This Q&A is part of a series highlighting the work of the 2020 Funds to Feed Grantees, community organizations who provided critical food during the COVID-19 pandemic. Answers have been edited for clarity and length.
Orchard Community Learning Center shared the impact of their Funds to Feed project with LISC.
What was your organization doing before the pandemic? What new opportunities opened up due to your Funds to Feed project?
We were a small-scale urban farm that was managing the Fresh Connections projects, delivering fresh produce totes into the community and a partner in the Spaces of Opportunity project. We also were ;operating the Healthy Roots Cafe, a youth-run, plant-based restaurant open Saturdays; operating a booth at the Spaces of Opportunity Farmers Market; assisting local schools/teachers in gardening opportunities and creating pollinator gardens; advocating for justice and sustainability in food systems and K-8 student opportunities.
New opportunities in the Funds to Feed project included expanded venues and school partnerships to deliver fresh produce into the local community; the ability to provide healthy, hot/fresh meals weekly to families in the community; partnership with teachers in tandem with the fresh produce and hot meals to include healthy eating in the virtual curriculum. Our awareness of community partners grew, and we got to know them better.
How did you use the grant money? What new partnerships formed because of the project? Where did you source your food?
We used the grant funds to purchase fresh and staple foods and supplies. We also built internal systems to enable us to continue the work in a new iteration after the grant period. The grant funds allowed us to hire a chef and key crew members for the weekly food preparation and delivery. New and/or strengthened partnerships with two schools, several teachers, and district social workers occurred as a result of the project. Our food was sourced as local as possible, including from Spaces of Opportunity farmers. We included organically grown staple goods, always plant-based, and almost always whole, unprocessed foods.
Can you share the positive aspects of incorporating cultural practices in your project and how the cultural focus helped reach new communities?
It is a cornerstone of our mission to acknowledge, learn about, and celebrate the "healthy roots" of families in our (the target) community. We know that these roots have been under siege from corporate interests which have corrupted the availability and/or marketing of healthy foods. For example, our project chef (Maria Parra Cano) is an expert in indigenous traditions, including those around food. She creates meals and shares menus that use traditional foods of which people in the community are familiar but without the unhealthy commodity, refined or CAFO-produced components.
Did the Funds To Feeds Grant and your project support new community leaders?
One example of a new leader coming to the forefront is Tiffany Hughes, who is the lead social worker at Roosevelt School District. She opened a food pantry at Lassen School during the project period, and it continues on in a much larger scale today. We maintain a strong partnership with Tiffany and the pantry.
Another huge move forward, again at Lassen where the Orchard's school work is based: two Orchard board members joined a school-based team to design a "signature" school plan for the school. Lassen is now the Lassen School of Science in Food & Environmental Nutrition. The Funds to Feed project strengthened this relationship and contributed significantly to the new Lassen wellness and sustainability agenda.
Why is this work important to your community? In other words, how will this impact future generations?
This work will impact future generations if we are successful in our mission to embed it into the school curriculum in a place-based planning framework, which puts what matters and is action oriented in front of all children daily.
The Funds to Feed Grant was about seeding a future, not just responding to the urgencies of Covid-19. What do you feel the lasting impact of your project will be? In other words, what does the project look like in the future?
The fact that this was a value and stated in the original RFP is what attracted us to the grant in the first place. It has been very rewarding to see LISC and its consultants working from a set of principles like this!
What is one thing you learned from this past year?
It has been an interesting study in how we (individually/teams/societies) respond when the world throws a curve ball. I have learned that (1) we can adapt and change almost instantly to a situation and, (2) that the very rich and very powerful refuse to drop their greed to mitigate challenges ahead that likely will be much greater than COVID.