Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:This project serves low-income residents of East San José, with particular focus on those residing in the 95116, 95122, and 95127 zip codes. East San José's story highlights key roles that immigrants played in the growth of the region. Enduring redlining, segregation, congestion, smog, and a disproportionate impact from COVID, East San José is now home to a diverse, low-income community of first-, second-, and third-generation working-class immigrants. Residents of the Mayfair neighborhood - where Veggielution is located - are 60% Latinx, 30% Asian, 6% White, 2% Black, and 2% mixed race. In Mayfair, 49% are foreign born, 52% speak Spanish at home, 37% did not finish high school. The average median household income within the seven census tracts intersecting the project area is $78,339 (ACS 2021 5Y) - 37% lower than San Jose's ($125,075). Additionally, the project area has a greater population density when compared to the City (13,641 vs. 5,684 residents per square mile); 19.6% live in poverty (vs. 9.1% in San Jose and 7.9% in SCC); 84.7% of students in 95116 public schools are eligible for free or reduced lunch programs (https://www.zipdatamaps.com/95116). While the East San José families and individuals have historically been the recipients of many programs and services, most fail to target the root causes of inequities in our communities. Changes/Problems:While Veggielution has successfully increased its weekly produce box distribution to 500 boxes per week due to decreased federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, we expect this program to sundown with the conclusion of County grants that fund this program at the end of October 2024. With this understanding, we have learned two critical components: 1) due to decreased federal funding, we have pivoted to submit and receive funding from state-funded initiatives to continue providing produce boxes to underserved communities, but on a smaller scale and 2) these programs are critical to the East San Jose community and advocacy work around healthy food accessibility is essential. Due to the continued need for fresh produce accessibility to support both the residents and the small farmers, Veggielution is in the process of developing an impactfuladvocacy group around these topics, called the Resident Advisory Committee to collaborate with Santa Clara County's Public Health Department, Office of Sustainability, and the Office of the Executive's Food System's department to open conversations and share challenges and successes of what a stronger, more resilient food system looks like. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In Year 3, the farm team focused on preparations for their harmonized Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) audit in April 2024. This entailed sitting down as a team and assessing the Harmonized GAP Standard, to create a roadmap and task list to prepare for the audit. As a result - and with the support of the Agriculture and Land Based Training Association (ALBA) in Salinas - we were able to create logs for harvesting, cleaning and sanitation, visitor sign-ins, and seeding and planting, and began implementing them to create a record for our Food Safety Binder. We also compiled food safety documents and agreements from our service providers to ensure that they agree to adhere to our food safety policies, and that the products we purchase from them are food safe. We also created and edited a Farm Food Safety plan that outlines our food safety policies and procedures, and included it in our Farm Food Safety Binder, along with the above documents and procedures. This effort was a huge lift and learning experience for our team, and prepared us well to not only conduct our first GAP Audit in April, but to also begin and continue to implement food safety procedures and policies at the farm. Veggielution successfully passed the audit, which assessed both our documents and practices, and are now Harmonized GAP Food Safety Certified. Our Eastside Grown food entrepreneurship program continued its training of 20 new participants with over 75 hours training. The trainings were provided by many local businesses with firsthand experience with first-generation immigrant entrepreneurs. During the 8-months training, the participants learned about financial literacy, marketing, different food business options, and developed their business plan, which was the first time for them to professionally envision, formalize, and assess their business ideas. 100% of the participants completed the Food Safety Certification and 94% became certified Food Managers. At the close of the training, Veggielution hosted a resource fair in collaboration with 6 local agencies who brought specific business development resources, including business accounting, 1-on-1 technical assistance, business licensing, and marketing services. Each graduate then presented their business and connected directly with resources that will assist to bring their business plans into fruition. During the course of the reporting period, Veggielution provided an additional 250 hours of 1-on-1 and small group coaching, hosted 6 local economic growth community events, and completed the recruitment and onboarding of a new cohort of 20 food entrepreneurs for the program year 2024-2025. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through our partnership with the other four agencies of the Sí Se Puede Collective, Veggielution leverages a variety of communication channels to disseminate what we are learning within our community. Some of these channels include our outreach committee meetings, Eastside magazine (where several of our food entrepreneurs and the training curriculum have been highlighted), social media, and through direct calls to individuals and families made by our staff Community Navigator. Veggielution's First Saturday events have continued to be a success within the community and the Bay Area at large. During the reporting period, nearly 2,000 residents attended our monthly community engagement events to learn about Veggielution's impact on the community, while enjoying healthy cooking classes, outdoor physical activity classes, workshops focused on food systems and climate resilience, as well as volunteer opportunities. During First Saturdays, Veggielution also engaged and provided farm tours to nearly 150 funders, City and County representatives, and Foundation representatives. Veggielution also regularly attends a number of grassroots coalition meetings, including Santa Clara County Food System Alliance and the South Bay Food Justice Collaborative. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, Veggielution expects to expand their farmstand and healthy cooking classes at Grail Family Services (GFS). GFS is another nonprofit organization in East San Jose who partners with families, school, and communities to promote children's success and well-being. As the need for healthy food accessibility is critial in early childhood, Veggielution and GFS has partnered to develop a new farmstand at their newly established Family Resource Center twice a month. The farmstand will provide organic, locally-sourced produce to East San Jose family members, while being an opportunity to increase awareness of CalFresh and importance of supporting local farms. Additionally, Veggielution will provide 5 healthy cooking classes to GFS program particiapnts annually. These cooking classes will focus on culturally-relevant produce and dishes, while education the participants on the importance of nutrition in early childhood development. These classes will be taught by Veggielution's Eastside Grown food entrepreneurs. Veggielution will also expand their produce box distribution program. During the grant period, Veggielution offered up to 500 produce boxes on a weekly basis to low-income, underserved community members living in qualified census tracts. Starting November, Veggielution will provide 100 produces boxes weekly to East San Jose residents with children 0-5 years old, to ensure easy access to fresh produce during their critical physical, mental, and emotional growth periods. Veggielution will also strengthen and expand on our collaboration with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley (local food bank that serves Santa Clara County and San Mateo County) as we prepare 600 weekly produce boxes for underserved, low-income residents of Santa Clara and San Mateo County. All of the produce for these produce boxes will be procured and purchased from small, BIPOC farms in the Santa Clara Valley. During the next reporting period, Veggielution will also be launching a worker-owned foor cooperative. The cooperative is made-up of three Eastside Grown food entrepreneurship program graduates. Since March 2024, they have been receiving training on cooperative models, business plan development, and increasing exposure to the importance of food cooperatives through research and collaboration with Santa Clara University. During the first year of the cooperative, Veggielution will have a representative to ensure financial and marketing success as they develop contracts with businesses to provide catering and nutrition education curriculums. Once the cooperative launches in Spring 2025, they will provide healthy cooking classes during Veggielution's First Saturday events while using and promoting produce from local farms in the Santa Clara Valley. In our goal to ensure sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices on our land, Veggielution will be undergoing a winter recess through cover cropping all of our fields. The cover crop will improve the life and sustainability of the soil, mitigate climate change, restore biodiversity, and enhace the local ecosystem. While the fields are resting, the farm team will me planning their annual planting schedule and improving our volunteer program to further increase community engagement and educational opportunities.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 3, Veggielution has continued production in our 4 acre production fields to provide low-income residents of East San Jose with organic, nutritious produce. We also expanded our fruit orchard by planting a total of 72 citrus trees of various varieites, which will provide our community with diverse stonefruit and citrus fruits options, as well as increased educational opportunities. The orchard also added space for rest and shade within the orchard with installation of decomposed granite seating space, along with 7 rehabilitated picnic tables. Through our Eastside Connect program, Veggielution also distributed 20,161 produce boxes to East San Jose residents living in Qualified Census Tracts. Weekly produce boxes were provided via pick-up at the farm. The produce boxes contained locally-sourced, culturally relevant produce from 12 small, BIPOC farms from Santa Clara Valley, many of which are female-owned, resulting in $442,672.55 reimvested back into the local food system. The weekly on-site pick up also provided an oppportunity to increase marketing opportunities for nutritional cooking classes, community resources on food accessibility, CalFresh information and sign-ups. Our Eastside Grown food entrepreneurship program graduated 17 new East San Jose food entrepreneurs. This cohort received 75 hours of workshop training, 100% of participants completed the Food Safety Certification, 100% of the participants completed their business plans, and 94% recevied a Food Managers certificate. Additionally, 250 hours of 1-on-1 coaching were provided to new and past Eastside Grown participants and $14,000 seed money were distributed to headstart their food businesses. In August 2024, a new cohort of 20 food entrepreneurs were welcomed. A total of 116 community members participated in our monthly nutrition and food-prep education cooking classes (Cocina). These classes were taught by Eastside Grown graduates. In Year 3, Veggielution hired a full-time Cooperative Development Manager to increase local economic growth by developing a work-owned food cooperative, in partnership with Santa Clara County and Santa Clara University. The cooperative supports the advancement of Santa Clara County's Food System Work plan to build a stronger regional food economy and to support food justice and food sovereignty through education about the root causes of inequites in the food system. Through train-the-trainer curriculum provided by Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) - an organization that advances the worker cooperative field in order to create a fairer economy - the Cooperative team has been providing training to 8 individuals who are interested in opening a cooperative in April 2025. Santa Clara University's Climateand Food Justice Program has also initiated a student-led research that will develop a public dashboard regarding the challenges and potential for a stronger local food systerm, including the impact of worker-owned cooperatives. Veggielution has also continued the work with Urban Growers Network (UGN), which consists of 8 local urgan agriculutre organizations working together to build a stronger community around gardening, food accessibility, and food advocacy. In Year 3, UGN organized a District 2 County Board Supervisor Candidate Forum that focused on crucial food policies. The event was attended by over 50 community members. Additionally, UGN has intiated conversations and plans to convert an unused 30-acre plot south of San Jose International Airport into a community food hub, in partnership with San Jose Conservation Corp and the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy. The park will provoide community gardens, farmstands, history of agriculture in Silicon Valley, and a safe space for community to gather.
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:This project serves low-income residents of East San José, with particular focus on those residing in the 95116, 95122, and 95127 zip codes. East San José's story highlights key roles that immigrants played in the growth of the region. Enduring redlining, segregation, congestion, smog, and a disproportionate impact from COVID, East San José is now home to a diverse, low-income community of first-, second-, and third-generation working-class immigrants. Residents of the Mayfair neighborhood - where Veggielution is located - are 60% Latinx, 30% Asian, 6% White, 2% Black, and 2% mixed race. In Mayfair, 49% are foreign born, 52% speak Spanish at home, 37% did not finish high school. The average median household income within the seven census tracts intersecting the project area is $78,339 (ACS 2021 5Y) - 37% lower than San Jose's ($125,075). Additionally, the project area has a greater population density when compared to the City (13,641 vs. 5,684 residents per square mile); 19.6% live in poverty (vs. 9.1% in San Jose and 7.9% in SCC); 84.7% of students in 95116 public schools are eligible for free or reduced lunch programs (https://www.zipdatamaps.com/95116). While the East San José families and individuals have historically been the recipients of many programs and services, most fail to target the root causes of inequities in our communities. ? Changes/Problems:While California had experienced extreme drought conditions over the last 5 years, in the winter of 2023, California experienced torrential rain and atmospheric rivers that resulted in wind gusts over 60 mph and widespread flooding in the Bay Area, including at Veggielution. Geographically, Veggielution is located in a class F floodplain zone causing many of the fields to become flooded, which resulted in the destruction of all of the produce that were planted in October and November 2022 for winter harvest. Additionally, due to our soil being very clay heavy, the floodwater stayed stagnant for weeks resulting in further compaction of the soil, which delayed our April/May 2023 planting, resulting in a missed peak summer harvest. Due to the flooding, we relied more heavily on purchasing from local farmers for the farm boxes, while increased partnerships were forged, this led to increased, unforeseen expenses. Due to changes in our initial plan for nutrition and food prep education activities, as well as farm box distribution at the School of Arts and Culture, we have not needed to purchase a refrigerated box truck for transportation. After discussing other options to utilize the funds to increase farm production and quality of produce, the team collectively decided to utilize the funds for a robotic harvester and electric Gator cart. These changes - once authorized - will allow for more efficient harvesting and field maintenance, as well as quicker delivery of farm boxes from the cooler to the pick-up location, which will be helpful as we increase our weekly distribution to 500 farm boxes. Purchase of the robotic harvester will also increase community engagement with innovative workshops and demonstration opportunities to increase awareness of environmentally friendly and efficient farm tools. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the last 12 months, Veggielution's Eastside Grown Food Entrepreneurship Program participants have had the opportunity to receive additional training and professional development through Prosperity Labs. They have provided Eastside Grown graduates with an inclusive environment that recognizes the unique challenges faced by minority businesses and historically disinvested communities through 1-on-1 financial and computer literacy training. Veggielution has also strengthened our partnership with Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) through joint Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) training that the farm team participated in in October 2022. Through this training, Veggielution has continually improved farm operations to ready themselves for a November 2023 mock audit with ALBA, which will further assist in preparing for an official audit in 2024. In Spring 2023, Veggielution - in support of Santa Clara Valley's Open Space Authority - initiated the Urban Growers Network (UGN), which consists of seven other grassroot urban agriculture organizations. UGN addresses the need for community-based food and environmental organizations to better coordinate ourselves to further develop an equitable food system that positively impacts our low-income communities. Veggielution has also actively initiated and analyzed a Food Hub Feasibility Study to better address county-wide food insecurity, food swamps, opportunities for food entrepreneurs and employment, with an overarching goal to support a network of small, local farmers in the Santa Clara region by growing partnerships with allied organizations to build stronger, more resilient local food systems and creative ways of addressing food insecurity in the community. Through interviews and surveys facilitated by Veggielution staff and completed by farmers, purchasers, partners, and community members, we were able to determine the levels of interest and opportunities available to take the next step to conceptualize a San Jose Food Hub. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through our partnership with the other four agencies of the Sí Se Puede Collective, Veggielution leverages a variety of communication channels to disseminate what we are learning within our community. Some of these channels include our outreach committee meetings, Eastside magazine (where several of our food entrepreneurs and the training curriculum have been highlighted), social media, and through direct calls to individuals and families made by our staff Community Navigator. Veggielution also regularly attends a number of grassroots coalition meetings, including Santa Clara County Food System Alliance and the South Bay Food Justice Collaborative. During the grant reporting period, we have also met with local Council Members, County Supervisors, State Assembly Members, and Congressman to share information about the work we are doing. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period (September 1, 2023-August 31, 2024), we will fully expand our food box distribution to 500 boxes weekly. In December 2023, the farm box distribution will be transferred to the Organizing and Advocacy team, which will increase resource sharing within the community, increasing overall community health. Through our membership and collaboration with the Si Se Puede Collective, we will be able to provide participants of the farm box program with resources in various issues including: housing, arts and culture, healthcare, childcare, immigration documentation and nutritious food access. With the addition of a new Farm Coordinator, we will increase greenhouse production by installation of the overhead watering system. We will also be able to improve production on all of our fields with quarterly soil testing to determine the health and needs of our soil. With continued support by ALBA, Veggielution will have a GAP audit runthrough in November 2023 to determine what additional improvements need to be made on the farm before having an official audit completed within the next reporting period. Our current cohort of 20 Eastside Grown participants is expected to graduate in March 2024 after completion of the 8-month curriculum. We recently secured additional funding from Santa Clara County - in partnership with Santa Clara University and Democracy at Work Institute - to further continue local economic development support for previous cohort graduates as they continue to build their food businesses and establish a food co-op within San Jose. We will continue to share nutrition and food-prep information via monthly cooking classes at Educare and through our First Saturday Cocina program at Emma Prusch Farm Park. We continue to work closely with our grassroots, local government, and community residents to disseminate (and invite input on) the results of our work.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year Two, Veggielution has increased production acreage from 1 production field to 4 production fields, which totals to approximately 4 acres. With an additional hire of a Farm Coordinator, we have been able to increase production within these fields and now have the bandwidth to manage our greenhouse more efficiently. With a partnership with Z-best, we have successfully amended all 4 acres of fields with organic, locally-sourced compost (a total of 108 cubic yards) to improve the quality and productivity of the soil. Over the last 12 months, our Eastside Connect (Food Sovereignty Program) successfully provided 18,939 no-charge, weekly produce boxes to the most in-need residents in east San Jose. Qualifications were determined whether the participants resided within Qualified Census Tracts (QCT) determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development within neighboring zip codes of 95116, 95122, and 95127. The produce boxes contained organic, locally-sourced items, along with a grain and protein source. We also increased the number of BIPOC-owned local farmers we purchase from on a weekly/bi-weekly basis from 6 to 10 farms, reinvesting over $330,000 back into our local farming system. In September 2022, Veggielution broke ground to install an off-the-grid solar panel, which powers the cooling shed where the produce boxes are stored. This new solar panel-cooling shed system - completed in June 2023 - allows us to centralize the harvest-to-packing process, improving food safety and maintaining the highest quality produce. The system also allows us to increase our weekly distribution to 500 boxes weekly, which is a goal we are expecting to reach by Spring 2024. For our Eastside Grown (Food Entrepreneurship Program), we have continued to work with the most recent graduates by providing mini-grants to financially and logistically support their business foundations by assisting with permitting, supply acquisition, marketing, and resource sharing. Through these efforts, the Jobs-to-Grow program has produced: 7 catering businesses, 2 farmers market vendors, 4 Cottage Food operations, and 1 MEHKOs business (Micro-Enterprise Home Kitchen Operations). In August 2022, we initiated a new cohort of 20 community members as they participate in an 8-months curriculum in food entrepreneurship.
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Between September 1, 2021 and August 31, 2022, Veggielution distributed 14,994 boxes of local, organic produce to low-income households in East San José. We defined East San Jose residents as people living in the following zip codes: 95116, 95122, and 95127. During the grant period we hosted 7 community cooking classes to a total of 164 diverse San José residents and engaged nearly 100 volunteers at our farm. The Eastside Grown Program food entrepreneurship program reached 37 East San Jose residents interested in starting or growing their food business. All our program participants identify as Latinx and 95% indicate Spanish as their preferred language. Similarly, 95% of our program participants are women. In terms of income, over 70% indicate that their combined household income is below $60,000. Similarly, about 65% of program participants indicate that they are currently working and approximately 35% of them declare taxes as the head of household. Changes/Problems:The primary change to our project plan during this reporting period was the decision to shift our nutrition and food prep education activities from La Plaza at the School of Arts and Culture to Educare Silicon Valley. This change was made primarily due to the continuing challenges posed by COVID-19 and its impact on La Plaza as a public (City of San José) space. In addition to their team's willingness to be an additional farm box pick up site, Educare offers the exciting opportunity for food entrepreneurs to work onsite in a commercial kitchen, adding a valuable learning component. The School of Arts and Culture continues to serve as a food distribution point for 500 households per month. Both locations are located within our target zip codes. As such, this change, while unexpected, allows for even more outreach to low-income food insecure residents. One problem that our farm operations team has encountered is a County quarantine related to the Oriental Fruit Fly. The impact has been that since late last Summer, we have been unable to move from our location at Emma Prusch Farm Park a significant amount of produce that is affected by this pest. As a result, we've had to buy in more produce from other farmers as well as shift our field rotation to include other crops. Early indications point to the quarantine being lifted in June 2022.We have worked with a professional evaluator to create a tracking tool to monitor our progress toward farm box distribution goals over time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?First and foremost, the opportunity to work with a professional evaluator has already provided a valuable professional development opportunity for our team. As we continue to work with the evaluator over the grant period, our skills will grow and impact many other areas of our work as well. The project has also brought us in contact with a number of new partners who are providing us training and education about Cottage Food Law, worker cooperative development, and CalFresh enrollment. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through our partnership with the other four agencies of the Sí Se Puede Collective, Veggielution leverages a variety of communication channels to disseminate what we are learning within our community. Some of these channels include our outreach committee meetings, Eastside magazine (where several of our food entrepreneurs and the training curriculum have been highlighted), social media, and through direct calls to individuals and families made by our staff Community Navigator. Veggielution also regularly attends a number of grassroots coalition meetings, including Santa Clara County Food System Alliance and the South Bay Food Justice Collaborative. Our food distribution staff helped to produce a video that was shared at a recent CAFF (California Alliance with Family Farmers) conference as well. During the grant reporting period, we have also met with local Councilmembers, County Supervisors, State Assembly Members, and Congressman to share information about the work we are doing. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period (September 1, 2022-August 31, 2023), we will fully expand our farm field production by 1 acre and replace our overhead watering systems in the greenhouses to expand our capacity for food distribution from 300 to 400 farm boxes per week. To ensure safer and more efficient distribution, we will initiate our first Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) audit and purchase a new delivery truck. We plan to graduate a new cohort of around 20 participants through our Eastside Grown food entrepreneur training program. Now that we have developed the Cottage Food Law curriculum component, food entrepreneur program graduates will be invited to take the next step by certifying their own home kitchens to produce value-added products. We have secured additional funding from Santa Clara County and the Latino Community Foundation to provide mini grants to these program graduates as they grow their businesses. We'll begin to introduce these value added products, as well as products offered by other local farms, into our farm stand locations beginning in Spring 2023. We will continue to share nutrition and food-prep information via monthly cooking classes at Educare and through our First Saturday program at Emma Prusch Farm Park. We will initiate our work with Kitchen Table Advisors, seeking to add 3-5 new farmers to our supplier network in the next year. Finally, we will continue to develop and improve our evaluation methodology with the evaluation consultant. We continue to work closely with our grassroots, local government, and community residents to disseminate (and invite input on) the results of our work.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have purchased tractor implements that are already being used to expand field production in order to ramp up food distribution to 300 weekly farm boxes by the end of Year 1. We have hired a Program Coordinator: Food Distribution who is working closely with our Program Manager: Food Distribution to expand our farm product marketing outreach to more food-insecure East San José residents. Our distribution sites include Veggielution's farm stand at Emma Prusch Farm Park and our newly opened demonstration garden in SoFA Pocket Park. We are currently working with 20 low-income food entrepreneurs to participate in this year's Eastside Grown food entrepreneur training program as part of the Sí Se Puede Collective's pilot Jobs to Grow initiative. We have also built a new partnership with Educare Silicon Valley, located just 1.5 miles from Veggielution's location at Emma Prusch Farm Park. Educare California at Silicon Valley serves the Santee community in East San Jose. Santee is one of the lowest-income, highest need areas in Silicon Valley. It has a history of gang violence and has a court injunction for gang-related activity. Families at Santee face complex cultural, linguistic, financial and affordable housing barriers. In terms of demographics, 76.3% of Santee's residents identify as Latino/Hispanic, 22.5% as Asian, and 1.3% biracial/multi-racial. At this location, Veggielution has introduced one additional farm box distribution point and in partnership with our Eastside Grown program graduates, we began offering nutrition and food-prep education via cooking demonstrations in August 2022. These cooking classes will be offered in addition to the monthly Veggielution Cocina cooking series the first Saturday of each month on the farm. We have retained a professional evaluation consultant and kicked off the first meeting in October 2021. Our project team has been meeting every two weeks with the consultant to clarify our goals and timeline, create our evaluation metrics, and build a more robust data collection approach
Publications
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