Helping Hands

Two students concocted a sweet idea to ease homelessness in Ogden. As visual design majors and entrepreneurship minors, Isaac Farley BFA ’15 and Nestor Robles BFA ’15 combined their business acumen and creativity to start O-Town Kitchen. The business employs homeless parents from Ogden’s Your Community Connection (YCC) shelter. In the YCC kitchen, they create unique jams and jellies from donated food, with flavors such as tomatillo and lime and root beer.

Participants learn to cook, package and market. They also gain valuable interpersonal skills from sales that will help them transition into more sustainable jobs. “The most rewarding part is working with moms who are in tough situations,” said Farley, whose own family was homeless for a time. “I’m doing everything I can to help families who suffer under the same economic challenges that my family did.”