Women’s Bean Project

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WBP in 2009 celebrated its twentieth year as a social enterprise. WBP, established in 1989 as a non-profit organization, was founded by Jossy Eyre to help women break the cycle of poverty and chronic unemployment. Eyre, a native of Holland, volunteered at the shelter and observed women that were depressed, destitute, and not a part of mainstream society. She recognized that the women had no way to provide for themselves and that they needed help to move from dependence to lasting independence. It was this experience that compelled her to develop the first steps in building the social enterprise the Women’s Bean Project is today. WBP’s mission and vision are shown in Exhibit 1.

Eyre set out with $500 of her own money to buy beans. Her goal was to supply the women with some income and a job while providing them with the necessary skills to obtain a gainful employment. Eyre started her social enterprise by bringing together two women from the shelter and putting them to work creating packages of bean soup. Housed in a renovated 1920s fire house, the Women’s Bean Project is located in Denver’s northeast neighborhood of Five Points-- one of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods....

This enterprise, which began modestly, became a million-dollar gourmet food products business by 2006. Eyre retired from the Women’s Bean Project in 1996, but she came out of retirement to participate in a story conducted for the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer that was aired on the Public Broadcasting Station on December 17, 2008. This non-profit business not only produced gourmet food products but it also employed women in an environment that taught them basic job readiness skills.....

WBP products were available in forty states across the Continental U.S., Canada, and the Internet. King Soopers was the first grocery store to carry its products and they were also available at health food stores and small gourmet shops across the state of Colorado. WBP’s revenues grew steadily from $988,873 in 2006 to $1.09 million in 2007 and $1.34 million in 2008....

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