Sustain Supper 2024

We are delighted to gather together in community and host HGP's annual Sustain Supper at Natural Bridges Farm. Please note, this will be the only Sustain Supper in 2024.

This event will take place on Saturday, July 20th. We invite you to join us for a Farm Tour at 3:30pm followed by a reception with live music, passed appetizers and wine at 4:15pm. We will then feature a delightful, multi-course meal, utilizing produce grown on our farm in our programs, cooked by accomplished Chef Reylon Agustin, currently Director of Culinary at Post Ranch Inn and Sierra Mar in Big Sur. In addition to the signature farm-to-table meal, the event will feature local beverages, live music, and an engaging program of speakers, including our keynote speaker, Anne Kapuscinski. We are thrilled to welcome Anne to speak on our guiding topic of sustainability, a subject she is an expert in as Director of UCSC's Coastal Sciences & Public Policy Program, as well as serving as Board Chair for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Please read on for more details about Chef Reylon and Anne below.

All proceeds from the Sustain Supper benefit the Homeless Garden Project's core transitional employment program for people experiencing homelessness. Over 30+ years HGP has refined the successful year-long program to provide earned wages for work, hands-on job training and support services in an effort to help trainees obtain stable employment and housing. On average, 90% of trainees obtain stable housing and employment within 3 months of graduating.

Natural Bridges Farm, located on Santa Cruz's Westside, has been operated by the Homeless Garden Project since the mid-90's. Please note, it is an active working farm, so please wear comfortable shoes for uneven ground.

Updates regarding the menu, live music and beverage selections will be released in the coming weeks. Please note that we welcome those with vegan and vegetarian diets and do everything we can to accommodate dietary restrictions. Please contact us should you have additional questions.

Kaiser Permanente

Alta Organic Coffee & Tea

Interested in sponsoring? Please contact [email protected]

Chef Reylon Agustin is the Director of Culinary for Post Ranch Inn and Sierra Mar. Chef Reylon comes to Big Sur from Madera in Menlo Park, California where, as the Executive Chef, he and his team earned and maintained a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide. A California native, Chef Reylon’s career has taken him around the world, spending time in San Francisco studying under Chef and Restauranteur Traci Des Jardins and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London to name a few. Along with Executive Chef, Il Hoon Kang, the culinary program at Post Ranch will be in excellent hands for years to come.

Anne R. Kapuscinski is director of the Coastal Science and Policy Program—a graduate program training rising leaders in solving coastal sustainability problems—and a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She takes a systems approach to address sustainability challenges by integrating ecological, social and economic domains. She is the fourth chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Board of Directors and the first woman to hold the position. A world-renowned expert on fisheries conservation, ecological risk assessment of genetically modified organisms, and sustainable aquaculture and agriculture, she is the recipient of a Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Honor Award, the Society for Conservation Biology’s Distinguished Service Award and an Ocean Award in innovation.
Her current research focuses on closing resource loops in ways that support climate change mitigation and adaptation, including projects examining integrated food-energy systems on dairy farms, integrated agriculture-aquaculture and using microalgae to develop more sustainable feeds for aquaculture, the world’s fastest growing food sector. Dr. Kapuscinski has also studied the impacts of technologies—from dams and hatcheries to aquaculture and genetic engineering—on fish conservation.
Dr. Kapuscinski prioritizes active participation in the science-policy interface, presently serving on the Science Advisory Team of the California Ocean Protection Council and as chair of a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee on strengthening sustainability in higher education. She has also been a scientific advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under three administrations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization, the Global Environment Facility, the European Union Food Safety Agency, and the state of Minnesota. She has served on four U.S. National Academy of Science committees addressing salmon conservation and risk analyses of genetically modified organisms. She previously served on the Board of Trustees of the WorldFish Center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

Host or Publisher Homeless Garden Project