Dear FareStart Supporters,
I very much hope that many of you have been to the FareStart Restaurant since it reopened a year ago. If you have not, we welcome you for breakfast, lunch or a Guest Chef Night – come and rediscover our incredible community!
In this first full year of reopened businesses and program growth, we’re deeply grateful for our supportive community, near and far. An intentional community, the kind that FareStart strives to be, is built upon mutual goals, shared values and deep partnerships. Though it may seem modest on the surface, our collective reach as a community holds the capacity to solve large problems, empower individuals and allow us all to be part of something important, positive and powerful.
We see the power of intentional community every day in our students and graduates – specifically, the impact on their lives as they reshape themselves for the better – and we see it in the ripple effects that our community radiates outward in our city, our state and our nation. Being a community that is a force for positive change is worth our time, resources and hard work to maintain and grow.
At FareStart this year, we continue to stabilize, rebuild and grow to be able to effectively serve more students going forward. We know that our programs are more needed than ever during a time of uncertainty and state and federal budget cuts that will affect many.
- Our core training programs, Food Pathways (adults) and Barista & Customer Service Program (young adults), continue to grow after significant program improvements in 2024 and 2025. Enrollment is up and expected to grow by nearly 50% this year. Our job placement rate is also steadily increasing, reflecting both the strength of our model and the determination of our students.
- Our pilot program at Echo Glen Children’s Center (juvenile rehabilitation facility), which brings barista and culinary training to youth, continues successfully into a second pilot year. We also continue to offer online customer service training with high school credit to students facing barriers to learning in Seattle Public Schools.
- Our social enterprise businesses (restaurant, café, box lunches, catering, community meals) are trending up and bringing in new clients and customers. While it will take time to reach a steady state that provides half of our revenue (our historic model and near-term goal), sales are trending in the right direction while at the same time providing delicious and nutritious food to our community.
- A last push to complete select capital improvements to our flagship location at 700 Virginia Street in downtown Seattle is planned for later this year. After consolidating facilities last year, we will freshen up student spaces, and remodel to create a “wet” classroom that will provide a needed, non-public training space for our barista students.
- FareStart Consulting continues to assist organizations like us that provide culinary job training around the country while also supporting continued improvement of FareStart locally with their deep expertise.
- We continue to plan for the future in multiple ways. We are working closely with our board to complete a three-year strategic plan (2026-2028) for FareStart that meets the current needs of students and provides meaningful opportunities for our social enterprises, while at the same time considering contingency plans in case of near-term drop-offs in public funding for our programs or government benefits for those we serve.
I hope you will dine at FareStart, volunteer with us, introduce us to a friend who may want to know more, donate to further our mission or find another way to participate in our rich community this year. You are a part of our present and future ability to make positive change happen for our students and graduates, and by extension, for all of us.
Patrick D’Amelio, CEO
