Come Farm with the Homeless

The Korpophoreō Project

I am an organic farmer and educator working with the chronically homeless and ex-homeless population of Austin, Texas. My day job is at a traditional organic farm. The rest of my day is spent living and working with a community of formerly homeless individuals that found housing through an organization called Mobile Loaves and Fishes (mlfnow.org). The primary program I'm working with is called Habitat on Wheels (mlfnow.org/HOW). I am building organic gardens, heading up wild-game hunting trips, cooking with, and connecting skilled community members and volunteers through the economic dignity and nourishment of a local, Whole Foods diet. We sell food to people in the city in order to provide jobs for folk in the HOW program; farm, garden, and cook the food with voluneers from the city; while also using it to provide the best food in the world for a community used to eating the worst. In this way the Korpophoreō Project is set up to provide living wage jobs, an environment of connection and healing, and whole-body nourishment.

I am an educator by trade who found so many of the world's ills all building on the loss of local foodscapes. Losses in community connection, economic disadvantage, psychological well being, loss of a community corporate identity, and physical health all stem from the loss of local farms and livelihoods based on local food production.

The logo should be at once both a point of pride for the folk within the program who are working for their livelihood and for the people of the city who are interested in issues of homelessness, local food, organic food, economic justice, and neighborhood beautification. We may post the logo in places like Starbucks but it would need to be edgy enough to also post well in the many punk and bohemian venues of the downtown area. We are going to try to draw volunteers from grungy tattoo parlors, hipster hotspots as well as Baptist churches and Farmer's Markets, so you can see that the logo will need to be a bit versatile.

The commonality among the target audience is compassion for those who are living on the streets and interest in local and organic food.

I want you to design a logo for the project that communicates triumph over the streets and the embodiment of dignity, nourishment, and love.

The word, Korpophoreō, means "to bring forth good fruit" literally, as in fruit and vegetables, as well as figuratively, as in manifesting good deeds. It comes from a number of passages from the Christian New Testament. Take for instance the passage where Jesus says: "If you abide in me you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing" Here, the term is being used figuratively. The term captures the dual essence of what this program seeks to create: both literal and figurative fruit in the lives of people.

Since the term, The Korpophoreō Project is a Biblical one, I have toyed around with Fonts that make it look ancient (i.e. chipped at the corners) or like something found on an ancient manuscript.

Concerning the logo, I love the idea of a plant growing up through the sidewalk or street. This could be done tritely, but one of the purposes of this program is inspire folk for whom industrialization (and all its streets, city-scapes, and rules) is a failed project. These folk got off the street not because they went to college or followed the established rules the best, but because someone cared enough to give them a hand up. The idea of overcoming the street is merely a precursor of their real success story