Be Fed Foundation - Jeans Day

Growing Hope: Community Garden Nourishes the Homeless in a Harvest of Compassion

Empowering communities through cultivation – a local community garden takes root to combat hunger and nourish the homeless. In 2020, Vanessa Hurley started the Be Fed Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to end hunger and food insecurity by specializing in community garden projects where all the produce grown is donated to local homeless shelters and food banks. 

What began as a seed of an idea ultimately grew into the planting, harvesting and donating of produce for those in need. While on a trip into Boston, Vanessa and a group of friends found themselves driving on Massachusetts Avenue, when they were taken aback by the number of homeless people on the sidewalk, many sitting against buildings and all of them in need of help. Homelessness, hunger, addiction — and a combination thereof was very evident, and Vanessa wanted to find a way to help.

Through research, Vanessa quickly realized the enormity of a project involving addiction. That realization prompted her to focus on one aspect of the situation she thought she could affect – food insecurity. It was then that she began sharing her ideas with her Bryant College friends and began reaching out to resources in her hometown of Middleton and surrounding communities.

As an employee of North Shore Bank, Vanessa’s organization was an ideal candidate for the bank’s monthly Jeans Day Program. For a small donation of $5 a week, North Shore Bank employees are allowed to wear jeans to work each Friday with the funds collected, pooled and then donated to a local organization. Since its inception in 2015, the Bank’s Jeans Day Program has now raised over $108,000 for local non-profits and charitable organizations. Recently, the Be Fed Foundation received a contribution of $1,500 through the program.