“My name was there next to the item,” she recalls. “It felt so special—like you’re important, like you have value.” McClain, 41, is now pursuing a yoga teacher certificate, her dream profession, while she begins her first job after MAKE at Zara in Fashion Valley. MAKE Projects began in 2016 as Project CHOP. Women chopped carrots for school lunches, but when that endeavor lost money, they evolved into making crudité platters and then catering lunches. They dabbled in other ventures, like workshops, a farm stand, and arts and crafts, but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that they found their sweet spot. “We had to focus on one thing, it had to make money, and we had to be sure we did it well,” Mei explains. What they came up with was serving meals at their patio café, which has now become such a success they are on the verge of a new frontier. “We are going to have our first full-time brick-and-mortar!” Mei announces. So far, they’ve depended mostly on grants, but Mei is hoping the new space will help the social enterprise become self-su ffi cient, with funds coming in from CSA subscriptions, catered events, and restaurant customers. “As we grow, we will be a lot more e ffi cient and start to scale,” she says. “It’s so exciting!” At the new space, due to open in the former Crushed location in North Park this month, they will continue as before, but they’ll be able to expand their restaurant hours and the number of women they serve. They will no longer need to hold conferences and trainings in the stairwell of the church or in the basement while it is briefly clear of AA meetings. The garden will move to SDSU’s Mission Valley expansion where, at one acre, it will quadruple in size. (Hint: Get on their CSA waitlist now.) While the new brick-and-mortar will look just like a typical restaurant, like the patio on 30 th street, it will really be much more. “It is a vehicle for transformation and realizing human potential,” Mei says.
LEFT Soon, the women of MAKE Projects will trade this churchyard patio for a North Park brick-and- mortar of their very own. OPPOSITE PAGE Signage tells customers when the café is open.
35 SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE
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