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A sustainable way to address homelessness in Chapel Hill resulted in a $10,000 grant for its creator, David Baron of Atlanta, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Baron’s Homeless Outreach Poverty Eradication (HOPE) Garden was one of more than 100 student-initiated projects to receive a Davis Projects for Peace grant from philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis.

HOPE Garden is a partnership of Carolina students and the Town of Chapel Hill working in collaboration with the N.C. State University department of horticulture science. In this project, homeless people will train and work alongside volunteers and mentors in a community garden, with land donated by the town. The workers will gain valuable job skills and income, while the organic produce they grow will be sold on the UNC campus and given to disadvantaged families, who could not otherwise afford to buy this fresh, high-quality and nutritious food.

 “HOPE Garden will promote employment security, food security and the overall security that comes from strong community ties,” Baron said. “It will promote peace by bridging the gaps that exist in the Chapel Hill community, while providing program participants and the community at large with a greater sense of communal security.”

Davis Projects for Peace invited all students from partner schools in the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars Program plus students at International Houses worldwide and Future Generations to submit plans for grassroots projects for peace, to be implemented during the summer of 2009. University students from nearly 100 campuses will collectively receive over $1 million in funding during the summer of 2009 for projects in all regions of the world.

A complete list of the participating schools and projects, as well as a summary of the 2008 projects and a video interview with Davis from 2006, is available on the program’s Web site at www.davisprojectsforpeace.org.

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