Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Our work this reporting period has reached our primary target audiences: 1) low-income residents, seniors, and the medically vulnerable in Alameda County; and 2) small Bay Area food systems entrepreneurs. Changes/Problems:When the project started in 2021, one of the biggest challenges was scaling our operations without sufficient technical and administrative staffing. We struggled with consistent data entry, effective customer service, and operations administration. With the gaps in infrastructure, the central administrative staff was pulled away from their regular duties to fill in. In time, we learned the importance of right-sizing our staff to support growth and commenced plans to hire a Food Systems Director, an Internship and Volunteer Coordinator, an HR/Restorative Justice Manager, a Food Hub Administrator, a Food Recovery Coordinator, and a Food as Rx Coordinator. Our operations and data management needs outgrew spreadsheets so we transitioned to Monday.com. The transition, while difficult, immediately helped us do a better job of managing operations and data. We also struggled with a lack of office space and storage at the Food Hub, so we converted an office trailer to house our Food Hub team. Periodically, we saw behavioral problems arise from job trainees who weren't experienced with the norms and culture of the workforce. Fortunately, we were able to adjust the responsibilities of our driver manager and provide her with training to serve as a case manager and to address issues as they arose with trainees and with our staff. During the first year of the project, we also ran into challenges in the development and approval of the online ordering and delivery system, mostly because we weren't authorized to accept SNAP payments. This headache lasted throughout the duration of the grant period. In 2022, we did not receive the referrals we were expecting from CalWorks for farm interns. Only one person had been referred to us through that program. We were also working to do a better job of serving our interns and staff who are receiving entitlement benefits. SSA offered to provide us with a calculator which will allow us to determine how much an employee who is receiving benefits (e.g., GA, CalWORKs, CalFresh) can work without the income putting their benefits at risk. We also struggled to secure food procurement contracts from institutional buyers to support our food entrepreneurs. For instance, UC Berkeley initially indicated that they would be interested in buying pesto, pasta sauce, and hummus from our entrepreneurs, but we were not able to close the deal with them. This is precisely why we turned our attention to building the circular food system to help institutional buyers prioritize locally produced food and recognize the benefits of purchasing locally, but it was hard to compete with the prices they secure from large food distribution companies. To help us address these challenges, we hired Kitchen Table Advisors to help us connect us to institutional buyers. On the workforce side, we came up against significant systemic barriers to employment, particularly for people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. People returning home from incarceration are vulnerable to gaps in health care, legal documents such as drivers licenses, substance use issues, and the impact that job-related income can have on their eligibility for entitlement resources such as CalFresh. For instance, if someone makes over a certain threshold of income from employment, they run the risk of losing key benefits that support their stability. We built bridges with systems players (e.g., Alameda County Social Services Agency, Alameda County Probation Department, Alameda County Workforce Development, reentry CBOs) to work toward innovative solutions to these challenges. On the farming side, it took much longer than expected to secure permits to build out the farming infrastructure, particularly at our Ardenwood Historic Farm site. Despite these delays, we were able to plant 30 acres at the site but harvesting was delayed because we needed to immediately wash and cool the produce for safety purposes, but the infrastructure was still lacking. Another challenge we ran into was identifying new farmers to meet the labor demands. Farming is clearly a very physically demanding job so finding high quality candidates took time. Meanwhile, at the Masonic Homes site, we ran into delays securing the permits to drill the well water for irrigation to the farm site, which slowed down our ability to hire farmers and build out the Black Farmer Collective. In 2023, activity across the project had increased, and one of the challenges we faced was finding qualified drivers for food recovery and healthy food delivery. Most of our On the Job Trainees (OJTs) lacked drivers' licenses. We began exploring a coordinated process whereby OJTs could quickly obtain or renew their driver's licenses by obtaining driver's education, obtaining the necessary identification documents, and/or planning for payment of existing fines or penalties. (On the plus side, one of our biggest success stories in 2023 was a result of our partnership with Alameda County Social Service Agency (SSA) leadership. One of the biggest barriers for the OJTs is that their new earnings are immediately taken away to cover child support payments. This financial burden presented a disincentive to work. Through a collaborative effort between DSAL and SSA Agency Director Andrea Ford, we negotiated a new pilot program with Child Support Services to delay child support payments until OJT's were more financially stable and to negotiate the amount of child support payments they were required to pay. This policy change encouraged more OJT's to find employment and stay employed while also maintaining their child support obligations.) OTHER CHALLENGES: We touch on this earlier in the report, but DSAL's failure to ultimately receive permission to accept EBT payments through our online EBT payments presented a significant challenge to our ability to scale our work and generate revenue through online purchases. After waiting for the USDA to approve our request, we were finally notified in 2023 that we would not be allowed to accept EBT payments through the online portal. We made great progress on planning and outreach for our Black Farmer Collective, which would reduce food insecurity while also encouraging the growth of small, BIPOC-led farms by addressing barriers to success, including significant farming expenses and the high price of farmland, inadequate payment/subsidies for fresh produce, a lack of business/marketing knowledge and capacity by farmers, limited or no access to processing facilities, transportation challenges (including the cost of transportation, needing a large vehicle, and the need for refrigerated vehicles and cold storage), and systemic racism/discrimination against farmers of color. Although we were successful at obtaining a lease at Masonic Homes of California in Union City-a massive achievement-the start of this project was delayed due to the need to dig a well for farm irrigation on the 10-acre Masonic Homes site. The good news is that we raised the funds with support from the Board of Supervisors, dug the well, and laid the groundwork for the collective to proceed under DDF's new leadership at the Food Bank. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?12 jobs were preserved/created at the Food Hub. We also developed a re-entry workforce development model, which includes 146 paid on-the-job trainee positions. Food systems entrepreneurs reported approximately 220 jobs created or preserved over the course of the grant period. Throughout the grant period, DSAL and the Alameda County Probation Department partnered to create opportunities for the reentry population through transitional work placements as On the Job Trainee (OJT) interns at DDF's farm locations. The positions were funded by the Probation Department. DSAL hired, onboarded, trained, and supported the OJTs. DDF's workforce development effort also included providing Specialty Crop internship training to local, small, BIPOC farmers. This paid program was designed to support new and established local growers and businesses involved in cultivating, producing, and marketing of specialty crops -- high-value crops like fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, and ornamental plants that generate significant revenue per unit area. During the internship, participants learned various skills, including planting, growing, and harvesting techniques, pest and disease management, irrigation methods, and post-harvest handling to ensure top-notch quality and yield. We also targeted several systems-level shifts to better support the reentry workforce. These initiatives included: ? Meeting monthly with staff at Santa Rita Jail, WellPath, and the Social Services Agency to establish a system to enroll people who are incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail in MediCal so they had more of the resources they needed when they re-entered their communities and were not as dependent on external community based-organizations (CBOs). These regularly scheduled meetings were effective for reviewing our progress and troubleshooting barriers we encountered. ? Worked with the Social Services Agency to determine if there was a way to give people in reentry a temporary reprieve from automatic payroll deductions when they owe back child support to allow them to build a bit of a financial foundation before beginning payments. These court-ordered deductions disincentivize people from working during a very critical time in their reentry, which is a strong factor in recidivism. ? Met monthly with Probation, Inmate Services, and the 8 CBO partners funded by the Probation Department to ensure that reentry and workforce development partnerships ran smoothly and any barriers to success get addressed and navigated. We provided feedback on the Probation Department's contract bidding process to address some of these issues. For instance, CBOs were required to provide training for their staff in evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques such as motivational interviewing, so they could more effectively support their clients. We also worked to ensure that Probation Officers had a better understanding of the services that each CBO provided and the reentry needs of each client so that referrals would be more targeted to the individual needs of each client. ? SSA staff made several successful referrals of CalWorks clients to DDF internships and employment at DDF. ? Working with the Workforce Development Board to launch career pathways for individuals receiving General Assistance. Kimberly Thomas, the Director and Delivery Coordinator and Job Trainee Manager at the Dig Deep Farms Food Hub has been implementing her newly acquired education in motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy with the On the Job Trainees (OJTs). The OJTs have been working on developing self-esteem and an in-depth understanding of themselves. They are also discussing topics surrounding mental health and money management. This past quarter we provided re-entry interns and other local community members the opportunity to complete the Permaculture Design Certification course. This created a pool of eight people who are now prepared to work as farmers at Dig Deep Farms or become part of DSAL's emergent Black Farmer Collective. We have also been working closely with our program partners at the Alameda County Probation Department and the Alameda County Workforce Development Board to expand our reentry program to provide transitional training to at-risk youth; providing them with a career pathway from Alameda County juvenile detention facilities to a paid Dig Deep Farms internship. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To keep our project and funding partners and communities of interest up to date on DSAL's Community Food Project, we engaged in the following outreach activities: - We included news and updates about the project in our newsletter, which is issued once or twice a month throughout the grant period. - As a key partner in ALL IN Alameda County, we reported on our activities at monthly ALL IN Steering Committee meetings, ALL IN Eats meetings, and DSAL Board meetings. - We provided a formal presentation to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and we kept individual Supervisors updated on an informal basis. - We distributed healthy recipes along with the free groceries at our Friday free food drives, which took place at the Food Hub. - We conducted outreach on social media, with a particular focus on promoting the hiring and training programs and educating the larger community about the benefits of our sustainable farming project and the importance of healthy eating. - We issued press releases and held press conferences about our accomplishments and milestones, including the expansion of DSAL's Dig Deep Farms at Ardenwood Historic Farms, and preliminary outcomes of the Food as Medicine initiative to reduce food insecurity, isolation, and depression and positively address a range of social determinants of health. - We leveraged a grant from Blue Shield of California to create a mural at the entrance of the Food Hub, called "We Grow Medicine," to underscore the benefits of DSAL's approach to investing locally in community health, beautification, and economic development initiatives. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In 2022, DSAL completed a business plan to oversee the $6.8 million award we received from the County. This plan described how stakeholders would scale the food system across the entirety of Alameda County, including supporting the build-out of future Food Hubs. The completion of the plan was a testament to the vision of our partners, including Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO), the Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA), the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency (HCSA), the Alameda County General Services Agency (GSA), and ALL IN Alameda County (ALL IN). In 2023, DDF expanded to 70 acres of food-producing farmland; the food recovery initiative continued diverting food from the waste stream to provide for free to food-insecure residents; and our internship program for people returning home from the County jail provided dozens with a livable wage in local food economy jobs as well as wraparound case management. Our Food Hub continued to serve as the central food recovery collection and distribution site, and we grew the number of refrigerated vehicles in our food delivery system to 14, which supported 14-24 jobs for drivers. Weekly drive-through grocery pick-up events reached an average of 300 cars each week. The Food Hub's commercial kitchen was being utilized by an average of 82 food entrepreneurs monthly, and 80 of these entrepreneurs received hands-on business development support. Four of the entrepreneurs participated in a collaborative institutional procurement program through a Summer Meals contract with the Oakland United School District. We reached a significant milestone by diverting more than 1 million pounds of unwanted fresh and prepared edible foods from the landfill to the tables of low-income, food-insecure, Alameda County residents in 2023. DSAL also became Local Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certified, which opened the opportunity for potential institutional and third-party buyers to purchase our produce using scaled wholesale pricing. In 2024, due to shifting priorities in the Sheriff's Office, DSAL initiated a process to transfer ownership of the Dig Deep Farms farming operation to the Alameda County Community Food Bank (Food Bank). The transfer process started on 7/1/24 and was completed on 9/30/24. This included transferring the production of produce for the County's Food as Medicine initiative to the Food Bank. DSAL continues to operate the Food Hub's commercial kitchen, which creates jobs and small business opportunities in the community. The Food Hub Farm directly adjacent to the DSAL commercial kitchen is also being retained and will be transitioned to a garden to provide Food Hub entrepreneurs with space to grow their own healthy, nutritious produce to use as ingredients for their retail food products. The Greenhouse and Firehouse Farms in Ashland will be converted to become urban community gardens for youth to receive hands-on farming training and have the opportunity to cultivate and manage raised farming beds, greenhouses, and in-ground farm space. DSAL's food recovery initiative and our employment and internship programs for justice-involved individuals have been discontinued. The decision to transfer DDF to the Food Bank and to terminate the food recovery and hiring programs was not arrived at easily, we are thrilled that the DDF farming operation will be able to continue to carry out its important mission of strengthening the local food system, using permaculture design to grow no-pesticide fruits and vegetables, supporting the County's award-winning R4H initiative, and making healthy food available to more residents. Goal 1: Strengthen and diversify local food supply chain and community food self-reliance in Ashland/Cherryland by maximizing the use of the community Food Hub and commercial kitchen. (1) During the 4-year grant period, over 100 food systems entrepreneurs participated in the FAM initiative. We have had 93 active entrepreneurs in the kitchen 80 of whom have worked with our Commercial Kitchen Manager to obtain permitting, business licenses and other support to start their businesses. During the course of this grant, 22 of these food systems entrepreneurs participated in the COVID meal delivery program, 22 of the entrepreneurs received scholarship assistance (through grants from the Kaiser Foundation and the Latino Community foundation, toward the purchase of needed equipment, business planning and website development, 3 of the entrepreneurs participated in the summer food delivery program, and are working together to pursue more institutional food contracts through the county's good food purchasing program. (2) Approximately 483 jobs were created/preserved during the grant. 12 jobs were preserved/created at the Food Hub, all of which were hired from our reentry on the job training program. We also developed a re-entry workforce development model, which includes 147 paid on-the-job trainee positions. Food systems entrepreneurs reported approximately 324 jobs created or preserved over the course of the grant period. (3) Currently, there are 89 entrepreneurs paying rent at the facility. These entrepreneurs received free, hands-on support with permitting, business planning, marketing, and other support services to start and grow their businesses. Goal 2: Increase access to delivery markets for small Bay Area food systems businesses. (1) During the grant period, at least 5 local farms sold produce to DSAL for the Food as Rx. initiative. (2) 0 food businesses used FAM delivery during the grant, because we were not able to launch this program before the end of the grant period. (3) Throughout the grant period, DSAL and partners purchased equipment (e.g., a forklift and an additional 40' storage container) to help us expand our food recovery and delivery capacity to keep pace with demand. Goal 3: Increase access to fresh, local produce and other foods for low-income residents, seniors, and the medically vulnerable in Alameda County. (1) DSAL and partners delivered 1,999,310 pounds of food through food recovery and redistribution and 355,982 pounds through the Food as Medicine partnership with ALL IN Alameda County's R4H initiative. (2) The online food purchasing portal, www.shopallineats.com, was launched October 2022 and was effective at efficiently enrolling new participants in the R4H food-as-medicine program, however, DSAL ultimately did not receive approval from USDA for the most crucial element of the plan, which was to allow SNAP/CalFresh recipients to use these benefits to order and pay for food electronically through the portal. And therefore DSAL was not able to leverage the portal to accelerate growth and facilitate online payments as planned. (3) DSAL and the County's Food as Medicine grew throughout the grant period, eventually expanding to include a total of 5 clinics. (Bay Area Community Health in Fremont, LifeLong Medical Care in Berkeley, Native American Health Center in Oakland, La Clinica Health Center in Ashland, and Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in Ashland/Cherryland.) Goal 4: Increase well-being of residents who are food insecure. Our Food as Rx programs partners (R4H and OpenSource Wellness), coordinated with clinical staff from the health clinics to measure the increase in the wellbeing of food-insecure Alameda County residents who participated in the initiative. Pre/post studies by researchers at Stanford University and UCSF of 756 participant surveys showed a 51% increase in weekly minutes of exercise, a 26% increase in daily servings of fruit and vegetables, a 19 point drop in blood pressure, a 43% decrease in depression, and a 41% decrease in anxiety. The researchers did not gather data regarding the reduction in use of emergency services for program participants.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Our work this reporting period has reached our primary target audiences: 1) low-income residents, seniors, and the medically vulnerable in Alameda County; and 2) small Bay Area food systems entrepreneurs. Changes/Problems:On the workforce development side, one of our biggest challenges is that we need drivers, and most of our On The Job Trainees (OJTs) do not have drivers licenses. We need to develop a coordinated process by which OJTs may quickly obtain or renew their driver's licenses by obtaining driver's education, obtaining the necessary identification documents, and/or planning for payment of existing fines or penalties. One of our biggest success stories this quarter was a result of our partnership with Alameda County Social Service Agency (SSA) leadership. One of the biggest barriers for the OJTs is that their new earnings are immediately taken away to cover child support payments. This financial burden can become a disincentive to work. Through a collaborative effort between DSAL and SSA Agency Director Andrea Ford, an exciting policy solution has been negotiated with Child Support Services. A new pilot program is now being tested with current OJT's which delays the payment of child support payments until OJT's finances have stabilized, and then lowers the amount paid to make the payments more sustainable. This policy change encourages OJT's to find employment and to be able to stay employed, while also maintaining their child support obligations for the long term. As a direct result of this pilot program, DSAL is now meeting with Santa Rita Jail, so that this renegotiation of child support payments can be started pre-release. We are grateful for, and proud of, our partnership with SSA which allows for successful problem solving for positive systems change. ? What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We continue to partner closely with the Alameda County Probation Department to fund transitional work placements of the re-entry population through partner organizations on the farm and also into the Food Hub and delivery operation. During the course of this grant, we have brought on 127 new interns and hired 12 interns for full-time jobs at the Food Hub. We completed 23,427 internship and training hours. We currently have 9 reentry interns gaining on-the-job training at the Food Hub. We are also targeting several systems-level shifts to better support the reentry workforce. These initiatives include: • Meeting monthly with staff at Santa Rita Jail, WellPath, and the Social Services Agency to establish a system to enroll people who are incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail in MediCal so they have more of the resources they need when they re-enter their communities and are not as dependent on external community based-organizations (CBOs). These regularly scheduled meetings have been effective for reviewing our progress and troubleshooting barriers we have encountered. • We worked with the Social Services Agency and found a way to give people in reentry a temporary reprieve from automatic payroll deductions when they owe back child support to allow them to build a bit of a financial foundation before beginning payments. There is now an SSA representative that we can refer On the Job Trainees to, so these court-ordered deductions are less likely to disincentivize people from working during a very critical time in their reentry. • Meeting monthly with Probation, Inmate Services, and all 8 of the CBO partners funded by the Probation Department to ensure that reentry and workforce development partnerships continue to run smoothly and any barriers to success get addressed and navigated. We recently provided feedback on the Probation Department's upcoming contract bidding process to address some of these issues. We are also working to ensure that Probation Officers have a better understanding of the services that each CBO provides and the reentry needs of each client so that referrals are more targeted to the individual needs of each client. • SSA staff have made several successful referrals of CalWorks clients to DDF internships and employment at DDF. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? To keep our project and funding partners and the community at large up-to-date on all of our activities, we have been producing a newsletter every two to three weeks during the reporting period. As a key partner in ALL IN Alameda County, we report on our activities at monthly ALL IN Steering Committee meetings, ALL IN Eats meetings, and DSAL Board meetings. We also submit written reports to our many funders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next year, we plan to continue growing our circular food economy throughout Alameda County in a number of ways, including: Supporting partner organizations with the development of new food hubs throughout the county which will enable the food economy to scale and serve exponentially more food-insecure residents, R4H patients, small businesses and re-entry interns. Establish a BIPOC Regenerative Farming Collective as a strategy to grow new and existing farmers so that they can gain regenerative agriculture and Permaculture Design skills that will make them eligible to participate in the revenue from the R4H model. We will also provide collective members access to land on the Union City 10-acre parcel. Work with the county's Health Care Services Agency and Alameda Alliance for Health to add medically supportive foods to the list of reimbursable services under Medi-Cal so that small businesses in the food hubs can also gain access to that revenue stream.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Dig Deep Farms Food Hub continues to serve as the central collection and distribution site for our locally-driven, socially equitable local food production and delivery system. During the first three years of this grant, the Dig Deep Farms Food Hub received, processed, and delivered 2,134,929 pounds of donated and recovered food to affordable housing complexes in Hayward, Cherryland, Ashland, San Lorenzo, and San Leandro neighborhoods. Any leftover food was distributed to local homeless individuals in need. The Dig Deep Farms Food Hub provided 59,822 bags of nutritious food for pick-up and delivery for thousands of low-income Alameda County residents, and over 8,900 families have signed up to receive food from DSAL/Dig Deep Farms. We also continue to provide drive-through food pick-ups on Fridays, serving 200-500 cars each week. DDF produce is now also being sold daily at Kaiser Farmers Market locations in Hayward, San Leandro, Union City, and Fremont (Monday-Thursday), and 3 new CSA subscriptions were purchased from the shopallineats.com platform. Etsub Senshaw, DSAL's Food Recovery Manager, reports that DSAL recovered 1,024,482 pounds of Recovered Food out of the hub this fiscal year. Our Food Recovery program has also added 3 new partnerships on top of its current 150+ partners: Greenway Golf Associates at Corica Park, House of Prayer Ignited in Union City, and Peace Haven in Hayward. DSAL was able to deliver breakfasts, snacks, and desserts to DSAL's youth summer programs, thanks to donations from Daily Bowl, a nonprofit organization that recovers surplus food. There is also more fresh produce available for DSAL to distribute due to weekly donations scheduled with food rescue operation White Pony Express. We currently have 54 active vendors in the food hub kitchen with an additional 25 who are working with our Commercial Kitchen Manager to obtain permitting, business licenses and other support to start their business. During the course of this grant, 11 of these food systems entrepreneurs have participated in the Recipe4Health (R4H, formerly Food as Rx) initiative, and at least 10 jobs were preserved/created at the Food Hub. We also developed a re-entry workforce development model, which includes 47 paid on-the-job trainee positions referred by 8 different CBO partners. In May 2023, the Food Hub officially began our Summer Meal contract with Oakland Unified School District, which is allowing two of our food vendors to prepare meals and snacks for ten summer programs in Oakland. The Food Hub has also been in partnership conversations with the Castro Valley School District and has applied for a Mobile Vending Permit for the City of Oakland, in order to assist the O2 Artisans Aggregate in creating an onsite food vendor center. One of the recent graduates from the kitchen, Thank Que Grill, which specializes in Filipino BBQ, hosted the Grand Opening of their own restaurant the first week of July 2023. DDF is now Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certified, opening the opportunity for future institutional and third-party buyers to purchase DDF produce using scaled wholesale pricing. In addition, DDF is building out a post-harvest/food safety program with both Bay Cities and Daylight Foods. This program will assist DDF with expanding produce sales to potential institutional buyers, local businesses, and other community organizations. Our R4H model continues to support the metabolic health of county residents, filling 41,981 produce prescriptions this reporting period, through a combination of Alameda Alliance for Health Medi-Cal patients home deliveries referred by providers from the Hayward Wellness Center Clinic, the Native American Health Center in East Oakland, Lifelong Medical Center in Berkeley, and the Bay Area Community Health Clinic in Fremont. We also recently began serving Tiburcio Vasquez clinics again with all 5 locations being able to refer patients. Two of the MOU's with these clinics have been executed since the beginning of this grant period. In the first three years of this grant, the R4H program enrolled 2,685 new patients. The R4H program currently has 680 new patients enrolled. The R4H team has been working very closely with our Farmacist, Isabel Perez, and Data Coordinator, Justin Chandler, and Open Source Wellness (OSW) teams to continue to refine our practices and increase enrollments. We have begun to include more personalized texting and adjusted some of our messaging to promote engagement. The R4H program made it possible for patients to be referred more than once in a year, extending produce deliveries and behavioral medicine services. The online food purchasing portal, www.shopallineats.com, was launched in the summer of 2022 and has been efficiently enrolling new participants and allowing ordering and home delivery of fresh produce. Awaiting USDA's final approval, the site will soon allow SNAP/CalFresh recipients to use these benefits to order and pay for food electronically and will support R4H clients to continue eating healthy locally-produced food when their produce prescription runs out. We have not begun offering wellness checks to our R4H clients, but instead have partnered with Open Source Wellness, who now implement and manage this workload along with the providers at the clinics. Our research partners at Stanford University are currently working on a study of the health impacts of our R4H program. We expect the results to be released later in 2023.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our work this reporting period has reached our primary target audiences: 1) low-income residents, seniors, and the medically vulnerable in Alameda County; and 2) small Bay Area food systems entrepreneurs. Changes/Problems:One of the challenges we are facing is receiving referrals from CalWorks for farm interns. To date, only one person has been referred to us through that program. We are hopeful that this will increase as our partnership solidifies, and that these temporary positions will convert to full-time farming positions. We are also looking forward to better serving our interns and staff who are receiving entitlement benefits. SSA has offered to provide us with a calculator which will allow us to determine how much an employee who is receiving benefits (e.g., GA, CalWorks, CalFresh) can work without the income putting their benefits at risk. We have also struggled to secure food procurement contracts from institutional buyers to support our food vendors. For instance, UC Berkeley initially indicated that they would be interested in buying pesto, pasta sauce, and hummus from our vendors, but so far we have not been able to connect with them. This is likely due to institutions' concerns about the cost of locally produced food vs. the rates they can secure from large food distribution companies. We are working with a consultant at Kitchen Table Advisors to strategically connect us to institutional buyers. Our plans to scale the local food economy from farm to fork are ambitious and require many coordinated agencies, systems, and individuals. We are proud of what we have accomplished in just a few years to bring five farm sites into sustainable agricultural production, hire and train dozens of people returning from incarceration, support more than 30 food entrepreneurs to build their businesses, and provide millions of pounds of healthy local food to thousands of Alameda County residents. We continue to face challenges at each stage, but we are committed to our vision and are optimistic about our overall progress and impact. On the workforce side, we are coming up against significant systemic barriers to employment, particularly for people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. People returning home from incarceration are vulnerable to gaps in health care, legal documents such as driver's licenses, substance use issues, and the impact that job-related income can have on their eligibility for entitlement resources such as CalFresh. For instance, if someone makes over a certain threshold of income from employment, they run the risk of losing key benefits that support their stability. We are doing our best to bring key systems players (e.g., Alameda County Social Services Agency, Alameda County Probation Department, Alameda County Workforce Development, reentry CBOs) together to find innovative solutions. On the farming side, we continue to be challenged by permitting delays to build out the farming infrastructure, particularly at the Ardenwood farm site, which has required us to establish an interim solution at the farm stand for our farmers to bring the harvested produce to be washed and stored before going to the food hub. We are not allowed to delay planting on the site because the lease agreement with the East Bay Regional Park District requires Dig Deep Farms to plant out at least 53 acres in this first year. To that end, we have planted out over 30 acres of the site so far, but we have to be able to harvest all of that food to be included in the Recipe4Health patient bags, which requires us to immediately wash and cool it for food safety purposes. Another challenge is identifying new farmers to hire to meet the labor demand that exists. Farming is clearly a very physically demanding job so finding high quality candidates takes time. The existing farm team is working around the clock to meet the goals of the lease but being on the city's timeline for permits makes that all challenging to navigate. At the Masonic Homes site, there have been ongoing delays in getting the water well established, which has slowed down our ability to hire farmers and build out the Black Farmer Collective, because there is nothing to plant until there is water. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We continue to partner closely with the Alameda County Probation Department to fund transitional work placements of the re-entry population through partner organizations on the farm and also into the Food Hub and delivery operation. During the course of this grant, we have brought on 127 new interns and hired 7 interns for full-time jobs at the Food Hub. We completed 23,427 internship and training hours. We currently have 9 reentry interns gaining on-the-job training at the Food Hub. We are also targeting several systems-level shifts to better support the reentry workforce. These initiatives include: Meeting monthly with staff at Santa Rita Jail, WellPath, and the Social Services Agency to establish a system to enroll people who are incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail in MediCal so they have more of the resources they need when they re-enter their communities and are not as dependent on external community based-organizations (CBOs). These regularly scheduled meetings have been effective for reviewing our progress and troubleshooting barriers we have encountered. Working with the Social Services Agency to determine if there is a way to give people in reentry a temporary reprieve from automatic payroll deductions when they owe back child support to allow them to build a bit of a financial foundation before beginning payments. These court-ordered deductions disincentivize people from working during a very critical time in their reentry, which is a strong factor in recidivism. Meeting monthly with Probation, Inmate Services, and all 8 of the CBO partners funded by the Probation Department to ensure that reentry and workforce development partnerships continue to run smoothly and any barriers to success get addressed and navigated. We recently provided feedback on the Probation Department's upcoming contract bidding process to address some of these issues. For instance, CBOs will be required to provide training for their staff in evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques such as motivational interviewing, so they can more effectively support their clients. We are also working to ensure that Probation Officers have a better understanding of the services that each CBO provides and the reentry needs of each client so that referrals are more targeted to the individual needs of each client. SSA staff have made several successful referrals of CalWorks clients to DDF internships and employment at DDF. Working with the Workforce Development Board to launch career pathways for individuals receiving General Assistance. Kimberly Thomas, the Director and Delivery Coordinator and Job Trainee Manager at the Dig Deep Farms Food Hub, has been implementing her newly acquired education in motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy with the On the Job Trainees (OJTs). The OJTs have been working on developing self-esteem and an in-depth understanding of themselves. They are also discussing topics surrounding mental health and money management. This past quarter we provided re-entry interns and other local community members the opportunity to complete the Permaculture Design Certification course. This created a pool of eight people who are now prepared to work as farmers at Dig Deep Farms or become part DSAL's emergent Black Farmer Collective. We have also been working closely with our program partners at the Alameda County Probation Department and the Alameda County Workforce Development Board to expand our reentry program to provide transitional training to at-risk youth; providing them with a career pathway from Alameda County juvenile detention facilities to a paid Dig Deep Farms internship. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To keep our project and funding partners and the community at large up-to-date on all of our activities, we have been producing a newsletter every two to three weeks during the reporting period. As a key partner in ALL IN Alameda County, we report on our activities at monthly ALL IN Steering Committee meetings, ALL IN Eats meetings, and DSAL Board meetings. We also submit written reports to our many funders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next year, we plan to continue growing our circular food economy throughout Alameda County in a number of ways, including: Expanding our farm operations to Fremont and Union City, and hiring 28 new staff to develop these sites. Increasing the capacity of our existing food hub by hiring a Food Hub Manager, an Administrative Assistant, and 1-3 warehouse/logistics positions. Bringing on 50 new farm and food hub job trainees. Identifying sites for two additional food hubs (still TBD, but probably Berkeley and Alameda or Livermore)
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the last year, the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs Activities League (DSAL) has made great strides in building a countywide infrastructure for a circular food economy in Alameda County. We are proud to report some big wins as a result of our efforts. In fall 2021, we completed a business plan to oversee the $6.8 million award we received from the County in the previous reporting period. This business plan outlines the expansion of our circular food economy model as it scales across Alameda County (including East Oakland, Hayward, Alameda, Livermore, Fremont, and Berkeley) over the next five to ten years. The plan includes the establishment of six new food hubs, articulates the level of investment needed moving forward and the return on investment over time. A range of funding requests have been submitted to bring in funds to support the infrastructure build-out for several of the food hubs, and ongoing fund development strategies are being considered to support the capital costs. In deep partnership with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO), the Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA), the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency (HCSA), the Alameda County General Services Agency (GSA), ALL IN Alameda County (ALL IN), and all of the five County Supervisors, this hyper-local food system is a prime example of cross-sector collaboration around an innovative initiative that will result in improved public safety, public health, economic recovery/development, climate justice, and food security. Goal 1: Outcomes: (1) At least (20) food systems entrepreneurs will participate in the FAM initiative (now known as "Recipe4Health") during the course of the grant; (2) At least 40 jobs will be preserved/created during the grant; (3) At least 5 food systems entrepreneurs will pay rent at the Food Hub during the course of the grant. We currently have 54 active vendors in the kitchen with an additional 25 who are working with our Commercial Kitchen Manager, Jenna Smart, to obtain permitting, business licenses and other support to start their business. During the course of this grant, 11 of these food systems entrepreneurs have participated in the Recipe4Health initiative, and at least 10 jobs were preserved/created at the Food Hub. We also developed a re-entry workforce development model, which includes 47 paid on-the-job trainee positions. Goal 2: Outcomes: (1) At least 3 additional area farmers will sell produce to the Food Hub; (2) At least 17 food businesses will use FAM (now known as "Recipe4Health") delivery during the grant. Goal 3: Outcomes: (1) FAM (now known as "Recipe4Health") will deliver at least 1 million pounds of food through food recovery and (Recipe4Health deliveries) during grant period; (2) At least 1,000 food-insecure residents will use Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) to purchase meals and/or produce during each year of the grant period; (3) At least 2,000 residents will purchase food through FAM (now known as "Recipe4Health") delivery; (4) At least 2 MOUs will be executed with additional clinics to support Food as Rx (now known as "Food Farmacies"). Between September 1, 2020 and August 31, 2022, no additional area farmers sold produce to the Food Hub, and none of the food businesses have used Recipe4Health delivery. During the first two years of this grant, the Dig Deep Farms Food Hub received, processed, and delivered 2,134,929 pounds of donated and recovered food to affordable housing complexes in Hayward, Cherryland, Ashland, San Lorenzo, and San Leandro neighborhoods. Any leftover food was distributed to local homeless individuals in need. The Dig Deep Farms Food Hub provided 59,822 bags of nutritious food for pick-up and delivery for thousands of low-income Alameda County residents, and over 8,900 families have signed up to receive food from DSAL/Dig Deep Farms. We also continue to provide drive-through food pick-ups on Fridays, serving 200-500 cars each week. The new online food purchasing portal, www.shopallineats.com, was launched over the summer of 2022. The new portal efficiently enrolls new participants and enables ordering and home delivery of fresh produce, including a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and in the near future, meals prepared by our food vendors. Through this reporting period, we have been waiting on USDA approval to allow SNAP/CalFresh recipients to use these benefits to order and pay for food using EBT. Once that approval is received, we will be able to report on the number of food insecure residents who have used EBT to purchase meals and/or produce. Recipe4Health promotes the use of medically supportive food in healthcare clinics. Urban farmers, who use regenerative practices, like Dig Deep Farms will play an increasingly important role as the demand for medically supportive food grows. Since the beginning of this grant period, our Recipe4Health (R4H) model has continued to support the metabolic health of county residents, filling 41,981 produce prescriptions in the 2021-22 reporting period. The Alameda Alliance is made up of clinically integrated Recipe4Health sites, which include the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Native American Health Center, LifeLong Medical Center, Alameda Health System-Hayward Wellness, and Bay Area Community Health. Food is distributed through a combination of Alameda Alliance home deliveries to patients at the Hayward Wellness Center Clinic, the Native American Health Center in East Oakland, Lifelong Medical Center in Berkeley, and our newest program at Bay Area Community Health Clinic in Fremont. Two of the MOU's with these clinics have been executed since the beginning of this grant period. We also provided 100 produce prescription bags through bulk deliveries to the Native American Health Center every month during the reporting period. In June 2022, we began delivering more than 120 bulk prescriptions monthly to La Clinica San Antonio, and have added a new clinic, Newark Wellness Clinic, which will begin accepting prescription deliveries in the fall of 2022. In the first two years of this grant, the R4H program enrolled 2,685 new patients. Goal 4: Outcomes: (1) The FAM (now known as "Recipe4Health") team will provide at least 500 wellness checks/yr starting in 2021; (2) At least a 5% reduction in use of emergency services for metabolic diseases for participants in Food as Rx (now known as "Recipe4Health"). We have not yet begun offering wellness checks to our Recipe4Health clients. To do this effectively, we would need to collaborate with ALL IN staff as well as clinical staff from the health clinics, and we are still exploring whether we have the organizational capacity to implement and manage this workload. Our research partners at Stanford University are currently working on a study of the health impacts of our Recipe4Health program. We expect the results to be released sometime in 2023.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Our work this reporting period has reached our primary target audiences: 1) low-income residents, seniors, and the medically vulnerable in Alameda County; and 2) small Bay Area food systems entrepreneurs. Changes/Problems:One of the biggest challenges during the reporting period was scaling our operations without sufficient technical and administrative staffing. We struggled with consistent data entry, effective customer service, and operations administration. With the gaps in infrastructure, central administrative staff was pulled away from their regular duties to fill in. We have learned the importance of right-sizing our staff as we grow. We are currently hiring a Food Systems Director, an Internship and Volunteer Coordinator, an HR/Restorative Justice Manager, a Food Hub Administrator, a Food Recovery Coordinator, a Food as Rx Coordinator, and front-of-the-house staff. Our operations and data management needs have outgrown spreadsheets so we are transitioning to a Monday.com database. The transition is a heavy lift and has been challenging given the lack of administrative capacity, but it's already helping to have a more robust system to manage our operations and data. We also struggled with a lack of office space and storage at the Food Hub. We recently repurposed an office trailer from the soccer park we recently closed and have added new coolers and freezers as well. Farm managers are also building an operations center at the Food Hub. On occasion, we saw behavioral problems arise from job trainees who weren't experienced with the norms and culture of the workforce. Our driver manager works with case managers to address issues as they arise, but we aim to bring on an HR professional with restorative justice experience to help manage our growing workforce, and assist staff on the ground to constructively address issues that arise with both job trainees and DSAL staff. As mentioned above, the development of our online ordering and delivery system has been slowed down because we are not yet authorized to accept SNAP payments. We hope to have this issue resolved in the next few months. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In the last 12 months, the county provided funding for 14 new temporary Food Recovery Specialist/Driver jobs, which significantly expanded our delivery capacity and ability to reach even more families and individuals with much-needed food. We are partnering closely with the Probation Department to fund these transitional work placements of the re-entry population through partner organizations (e.g., BOSS, La Familia, Lao Family, and other CBOs), including drivers, farmers, and Food Hub workers. The success of this re-entry workforce development model is resulting in additional steps to establish 12 Alameda County positions within the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Youth and Family Services Bureau unit to allow the transitional worksite clients the ability to graduate into county jobs with full benefits and retirement. We are currently seeking funding to hire the top performing temporary drivers into permanent positions. In addition to the new driver positions, we have continued to partner with multiple CBOs to provide re-entering residents with a six-week Urban Farmer Training paid internship, which generally runs simultaneously with the Dig Deep Farms Permaculture Design Certificate course. The Urban Farmer Training provides participants with a hands-on experience of urban farming from seed-to-table. Specifically, Urban Farmer trainees learn about seed germination, plant propagation, preparing and planting crops, crop planning and production, food as medicine, and urban farm businesses. The Dig Deep Farms Permaculture Design course consists of a minimum of 72 hours of lecture material. A key focus is on building comprehension of the science of Permaculture Design and how it can be applied to specific geographic and climatic regions, particularly the SF/Bay Area urban environments and communities. Participants work collaboratively on a permaculture design project throughout the course and present their design together at the end of the course. We have expanded our Urban Farmer Training internship program to include additional youth through the Alameda County Office of Education and women from the District Attorney's Family Justice Center. We also piloted a kitchen internship program, including classes taught by Food Hub staff and entrepreneurs renting space in our commercial kitchen. Interns gain hands-on experience assisting cooks in the kitchen, processing food through the Food Hub, and distributing food during our food drive. Our goal is to have 50 interns go through our Urban Farming and kitchen internships in 2021-2022. Notably, we ensure that all interns who are eligible for CalWorks assistance have signed up. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To keep our project and funding partners and the community at large up-to-date on all of our activities, we have been producing a newsletter every two to three weeks during the reporting period. As a key partner in ALL IN Alameda County, we report on our activities at monthly ALL IN Steering Committee meetings, ALL IN Eats meetings, and DSAL Board meetings. We also submit written reports to our many funders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next year, we plan to continue growing our circular food economy throughout Alameda County in a number of ways, including: Hiring a Deputy Food Systems Director to oversee our work and work closely with our partners throughout the county. Hire a Small Business Liaison to coordinate with food entrepreneurs and large institutions on food procurement contracts. Developing and implementing a new web- and app-based food ordering and delivery system to facilitate the purchase of healthy, fresh local food using SNAP funds. Expanding our farm operations to Fremont and Union City, and hiring 28 new staff to develop these sites. Increasing the capacity of our existing food hub by hiring a Food Hub Manager, an Administrative Assistant, and 1-3 warehouse/logistics positions. Bringing on 50 new farm and food hub job trainees. Identifying sites for two additional food hubs (still TBD, but probably Berkeley and Alameda or Livermore) Launching additional Food as Medicine programs at Hayward Wellness Center, Bay Area Community Health, and La Clinica Health Center.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the last year, the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs Activities League (DSAL) has made great strides in building a countywide infrastructure for a circular food economy in Alameda County and we have seen some big wins as a result of our efforts. We are pleased to report the Alameda County Board of Supervisors recently approved $6.8 million in funding to support the scale-up of the food economy. This incredible infusion of resources will cover the infrastructure and staffing needed to increase our farming operation by up to 100 acres -- allowing us to add up to 90 acres at the Ardenwood Farm in Fremont, and another 10 acres at our new farm at the Masonic Homes of Union City. DSAL was instrumental in securing these lease agreements and provided strategic input to stakeholders involved in the funding decision. The additional support will enable us to work with partners to establish two new Food Hubs, develop technological systems that will allow online coordination and purchasing (including using SNAP benefits), increase administrative oversight, and more efficiently deploy resources and partners in the larger food network. Goal 1: Strengthen and diversify local food supply chain and community food self-reliance in Ashland/Cherryland by maximizing the use of the community Food Hub and commercial kitchen. Outcomes: (1) At least (20) food systems entrepreneurs will participate in the FAM initiative during the course of the grant; (2) At least 40 jobs will be preserved /created during the grant; (3) At least (5) food systems entrepreneurs will pay rent at Food Hub during the course of the grant. To provide more healthy food to communities in need, we have built partnerships to increase our food recovery and delivery capacity, particularly regarding food storage, delivery vehicles, and staffing. Currently more than 30 people are renting kitchen space at the food hub, many of whom are new entrepreneurs who are taking advantage of this community resource. We anticipate that the food entrepreneur pipeline will significantly increase once we hire our new Deputy Director of Food Systems this fall. Our Emergency Food Program helped create/preserve an average of 4.5 jobs per vendor, and over 30 vendors participated in the program. We have also developed a re-entry workforce development model, which includes 50 paid temporary positions and paid internships annually. In January, 2021, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed a countywide Good Food Purchasing policy. The first institutions seeking to purchase under these new guidelines are the Sheriff's Office and Probation. As we prepare to partner with these agencies and other large institutional buyers on their local food procurement goals, we are actively engaging some of our food entrepreneurs to build capacity to fulfill large scale institutional contracts. We will hire a new Small Business Liaison this fall who will be responsible for building out this work by engaging fledgling entrepreneurs and coordinating the institutional buying program. Goal 2: Increase access to delivery markets for small Bay Area food systems businesses. Outcomes: (1) At least (3) additional area farmers will sell produce to the Food Hub; (2) At least (17) food businesses will use FAM delivery during the grant. Since the start of the grant, two local farms have started selling their produce to us for the Food as Medicine program. In the last year, we also purchased a forklift and an additional 40' storage container to help us expand our food recovery capacity. The storage container will increase our storage capacity by 50%, and the forklift will double the number of routes our trucks can complete. We have not yet started FAM delivery yet because we are still figuring out how to enable SNAP payments online for delivery. We have written a letter to the USDA indicating our interest in participating in the pilot program operating at Amazon and Walmart that allows online SNAP purchasing, and are waiting to hear back. We have also hired a consultant to help us solve this issue and hope to make progress in the next six to nine months. We know that there are many vendors who would love to take advantage of the service if we can resolve these issues. Goal 3: Increase access to fresh, local produce and other foods for low-income residents, seniors, and the medically vulnerable in Alameda County. Outcomes: (1) FAM will deliver at least (1,000,000) lbs. of food through food recovery and Food as Rx during grant period; (2) At least 1,000 food-insecure residents will use EBT to purchase meals and/or produce during each year of the grant period; (3) At least 2,000 residents will purchase food through FAM delivery; (4) At least 2 MOUs will be executed with additional clinics to support Food as Rx. Our Food Hub has been instrumental as a central collection and distribution point for our food pickup and delivery services, providing 87,162 bags of nutritious food for pickup and delivery for thousands of low-income Alameda County residents during the reporting period. Over 2,900 families have signed up to receive food from DSAL/Dig Deep Farms during the COVID pandemic. Our Emergency Food Production program has allowed us to engage 30 meal vendors and other partners to prepare 316,107 meals picked up or delivered to the doorsteps of vulnerable, low income residents throughout San Lorenzo, San Leandro, Cherryland, Ashland, Hayward, El Sabronte, Castro Valley, Oakland, Union City, Alameda, and Fremont. In addition to deliveries, we have provided a drive-through food pick up on Fridays serving 200-500 cars each week. Food Hub staff work diligently to package the meals in temperature-controlled bags and load up each vehicle with the appropriate quantity of meals for each dispatch list and bundle those meals with shelf-stable items from the Alameda County Community Food Bank and produce from Dig Deep Farms as possible, or USDA-funded produce boxes. During the reporting period, our program has received and delivered 1,537,848 pounds of donated and recovered food to Hayward, Cherryland, Ashland, San Lorenzo, and San Leandro neighborhoods, specifically to affordable housing complexes. Any leftover food is distributed to local homeless individuals in need. This fall, we will sign MOU's and launch three new FAM prescription programs at Hayward Wellness Center in Hayward, Bay Area Community Health in Fremont, and La Clinica Health Center in Ashland. Goal 4: Increase well-being of residents who are food insecure. Outcomes: (1) The FAM team will provide at least 500 wellness checks/yr starting in 2021; (2) At least a 5% reduction in use of emergency services for metabolic diseases for participants in Food as Rx. Through our Food as Medicine program, we filled 18,773 produce prescriptions during the reporting period through a combination of bulk delivery to the Hayward Wellness Center Clinic and home deliveries to patients from other local clinics. The new delivery model improved the Food as Medicine prescription redemption rate from approximately 65% to 85%. Currently, over 500 patients per week are receiving 16 doses of produce over the course of 16 weeks which is resulting in significant health outcomes connected to diet-related conditions. Scaling from the current three clinics up to nine will require DDF's ability to grow enough food to meet that demand. We have not yet begun offering wellness checks to our FAM clients. To do this effectively, we would need to collaborate with ALL IN staff as well as clinical staff from the health clinics, and we are still exploring whether we have the organizational capacity to implement and manage this workload. Our research partners at Stanford University are currently working on a study of the health impacts of our FAM program. We expect the results to be released sometime in 2023
Publications
|
|