Tender Greens Sustainable Life Project

Program Type: 
Academic Classrooms, Kitchen Classrooms, Garden Classrooms
Grade Level/Age Group: 
High School
Number of Individuals Program Serves: 
100
Year Founded: 
2012
About the Program: 

The Sustainable Life Project (SLP), developed by the founders of Tender Greens Restaurants, believes firmly in the power of food to bring nourishment, healing and opportunity to young lives.

The Sustainable Life Project (SLP) is an urban farming and culinary arts internship program for transitioning foster youth. The 12-week curriculum that consists of a culinary arts internship at a Tender Greens restaurant, field trips to working farms and markets and creative arts classes held at Inner-City Arts in Downtown Los Angeles.

Our goal is to use food at all of its stages of production to transform individuals and communities. We focus on the fundamentals of urban farming, impacts on the environment and the related job opportunities along our food supply. Though many would benefit from this program, our focus is with transitional youth who too often fall through the cracks of society between adolescence and adulthood. By introducing these young spirits to the power of sustainable food we hope break the cycle of poverty through job training and career planning.

Tender Greens began hiring homeless teens to work in their restaurants and saw how food can bring healing and opportunity to young lives. The founders of Tender Greens created a program to provide transitioning foster youth access to a safe, consistent learning and living environment. SLP partners with local non-profits to recruit young adults transitioning out of the foster care system to participate in a farming and culinary arts internship program.
 
Youth transitioning out of foster care face unique challenges that make them especially vulnerable. Often times distrust, abuse, neglect and general lack of access to resources and guidance makes navigating adulthood difficult. With primary needs like housing, vocational training and legal support most pressing, these youth frequently don’t have the luxury of dreaming beyond finding a home and employment.

SLP provides transitioning foster youth access to a safe, consistent learning and living environment. By participating in a dynamic farming and culinary arts program, young people have an opportunity to develop personally and professionally, nurturing and equipping themselves with the skills, confidence and relationships to successfully pursue their goals.