Mission Pie

By providing a positive, encouraging and empowering employment experience, Mission Pie hopes to enhance the lives of at-risk San Francisco youth and cultivate in them not only some practical know-how and experience, but some perspective, as well. The edifying experience is intended for our student/interns as well as our customers, as we hope to create an awareness of what the life of a small, independent, community-minded business is like; particularly a food business, and how it relates to the city, the environment, the local economy, and public health and nutrition. We hope that through involvement with Mission Pie’s spirit of community, productivity and optimism, our young workers come away with healthy attitudes and ideas that motivate them well into the future, and which they might also share with their peers, their families, and any other communities they pass through.

Mission Pie’s passion for youth advocacy and job development is one of our founding motivations. The original idea of a Mission Pie café was in fact a fruit of conversation with Mission High School youth, during their first visit to the nonprofit educational organic farm, Pie Ranch, in 2005. They remarked that many people in San Francisco don’t have the means to visit Pie Ranch to experience the personal connection with the farmland that sustains us. Mission Pie, as originally conceived, would attempt to bridge that gap. Since our opening on January 3, 2007, Mission Pie has provided jobs and training for the youth Pie Ranch works with at the farm, for whom Mission Pie is a tangible connection to the ranch; a place, like the ranch, where people can gather with a sense of community purpose and belonging.

Building on our first year of commitment to hosting youth interns and hiring young staff from the Pie Ranch program we now are also enthusiastically partnering with New Door Ventures’ Ally program. We also enjoy the collegial support of JVS (Jewish Vocational Services), the Marriott Foundation’s “Bridges… From School to Work” program, and administrators and teachers from SF Unified School District High Schools as we continue to develop our capacity in this realm, and hopefully inspire other local businesses to invest in our youth.

Youth Outreach in San Francisco

Mission Pie is proud of its ability to offer a positive work environment and wholesome on-the-job training and experience to at-risk San Francisco youth, though we couldn’t do it alone. Here’s some information about the invaluable youth outreach organizations we collaborate with in order to connect with and recruit our young staff:

Pie Ranch

Pie Ranch is a small-scale, nonprofit organic farm in coastal Pescadero, CA, dedicated to educational programs related to food and farming as well as natural and cultural history. They began their youth education programs in 2005, inviting inner-city school groups out to experience a working farm. Through hands-on farm work and collective reflection at Pie Ranch, San Francisco teenagers discover new competencies and insights that benefit them as individuals and in community. Mission Pie employs former students of Pie Ranch, and purchases and bakes with many of the ingredients cultivated by the students and farmers on Pie Ranch, thereby supporting youth in understanding the full circle of food production.

New Door Ventures

New Door Ventures serves at-risk youth (age 14 to 21) from distressed neighborhoods such as the Mission and Bayview/Hunter’s Point in San Francisco get ready for work and life by providing jobs, job-readiness and supportive community. Core programs include
the On-Site Job Training Program, which employs and trains at-risk youth in social enterprises owned by New Door and also places high school students in part-time jobs in the community, such as with Mission Pie. New Door’s Job-Readiness Program offers workshops and activities at New Door’s Youth Space and at John O’Connell High School, and their Supportive Community Programs include case management, mentoring, tutoring, field trips, service projects and fun, recreational activities.

Jewish Vocational Service

Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) helps people with barriers to employment build the skills needed to succeed in today’s workplace – an important step on the road to self-sufficiency. Founded in 1973 to aid recent Jewish college graduates who were having trouble finding work, JVS expanded over the decades to meet the needs of refugees, the unemployed, displaced and disabled of any faith, nationality or background, offering training programs and one-on-one job search assistance. While their services are open to all, they have particular strengths in working with youth & adults with disabilities, the transgender community, older workers, and the Jewish community.

Bridges… From School to Work

Bridges develops and supports mutually beneficial job placements to meet the workforce needs of local employers and the vocational goals of young people. It is funded by the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities, which was established in 1989 by the family of J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott to enhance employment opportunities for young people with disabilities. The Foundation’s Bridges programs are funded in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education, and are operated in major urban centers across the country. Since 1990 more than 10,000 young people have been placed with over 3,200 employers in seven metropolitan areas.