By Stephanie Oesligie Jordan, Project Manager, Chef
On October 25, Sustainable Solano kicked off it’s “Solano Community Food Centers” planning grant – funded by USDA -with an Advisory Board meeting in Benicia, CA.
Attending the meeting were an enthusiastic group representing UC Davis and Solano County, as well as Solano County farmers and community leaders. Board members discussed what aspect of the project each of them could help with, and where their individual expertise could bring goals to fruition. The first phase of the planning grant includes a feasibility study, which will begin with data collection and analysis. As we work through phase 1, we aim to have a clearer picture of Solano County’s local food supply, its existing distribution systems, and an analysis of historical sales data. To this end, Dr. Kristin Kiesel of UC Davis gave a brief presentation on the proposed structure of the feasibility study, and the types of data needed to achieve our goals.
Thanks again to our Advisory Board members! Sustainable Solano is grateful for everyone’s participation and willingness to volunteer their time and talents!
ADVISORY BOARD:
David Campbell, Associate Dean, Social and Human Sciences, UC Davis
Robin Cox, Sr. Health Services Manager, Solano Public Health
Gail Feenstra, Deputy Director SAREP, UC Davis
Simone Hardy, Agricultural Commissioner, Solano County
Mike Ioakimedes, Business Development Manager, Solano County Fairgrounds
The experts say it will take a startup food co-op about 3-5 yrs. to open a food co-op grocery store. Well if that is true, then Cultivate Community Food Co-op is right on course. After 18 months of Stage I development – Organizing, CCFC reached Stage II development – Feasibility and Planning, in July, when we filed our Articles of Incorporation.
In September we had an Incorporation party and sold 25 owner shares, (soon we will be selling owner shares online.) Which brings us to October, which just happens to be ‘Co-op month’. Co-op month has been celebrated annually in October across the United States for more than half a century. It is a time for cooperative businesses to reflect on their shared principles and to educate others about the value of belonging to a cooperative.
In doing our part, Cultivate Community Food Co-op will be joining Sustainable Solano in a panel discussion entitled, ‘How to Make the World Better’, on Wed. Oct. 25 at the Heritage Presbyterian Church in Benicia. CCFC’s founder, Paula Schnese, will share with the community the progress the food co-op has made, talk about our future goals and timelines, and answer questions from the audience. In addition to this educational event, during Co-op month, CCFC will
also be sharing information at some of the local farmers markets and at the Loma Vista Farm Harvest Festival on October 21st .
Become an owner of your local food co-op! We will be selling owner shares at all the events we attend! ��
Our Collective Goals
To create a sustainable grocery business based on member ownership and democratic decision-making
To support local producers and sustainable agriculture
To provide health-enhancing foods
To keep prices as low as possible
To be fair and supportive to our employees and to be sensitive to the working and living
conditions of those who make what we sell
To be a community resource that helps the people of Benicia and Vallejo lead healthier lives
To be a place in the community where people can come to gather and create community
To be good stewards of the environment through conscientious, sustainable use of resources
To reach out to low-income members of the community and enable their participation.
To welcome all.
Our Mission
Cultivate Community Food Co-op will be Solano County’s first community-owned, natural grocery store. We will be a one stop, brick and mortar grocer dedicated to providing high-quality, locally-sourced, culturally-relevant, ethically-produced and affordable products.
Offering health and wellness education, we aim to empower our community and provide a public meeting space to engage with others. We are committed to creating and maintaining a more sustainable economy with a just and equitable future for our farmers, artisans, employees and owners by decreasing the physical and social distance between producers and consumers.
Cultivate Community Food Cooperative, Inc. (CCFC) is a cooperative corporation organized under the Consumer Cooperative Corporation Law of California
Become an Owner of CCFC: Owners in good standing may vote in co-op elections, attend the Annual Meeting, and run for the Board of Directors.
Other benefits include:
Coupons, Sales and Discount Days
Case Discounts on Special Orders
Patronage Refund
Discounted Classes
Select a Plan: Online sales will be available on our website soon
Full Fair Share*: Invest $300
Strongly encouraged to facilitate store opening
Partial Share*: Invest $25
Now and every quarter (or more often) until the full Fair Share of $300 is reached
*A $5 processing fee is charged (this helps with the cost of creating membership cards)
A community supported agriculture box from Eatwell Farm.
As we move forward with our greater vision for our Local Food Movement Initiative, we aim to better connect area farmers to the people of Solano County. Eating locally and supporting our local food growers strengthens our regional food system by building community and keeping dollars in our own local economy.
There is also a significant environmental impact of local food production-distribution networks which provide a shorter distribution distance between the grower and consumer. Generally, farm products are processed directly on the farm itself reducing middle-man packaging and additional refrigerated trucking. With smaller, sustainable family farms, you can count on fresher produce, a greater variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and endless learning opportunities! Many farms offering Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box programs offer tours where you can meet your farmers directly and see how your food is grown.
Supporting local food growers through a direct-to-consumer CSA program allows customers to enjoy highly-nutritious produce, meats, dairy and other farm goods. Members can pick up harvest shares at a communal location or have them delivered directly.
Sustainable Solano has made it easy for you to start eating fresher, better foods by compiling a list of local CSAs that currently deliver directly to Solano County cities. Communal pick-up locations are established when the minimum number of memberships required by each farm is met in each city. The more friends and family sign up, the more convenient pick-up locations are created in your city.
Don’t miss out on these current promotional specials!
Our goal is to include all Solano County food producers on this list so please share with us any we missed so we can add it to our website and start providing our residents more options for healthy, local food!
Big News for Benicia’s CSAs!
Benicia’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs are now all under one roof! Heritage Presbyterian Church at 1400 East 2nd Street has graciously opened their doors to host products from four local sources: Terra Firma Farm (vegetables & fruit), Tara Firma Farm (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, eggs, cheese & produce), Siren Fish Company (fish & seafood) and Real Food Bay Area (raw milk, prepared foods and more)! By consolidating these CSAs, “buying local” is now more convenient; it’s one-stop shopping for delicious, locally-grown food. For more information on the farms/fisheries, and to subscribe, please visit these links:
Food, environment and human health, local economy and resilient communities
By Elena Karoulina
Executive Director of Sustainable Solano
Image from Pixabay
When was the last time you had Solano-grown produce on your dinner table? The most possible answer is ‘never’, unless you grow your own food in your garden or your backyard food forest. It’s a very unusual situation for a Bay Area county that is still largely agrarian, at least in the land use patterns.
Sustainable Solano is embarking on a new project to bring more local food to our communities and to connect our local farmers, chefs, and residents with the gifts of our land and with each other.
At the very end of September we received great news from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): our proposal to further our vision by developing a business plan for Solano Community Food Centers was selected for funding! Annually, USDA funds about 14% of grant applications for local food projects, and we are honored to earn support on a federal level.
What is a Community Food Center? It is a hub for local food activities: CSAs deliveries, cooking classes, community education, and large kitchens where chefs and community members can cook wholesome nutritious meals. Larger Community Food Centers can include a food co-op.
Although Solano County produces close to $354 million worth of agricultural products and exports these products to more than 40 countries, only a fraction of that amount remains in the county due to weak distribution system, lack of sales outlets and somewhat low interest in local food. You can hardly find any Solano-grown products in our farmer markets, stores and restaurants. Small farmers struggle to hold on to their land and to connect with local customers.
Where do we buy local food? People who can afford it obtain their local ag products in the markets outside our county: Napa, Sonoma, Berkeley (thus spending local money outside our local communities). Some cities in Solano are blessed with Community Supported Agriculture, but not many people know about this option and take advantage of it. People with low means have to go without local fresh food at all. Solano is a county of commuters, and unfortunately, the only option available for families on a go is fast-food restaurants and convenience stores (you cannot find local food there!).
We pay dearly for this lack of access to local food with our health: Solano County is among the sickest counties in the nation. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease rates are above national average in our home county.
Food, human health, the environment and local economies are all interconnected; by creating a network of city-based Community Food Centers, there is potential to re-envision and re-construct Solano County’s food system so that it works for everyone in the local food supply chain.
Sustainable Solano has partnered with researchers at UC Davis, Solano County Department of Agriculture and Department of Public Health to conduct a feasibility study, develop an effective business plan, and outline implementation for local food businesses that aggregate, process and distribute locally-produced, healthy food products. Our big vision is the environmentally and economically sustainable, equitable local food systems in Solano County.
We are looking for urban and rural farmers, chefs and local food activists interested to implement this vision. We’d love to hear from you with your comments, suggestions, reflections, and offers to help. Please email directly to me at elena@sustainablesolano.org
Let’s make it happen! I am looking forward to meet all of you at the official launch of the program on Wednesday, October 25, at 7 pm, at Benicia’s Heritage Presbyterian Church (doors open at 6 pm). Please join our Advisory Board members Dr. Feenstra and Dr. Campbell in the conversation about the future of food and why local resilient food system is so important. Come meet the project team and all of us interested to bring this vision to reality.
Chef Stephanie Oelsligle Jordan at Heritage Presbyterian Church kitchen with Chef Veronica Bearce, helper for the night.
Over the year, a special partnership has been growing between Sustainable Solano and Heritage Presbyterian Church, for the sake of creating a Community Food Center in Benicia, a dream that’s been taking shape with inspiration from Sustainable Solano’s Exec Director, Elena Karoulina and local chef Stephanie Oelsligle Jordan, and from the church’s Pastor Yung Me Morris and Heritage Presbyterian Church’s leadership board.
So what would a Benicia Community Food Center be, and be for?
In the evening, April 5th, Sustainable Solano hosted members of Heritage’s congregation for a beautiful, seasonal buffet dinner prepared by chef Stephanie to discuss and celebrate the promise of a mutual venture that would be centered around the church’s as yet under-utilized kitchen. Recently, the church had had upgraded the kitchen, but not quite up to the commercial standard for select uses, such as for a catering business. Seeking funds for the necessary improvements to meet those standards (not for restaurant permitting level), the church and Sustainable Solano will be working toward that basic aim. Meanwhile, hope is afloat for creating an earth-friendly catering service led by local chefs who would prepare meals for “take out” for Benicia residents who don’t have the time, ability or income to cook healthy meals at home. In the future, residents who elect to participate would become subscribers to the program. Such a business arrangement would benefit local small farms and other local/regional suppliers of wild fish, organic meats, eggs and dairy. Becoming a community food “hub”, Heritage Presbyterian would become the delivery and pick up location for CSA (Community Supported Agricultural) boxes, as well as for deliveries of other food supplies (meats, fish, eggs, dairy). With Sustainable Solano’s “Swenson Garden” and Community Orchard located on the church property, it appears that HPC is growing into its new role helping to foster local access and distribution of healthy food within Benicia.
Heritage Presbyterian Church and Sustainable Solano Board members sharing meal and a conversation
Everyone attending the dinner enjoyed the delicious meal and applauded chef Stephanie. Most importantly, good questions were raised with the realization that answers and solutions could be found. Essentially, everyone felt the groundswell of excitement in cooperating to support the pilot plan for an enterprise that would serve people’s nutrition and health and community well-being. The vision was growing as everyone spoke up with ideas, such as connecting with Carquinez Village, St. Paul’s, and CAC. We were seizing the time and season for change—the time for learning and enabling new ways of doing and being together for the good of all life.
Sustainable Solano would like to share a video that a friend, Kristian, made! It certainly highlights the most meaningful moments and makes us reflect on how moving of an experience this was for us.
In the evening, April 5th, Sustainable Solano hosted members of Heritage’s congregation for a beautiful, seasonal buffet dinner prepared by chef Stephanie to discuss and celebrate the promise of a mutual venture that would be centered around the church’s as yet under-utilized kitchen. Recently, the church had had upgraded the kitchen, but not quite up to the commercial standard for select uses, such as for a catering business. Seeking funds for the necessary improvements to meet those standards (not for restaurant permitting level), the church and Sustainable Solano will be working toward that basic aim. Meanwhile, hope is afloat for creating an earth-friendly catering service led by local chefs who would prepare meals for “take out” for Benicia residents who don’t have the time, ability or income to cook healthy meals at home. In the future, residents who elect to participate would become subscribers to the program. Such a business arrangement would benefit local small farms and other local/regional suppliers of wild fish, organic meats, eggs and dairy. Becoming a community food “hub”, Heritage Presbyterian would become the delivery and pick up location for CSA (Community Supported Agricultural) boxes, as well as for deliveries of other food supplies (meats, fish, eggs, dairy). With Sustainable Solano’s “Swenson Garden” and Community Orchard located on the church property, it appears that HPC is growing into its new role helping to foster local access and distribution of healthy food within Benicia.
