About Us
FEED Cooperative is a farmer and worker-owned food hub located in Petaluma, California's North Bay. Since 2011, FEED has been distributing produce sourced from our network of over 50 farms, predominantly located in Sonoma and Marin Counties, to businesses and households throughout the Bay Area. For over a decade, we have been committed to building the local food system towards a more transparent and ecologically-driven commerce space where the purchasing power of the customer is a direct investment into a farm-centered food system. FEED Cooperative champions a non-traditional, values-driven distribution model, rooted in biodiversity, transparency, community, and shared ownership.
Coooperatively Owned
FEED is a cooperative, owned by our farmers and workers, building a farm-centric food system for the future. Supporting FEED is one of the most impactful ways you can support local farms. As a cooperative, we make important decisions collectively. FEED’s democratically-elected board of directors (meet them below) is equally composed of farmer and worker-owners. Farms who are member-owners of the cooperative sell a significant portion of their crops and products through FEED and, in turn, are prioritized in FEED’s sales – a mutual investment. By coming together as a cooperative, the critical mass of local farms collaborating enables FEED to reach new and bigger markets, thereby strengthening the power of our local food system. Being a cooperative also ensures that FEED centers the well-being of local farms for future generations.
Wholesale
Through our wholesale program, we sell and deliver to restaurants, retailers, school districts, corporate campuses and food access programs. We are grateful to have so many businesses in our area who support FEED’s values and choose to purchase local and regional products for their menus, grocery shelves, dining halls and more.
FEED Bins
Our FEED Bins are freshly harvested produce boxes sourced from myriad farms within our cooperative and greater network. Each week’s box is a delicious and diverse reflection of what’s in season. Customers can pick up their boxes at one of the local businesses we partner with (hubs) or choose home delivery. We also work with local non-profits and food banks (Farm to Pantry, Food for Thought, Redwood Empire Food Bank) to deliver FEED Bins each week to households and individuals facing food insecurity.
Growing Practices
Farms growing produce for FEED adhere to our values of climate-smart practices, improving the soil through crop rotation, cover crops, mindful and minimal tilling. They tend their watershed and care for their bio-region through thoughtful water usage, integrative pest management, and clean, safe growing practices. We work with many certified organic and/or biodynamic farms. We also work with smaller-scale farms for whom certification doesn’t pencil out, but whose practices we carefully vet and wholly trust.
Meet FEED Co•op’s Board of Directors
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Zureal Bernier is a second-generation farmer dedicated to supporting his family’s operation, which grows wine grapes, tree fruits, and garlic in the northern part of Sonoma County. His family has been selling to FEED since its inception, and the cooperative has played a significant role in the success of their multi-generational farming business.
The process of selling and distributing Bernier Farms produce through FEED has felt almost effortless from the farm’s perspective, but Zureal recognizes the energy and dedication required to sustain the worker/producer-owned cooperative. Now at a point in his life where he would like to serve the co-op, he brings experience from full terms on two different Farmers Market boards, as well as two terms on Slow Food Sonoma County North’s board of directors, including one term as board chair. With a passion for problem-solving and collaboration, he is committed to helping the co-op continue making a positive impact on local and neighboring food systems.
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Matt Blank and his wife and daughter moved from the East Bay to Sebastopol in 2012. He met Tim soon after and started working for FEED. FEED has grown a lot since then and he feels fortunate to have been able to witness and assist in that growth. He has grown into the role of Operations Manager for FEED Cooperative in addition to being treasurer for FEED Co-op's Board. For many years now, Matt has been putting energy into helping FEED improve and be successful and he plans to continue with these efforts and contribute to integral decisions in FEED’s current trajectory.
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As General Manager of FEED Cooperative since 2014, Bryan Hohnstein has been deeply committed to strengthening the cooperative’s mission of supporting local farmers, increasing market access, and building a resilient regional food system. With a deep understanding of FEED’s operations, challenges, and opportunities, Bryan is uniquely positioned to contribute to the Board of Directors in a strategic and impactful way.
As a board member, Bryan aims to continue fostering collaboration, transparency, and innovation within the cooperative. His vision is to further solidify FEED’s role as a leader in regional food distribution while ensuring that its values of equity, sustainability, and farmer empowerment remain at the core of its growth. He is honored to serve on the board and contribute to FEED’s continued success.
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Jenny Trotter co-owns and operates Kibo Farm, which grows diverse vegetables and tree fruit on Sonoma Mountain outside of Santa Rosa. FEED has been a central part of Kibo Farm’s growth since its very beginning. Jenny and her husband, Vince, started the farm in 2016 and began selling produce through FEED that same year. From 2019 to 2023, Jenny played a significant role in the formation of the Cooperative — she was part of the transition team that orchestrated the incorporation of the Co-op as well as the purchase of the FEED Sonoma business, and then she served as the Co-op’s first Board President, setting up many of the systems and agreements that are still in use. Prior to farming, Jenny worked for 10 years in the non-profit world for organizations focused on international health and human rights, and later, food and agriculture, and worked part-time for her dad’s consulting practice for many years, helping Bay Area small businesses sustain their enterprises. Jenny believes strongly in the cooperative business model and the unique role that FEED plays in our local food system. She will enjoy serving on the Board again to build on the Co-op’s past five years of development and help carry it into the next phase of growth. Keeping the Co-op responsive to the needs of growers and ensuring FEED’s success is good for all.
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Patrick Krier is an organic vegetable producer in Petaluma and has been involved with Sonoma County agriculture for the past 10 years. After working for a few ranches and vegetable farms, Patrick took over First Light Farm in 2018, which changed names to Suncatcher Farm in 2020.
FEED has always been a huge part of Suncatcher Farm’s sales and planning and growth, and the evolution of the co-op has only made the local food system feel more resilient. Patrick has developed a lot of passion for local agriculture over the years and is honored to be elected to serve on the board of directors of FEED Cooperative.
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Dylan hails from where the mountains meet the ocean in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to joining FEED, he spent a decade working on diversified small-scale farms in Washington, Oregon, and California. His background both inside the farm gate and in food hub operations gives him a deep understanding of the production and distribution sides of agriculture.
At FEED, Dylan oversees wholesale sales to grocers, restaurants, and institutions, building profitable, reliable, and values-aligned markets for member farms. He is deeply committed to strengthening the long-term economic viability of the North Bay food economy. Dylan believes the cooperative model is a powerful tool for shifting power back to workers and producers in a food system often dominated by consolidation.He will bring a systems-oriented perspective and a git 'er done attitude to the Board.
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Paige Phinney, Director at Kitchen Table Advisors for the San Francisco North Bay Region. Paige has advocated on behalf of small organic farmers professionally for 20+ years; as a foundational team member of three different farm advocacy entities, a farmworker, a lifelong learner, and a numbers geek. Her appreciation for our environment, grounded respect for the incredibly hard work of farming, and her pragmatic idealism inform her work in leading systems change efforts in the region and as a business coach for farmers.
Paige's diverse experiences have touched upon many facets of our food system. Her time at Marin Organic, working on local farms, at Tara Firma Farms, at UC Cooperative Extension, and for over a decade at Kitchen Table Advisors have all built upon each other and deepened her values and purpose. Paige has years of experience facilitating groups of all sizes, financial modeling to inform business decisions, supporting individuals to mitigate risk and navigate inflection points by rooting in their values, and, moreover, to lead a life that is meaningful to them. Her work bridges the analytical mind and the heart in service of supporting environmentally conscious and marginalized farmers and ranchers, in greater service of planetary and societal health.
Paige’s first encounter with FEED Sonoma was in the early days, while she was leading the operations at Tara Firma Farms. Tim and Paige kept in touch over the years and especially as she grew into her current role at KTA. Paige has witnessed firsthand and on several occasions the important role of FEED Cooperative to the economic viability of our local farms. She is committed to the success of the cooperative and hopes to bring her skills and passion to support and serve our local farming community as the Outside Director of the Board.
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A husband and a father of two glorious children, one of Tim’s many mantras during the evolution of FEED Cooperative still rings true :: #doinitforthechildren
Tim Page graduated from Santa Clara University in 1991 with a degree in Finance. This propelled him to his first job in the institutional investments sector at the foot of the Transamerica Pyramid building in San Francisco with Montgomery Securities. After several steps up the proverbial ladder, Tim witnessed many times the challenges people have integrating a truthful life with the aggregation of financial riches. The demise of character which typically coincides with a life of accumulation eventually dictated Tim’s major life evolution... on to the island of Maui and teachings at the feet of several Hawaiian elders.
The greatest gift to his soul development were these years of learning of a present-tense and living indigenous culture. These teachings in plant medicine (la’au lapa’au), forgiveness on an individual and community level (ho’oponopono), and ecosystem stewardship and how it relates to a community’s “infrastructure” (ahupua’a) are to this day the very foundational tenets of FEED Cooperative.
This new awareness as a cornerstone of Tim’s life, and the birthing of his beloved family (‘ohana), directly led to the creation of FEED Sonoma in his garage in June of 2011. Armed with a home built walk-in cooler powered by a 25,000 btu air conditioning unit and a CoolBot, and a single (non-refrigerated) box truck, life on Main Street Sebastopol became the birthing of our Food Hub!
Tim’s role as Navigator at FEED Cooperative is focused on day to day viability and growth towards the self-ownership of our food system. His current projects are centered upon the cultivation of the next generation of food system leaders, the self-ownership of FEED Cooperative’s infrastructure, and evolving his tasks as Navigator into an advisory role, ensuring that generational succession in one’s food community happens on the farm level as well as the brick and mortar infrastructure and human resources that FEED Cooperative embodies.