The Women’s Bean Project is a non-profit organization set in Denver, Colorado. Their main mission to provide women from all different back grounds a chance to succeed. The Women’s Bean Project provides a safe working environment for women who have had trouble getting or maintaining a job. A great deal of the women that they help have been incarcerated before, making it difficult for them to get a job after they get out of jail or prison. The Women’s Bean project relies on donors of all different kinds to get quality foods, that the women employed then package to distribute to a number of different retail sellers. The organization started in 1989 by Jossy Eyre after volunteering at a women’s shelter. In the article Women’s Bean Project: 30 years of finding self-sufficiency in a pot of soup they talk about how Jossy invested her own money to hire two women who needed help in learning how to be self-sufficient, and they began creating dry soup mixes to then sell for profit. This simple idea became The Women’s Bean Project.
The Women’s Bean Project provides a simple, but important message. No woman is ever past the point of being helped. With proper training, direction and education, The Women’s Bean Project gives a 7-month crash course in how to keep and maintain a job. They have a 93 percent success rate with their graduates from the program maintaining a job in the community after they leave. These women are raising families and deserve a proper chance to give their children, and themselves a chance at a life that is about more than just struggling. By giving these women a full-time paying job for a year it not only gives them experience, but also a confidence in them learning how to be self-sufficient.
Peggy Driscoll is an executive director for the Women’s Bean Project. In an interview titled: From Poverty to Employment she gives insight to the products that these women produce during their employment, and how the company succeeds. The basis is that these women package different kinds of dry meal kits. It began with bean soup, but has evolved into things such as: cornbread, pastas, salsas, etc. These food products are then distributed to participating partners such as Amazon, Walmart, Whole Foods, etc. When the profit from these items comes in that provides the funds for the company to continue to hire women in need at a full-time salary. Their main mission is to provide a life changing experience for their employees to succeed after they leave.
The Women’s Bean Project is a great organization that has changed the life of many women and their families for the past 31 years. You can do your part in helping this company succeed by buying Women’s Bean Project anywhere their items are sold, or by going to their main website where all of their products are sold. While there, you can read and learn more about their mission.
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