Bean Project changes lives

Thriving business based on providing women a chance to gain skills

By Karen Abbott
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Lori Packer joined the Women's Bean Project three years ago expecting it to make her life better.

But it made eight lives better.

"It just changed all our lives around," said Packer, who has three children and four grandchildren. "We're all doing great."

"Joy of Giving" is a Denver Rocky Mountain News monthlong campaign to make the holiday season a warm and joyful time for everyone. To donate to the Women's Bean Project, mail checks to Women's Bean Project, 3201 Curtis St., Denver, CO 80205. Representatives from the Women's Bean Project will be in the News lobby from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at 400 W. Colfax Ave. accepting donations. Information: (303) 292-1919.

Launched in 1989, the Bean Project helps women become economically and personally self-sufficient after suffering chronic unemployment, poverty, abuse or homelessness.

The women work for the Bean Project's catering service or its production operation, which assembles mixes for soups, chili, breads and other foods and sells them under the Women's Bean Project label at King Soopers, Alfalfa's, Wild Oats and other stores.

The businesses let the women earn steady paychecks while learning how to do various jobs, from clerical work to customer service to shipping and receiving.

The Bean Project's gift baskets are popular and the newest product — instant soup in a cup-sized container suitable for taking to work — is a runaway hit, said Executive Director Priscilla Yacovoni.

She said Women's Bean Project products are sold nationwide to the tune of about $500,000 a year. Stores across the country carry the products, and they also are sold on the Bean Project's newly revamped Web site, www.womensbeanproject.com.

The sales fund about two-thirds of the Bean Project's work. The rest comes from donations, grants and the annual fund-raising Bean Ball.

While they're working, the women master such basic job skills as showing up on time and getting along with bosses and co-workers. The dozen or more women working at the Bean Project at any given time also see a staff psychologist weekly.

"They kind of start on the bean line, packaging beans and doing that sort of thing, until they gain basic skills and also stabilize themselves," Yacovoni said. "A lot of them are not very stable when they come here.

"Then they can rotate into other areas of the business — shipping and receiving, catering."

Each woman is supposed to spend a year with the Bean Project, then move on to a regular job. About 30 women go through the program each year.

Packer moved on to a large Denver law firm. She now is the Bean Project's receptionist because she had to switch to part-time work after her husband became ill with cancer.

But Packer is even prouder of what the Bean Project did for her oldest daughter.

"She got her GED (general equivalency diploma) here, and her driver's license, and they also sent her to school — now she's a phlebotomist at St. Joe's," Packer said of her 22-year-old daughter.

"Before that, she was kind of pretty bad there," Packer said. "She was gangbanging and getting in trouble and doing a lot of things she shouldn't be doing."

Packer said her daughter signed up for the Women's Bean Project shortly after Packer graduated. Packer herself joined because her sister-in-law had participated.

"I hadn't worked in a long time," Packer said. "I stayed home getting social services. I've been working ever since.

"I graduated in 1997. I came out knowing you have to get up and go to work every day — just being responsible, just learning how to take care of my family.

"My family even seemed more motivated to do things."

Packer's 19-year-old daughter and her 15-year-old son are in school, and her oldest wants to go back to school to become a registered nurse, she said.

Contact Karen Abbott at (303) 892-5188 or abbottk@RockyMountainNews.com.

December 4, 2000