Homeboy Gets NYT Write-Up

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Homeboy Industries, the gang intervention program that opened its new Chinatown headquarters back in October, gets a profile in today's NY Times.

Part of that new facility is a bakery and cafe. While in a recent discussion here several readers said they found it hard to figure out the cafe's hours, numbers in the Times would make it seem that problem isn't too wide-spread.

Homeboy Bakery has a new plant that has $3 million in ovens and machinery and its managers hope to produce millions of dollars in revenue within a year or two, said the master baker, Alvaro Ocegueda. He supervises 25 former gang members who have become bakers under his guidance and with professional training at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, a two-year community college.

There is also a Homegirl Café, that has a staff of 27 girls who were “gang impacted” either as auxiliary gang members or as residents of neighborhoods under gang influence. The cafe has brought in more than $220,000 in five months of serving breakfast and lunch six days a week, said Patricia Zarate, who cooks for and manages the business.

My wife took two of her classes on a field trip to Homeboy back in November. There are a lot of great stories being formed as a result of the program.