Founded in 1974 by Mimi Fariña, Bread & Roses is dedicated to uplifting the human spirit by providing free, live, quality entertainment to people who live in institutions or are otherwise isolated from society. We produce performances in convalescent homes and senior day centers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, special needs schools and centers for the developmentally disabled, mental health facilities, detention facilities, hospitals, and homeless shelters.

Bread & Roses produces 600 shows each year at more than 125 facilities in eight San Francisco Bay Area Counties with the help of a community of 1,000 volunteers. During the fiscal year ending December 31, 2015, we brought hope, healing and joy to 34,000 audience members, including 9,700 children and youth.

As the 1912 poem from which our name is derived says, "Hearts starve as well as bodies, Give us bread but give us roses." Bread & Roses inspires minds and uplifts spirits in a way no other Bay Area agency does.