Beyond Food

With a taglines like “Jobs Not Jails” and “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job“, you know right away there is something VERY different about the bread you just picked up at your local farmers’ market. And the person behind the booth… kind of looked like they might be in a gang.

Welcome to Homeboy Industries, the leading vocational rehabilitation program for former gang members in the U.S. You might wonder what on earth this has to do with a health and wellness website. When you buy local products or those that make an impact on the lives of others, it not only improves your overall health, but the lives of those people creating the product you’ve purchased. In the case of Homeboy Industries, your purchase sustains the creation of new jobs and helps former gang members erase the physical reminders of their past. The training and discipline of working makes a significant contribution to changing the lives of former gang members.

How did I learn of Homeboy? I was running on a treadmill on a rainy Sunday afternoon in D.C. a couple of years ago, when a documentary came on, depicting priests and gang members side-by-side. By the end of the 2 hour documentary I barely noticed the time or the miles that had passed. Social entrepreneurship, the heart and the passion to make a better world are captivating, beautiful things.

Over the past 20 years, Father Greg Boyle has buried more than 170 young people whose lives were cut short as a result of gang violence. Wanting to do more than just conduct funerals, he founded Homeboy Industries, a safe haven where former gang members and the recently incarcerated can be reintroduced to society and become contributing members of the community. Each year, 12,000 young people arrive in search of counseling, high-school degrees and free tattoo removal. But that’s not all.

“You ask any gang member in the United States of America, ‘name one thing that would help you,’ – you wouldn’t find a gang member who said something other than a job,” says Father Greg. Today, Homeboy Industries runs its own bakery, café, gift shop and printing business, all run by former gang members, with profits going to benefit the program.

Living in Los Angeles I have the benefit of picking up Homeboy AND Homegirl Industry products at my local farmers’ markets. Homeboy Industries is a reminder that life is more than the food we eat or the way we look. The choices we make and the way we live our lives impacts everyone around us. Maybe it’s overly idealistic to think a world of healthier people can be a world of happier people, but it’s my view of life and it is why I choose to live life well.