director Amber Abney-Bass said the grant will help financially support people participating in the nonprofit’s Harvesting Hope vocational farm program, in part of a whole effort to give one the skills and resources needed to live independently.
Plainly, it’s the part of independence that requires money.
“When people are working on their own independence, financial independence is something that they often need ahead of housing independence,” Abney-Bass said. “It takes financial resources to pay for housing.”
Abney-Bass said the local community is agriculturally rich, and is both a “forgiving and thriving industry” for people to get jobs at the end of their training.
Sixty percent of the grant, or $180,000, expands the nonprofit’s stipend program, which piloted in November 2023. This grant funds the program to September 2026.
Balancing the relatively small pool of money versus how many people can be placed in the program is “difficult,” Abney-Bass said, “because you want to get as many people trained as you can.”
In light of the limit, Abney-Bass said the grant opportunity will help expand the program to now offer up to 100 paid hours for a person in vocational training. Prior to November 2023 when the program began, the nonprofit did not have funds set aside for paid stipends or positions.
With the grant opportunity, one addition coming to the Jesus Center’s vocational farm program is its participation at the local farmers market.
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Abney-Bass said the farm program, known as Harvesting Hope Community Supported Agriculture, will soon apply for a stand at Chico’s Wednesday farmers market to sell produce grown at the farm on Hegan Lane and planter boxes at St. John Episcopal Church on Floral Avenue.
The remainder of the grant will help kickstart a new outdoor garden with two greenhouses and a large raised planter box planned behind the nonprofit’s Renewal Center multi-family shelter building at 2255 Fair St.
Soon ahead, the nonprofit’s Bloomin’ Hope Flower Cart on May 12, Mother’s Day, is scheduled to open doors and sell flowers at the Renewal Center’s retail storefront for the first time.
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