Women's Bean Project Teaches Job Skills to Help Women Overcome Poverty

Photo credit: Women's Bean Project

It all started with $500 worth of beans and a desire to help disenfranchised women break out of the cycle of poverty. Two decades later, the Women's Bean Project employs 40 chronically unemployed and impoverished women annually to make and package products such as bean-soup and chili mixes (including one made with certified-organic beans), spice rubs, cookie and brownie mixes, jelly beans, and organic and fair-trade coffee.

The Denver, Colo.-based non-profit has also started offering vegetarian-friendly "recession-buster meals," which comprise a 6-person-dinner's worth of bean soup/chili, cornbread, and brownies for $13.50.I'm personally a big fan of beans—they're hearty, nutritious, and inexpensive. Dried beans are even more affordable than the canned variety, and you don't have to worry about bisphenol-A leaching from the metal coating.

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