Social Enterprise

During the past several years, Challenge has become committed to developing business enterprises as a way to support its mission to provide quality employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and other barriers to employment. Challenge operates a number of business operations including Finger Lakes Fresh that employ workers with and without disabilities. These include a commercial janitorial service, documentation preservation business, and contracts with Cornell University and Ithaca College. Finger Lakes Fresh and other Challenge businesses are an integral part of shifting Challenge’s employment programs from supporting workers with disabilities in a work center to providing competitive employment with non-disabled workers in community settings.

Earned income from Finger Lakes Fresh and other businesses support the Challenge mission in the face of continuing funding cuts. These returns from sales are re-invested in Challenge, supporting an array of program services that benefit individuals with disabilities and other employment barriers and their families in Tompkins and surrounding counties. The ability of Challenge to generate part of its funding from social enterprise ventures such as Finger Lakes Fresh benefits all tax payers in New York State by decreasing Challenge’s reliance on public dollars.

The short local growing season, combined with the rising cost of fuel and recent food safety issues, makes fresh, locally-grown, produce a desired product. The ecological value of products produced without pesticides with minimal environmental discharge, combined with the ease of use, make hydroponic produce a strong sustainable, environmentally friendly agriculture alternative to traditional large-scale agriculture products shipped from other parts of the county or internationally. Finger Lakes Fresh is a successful example of how community agencies (and local farmers) can successfully grow year round produce in a Northern climate. Finger Lakes Fresh has also demonstrated that individuals with disabilities can be part of the solution in meeting the workforce needs for this method of agriculture. Challenge has found that there is strong public and customer support for both the quality product grown through this method of agriculture and for the social enterprise mission.