We envision a world in which all communities are made healthier, stronger, and more connected through community-based local food systems.
OUR MISSION: We aim to cultivate a healthier, stronger, more connected East Palo Alto community (EPA) by working together to build a robust community-based food system.
WHY EAST PALO ALTO? Though EPA is in the heart of Silicon Valley, it remains racially, economically, and culturally distinct and diverse and has benefited minimally from the area's technology boom, and is not connected to the larger food economy and healthy food revolution taking place in the Bay Area. With only one grocery store for a population of 30,000 people, much of EPA is considered a Low Access Community by the USDA. Nearly half the children are overweight or obese, and 13% of the population participates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (S.N.A.P.) - a stark comparison to its next door neighbor, Palo Alto (home to Stanford University), where less than 1% of residents depend on S.N.A.P. The linkage between income, food insecurity, and health is clear.
Your donation to Collective Roots will help support this community.
HOW YOUR DONATION SUPPORTS IMPROVED HEALTH FOR EPA FAMILIES: EPA's deep history of agriculture shows cultivation of food strengthens people and fortifies communities. As part of the industrious EPA community, we seek to foster more communal growing, sharing, and eating of fresh, local produce through our three pillars:
- Growing (Gardening)
- Sharing (Education)
- Eating (Healthy Food Access)
GROWING (Gardening)
By involving the community in building a strong network of collaboration and sharing through our Collective Gardening Network (CGN - formerly known as the BGN or Backyard Gardener Network), we support community gardening efforts and effect change from the ground up. We're building a strong, sustainable network of local growers who feed themselves, their neighbors, and friends, and help other community members learn to do the same.
We provide needed resources and opportunities to support the capacity of community members of all ages and circumstances to grow their produce inexpensively and sustainably in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, as well as to exchange knowledge and forge relationships.
SHARING (Education)
Through our monthly workshops, we are able to share valuable information by instructing community members how to grow their own produce, how to cook what they grow, and why they should eat what they grow by helping them learn about nutrition. At these workshops, we instruct, hold lively discussions, answer questions, and foster community connections as we share by learning to garden, cook, and eat together.
EATING (Healthy Food Access)
With our many years of experience hosting the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market (since 2007), we increase much-needed access to affordable, fresh, local produce that the community does not otherwise have easy access to in the area. The market features local, organic, and sustainable produce from nearby small family farms and EPA urban farmers.
We also utilize the market as a weekly community event as we involve local organizations and agencies who are able to let the community know what resources they offer.
Through our low prices from small local family farms and accompanying generous Fresh Checks and Market Match matching programs, we remove the economic barrier by helping low-income EPA residents to be able to afford healthy produce.
Help us get the word out on social media, using Facebook or Twitter (handle @Collectiveroots). Our website is www.collectiveroots.org.
Let's cultivate healthier, stronger, and more connected communities, together.
Wendy Horton, Collective Roots Executive Director