April 23rd, 2021
.:: Hub News ::.
Our friends, Laura and Jennifer of Potliquor, are finally getting a long-awaited uptick in catering business! Which means their hub in Berkeley will be closing to make space for their operations. Today, Friday April 23rd marked the last delivery to their location. In the interim, we are working with an awesome advocate for our local food system, a FEED Bin subscriber in Berkeley who has offered her front porch for pickups until our next public hub is open. If you are a former Potliquor subscriber, stay tuned for an update email!
The future of our Berkeley location is in transition, but we plan to begin a collaboration with Three Stone Hearth starting in June. We are also working closely with FEED's farmer-owners of Olson Farms to launch pickups at their farmstands, both in Sonoma County AND in Oakland. Stay tuned for updates on these partnerships and availability of FEED Bins at these respective locations.
.:: Drought Conditions & Your Local Food ::.
“About ¾ of the western United States is in what is called a MEGADROUGHT” said Gavin Newsom, declaring a “Drought Emergency” on Wednesday from the floor of the cracked, dry basin that is usually Lake Mendocino.
Yesterday, Caiti Hachmyer of Sebastopol’s Red H Farm published a chilling account via Civil Eats of the increasingly devastating, climate-affected conditions persisting in our Northern California communities and beyond. She speaks a truth that has determined how this year will look for almost every farm we work with. Water shortages are affecting production of thirstier crops, temporarily shuttering farms or CSA programs and changing how we all plan to continue feeding our community.
While COVID drastically changed how FEED Sonoma and farmers approached sales, pivoting to direct-to-consumer and CSA programming, the conditions catalyzed by climate change have always been the looming crisis. The majority of our crop planning conversations for this year revolved around this shift, adapting our plans to serve the increasingly drier conditions, goals to expand dry-farming techniques in our increasingly arid climate.
Thank you Caiti for sharing your experience that speaks to the pressing need to build bridges within our farming community, supporting each other, and continuing to honor systems of Indigenous land stewards that “focus on building soil, conserving water, fostering diversity and farming in relationship with the ecosystem, not in dominance of it.”
Read Caiti's article here. If you want to dive a little deeper, you can also read a recent article from the publication Point Reyes Light, featuring two of our producers - True Grass Farms and Marin Roots Farm. Marin Roots has been hit particularly hard this year, devastating their operation. Read more here.
.:: How You Can Help! ::.
As we mentioned above, the COVID crisis has led farmers and FEED Sonoma to pursue more direct-to-consumer sales approaches, for us this is the FEED Bin. As we look to the future of FEED Sonoma's growth, as a farmer owned cooperative and as a beacon of sustainable food system practices, we see our FEED Bin program at the helm.
We are working with Kitchen Table Advisors to develop healthy growth strategies to continue serving our FEED Bin community, including more hubs, more collaboration, and more FEED Bins! During times of uncertainty, the FEED Bin serves as a lifeline to our farmers, whether the challenge at hand is drought, a pandemic, or a rapidly consolidating food industry.
At $35 a box, our FEED Bin program offers a long-term, approachable solution, an investment for families throughout our foodshed. Our goal: 2,000 families to invest $35 per week … and the return on this investment is healthy and dynamic food, farmer survival, food system survival and stewardship for their children.
