Pie Ranch

Pie Ranch, inc. ("Pie Ranch") is a unique food system education and advocacy nonprofit organization and a thriving, sustainable farm on the southern end of the san mateo county coast. Pie Ranch cultivates a healthy and just food system from seed to table through food education, farmer training, and regional partnerships. Pie Ranch's programs help to increase the supply of and demand for local, sustainable food and farmland in our region; create improved conditions for small-scale organic farms to succeed; and build a healthier and more just regional food system that will preserve the precious land that sustains us all. Through our food education programs, we aspire to grow the next generation of food systems leaders in their home communities. This program has two components: our youth education program is an experiential outdoor education program that brings pre-k through 12th grade students on field trips to our coastside farm for enjoyable, interactive learning experiences that inspire an ethic of good environmental stewardship. The program serves around 1,000 youth per year, at least half of whom live in economically-disadvantaged households and/or attend title 1 schools. Around 65% or more of program participants are youth of color. Students in the program connect with the natural world, and learn how clean air, water, soil, and healthy foods impact their lives by engaging in organic farming and gardening, cooking, community building, and lessons about nutrition and food justice. The program aims to educate and empower the next generation of environmental stewards, consumers, social-justice advocates, and community leaders through hands-on outdoor learning and leadership-building experiences. A part of the youth program, Pie Ranch youthcorp is a program currently open to san mateo county youth (16 and up) who can gain work experience and earn 17 an hour for engaging in work projects at Pie Ranch with guidance from staff (and parent/guardian permission). Students learn hard and soft work skills, including timely and responsible communication regarding availability and schedules, punctuality and arriving ready to work, completing timesheets, group facilitation, kitchen skills, woodworking, and working with farm tools. The program takes advantage of Pie Ranch's open spaces and enables mental health. It also enables youth to build back social and emotional health by interacting with others, as well as engaging in physical work and healthy movement outdoors. Our public programs directly reach a growing and diverse cross section of around 3,000 adults and youth per year from around the bay area through tours, educational events and programs, workshops, and monthly open farm days where the public is invited to volunteer, take part in a guided farm tour, and share in an evening potluck and barn dance. We also host around 40,000 visitors a year to our roadside farmstand. This program was paused in 2020 at the start of the covid-19 pandemic and resumed in early 2022. At the start of the covid-19 pandemic in march 2020, Pie Ranch pivoted to compiling and distributing local, organic produce boxes to bay area families experiencing food insecurity through the farm fresh food relief initiative or food hub program. This was a collaborative effort among a network of bay area farms and food justice nonprofits to get good produce off the farms and into the community. Concord based food justice nonprofit fresh approach secured the group a grant from the usda to continue the project on a large scale- Pie Ranch was churning out 800 produce boxes a week for families in need. In august 2020, the usda decided to take their funds elsewhere and the farm fresh food relief initiative as we knew it disbanded. Pie Ranch's current food hub program is derived from this initiative. From 2020 through 2022, Pie Ranch has continued to purchase produce from farmers affected by the pandemic and distribute on a smaller scale, mostly to our pescadero community and a few partners up in san francisco and east palo alto. We continue to prioritize buying from new farmers, female farmers, and farmers of color as we keep moving forward with our own food hub. Through our regional partnership program, Pie Ranch collaborates with hundreds of regional partners to bring about more sustainable land use and food system policies, encourage local farms to grow food for local markets, preserve farmland for food production, and ensure more farmers can afford to operate small, sustainable farms. We believe a relationship-based, sustainable food system will support robust local economies, greater health, and food justice for all, while preserving the natural features of this beautiful region. As part of this program, Pie Ranch partners with the amah mutsun tribal band (amtb) to ensure the continuity and preservation of the tribe's heritage and traditional knowledge. The amah mutsun tribal band is an ohlone indian tribe recognized by the state of California, comprised of the living descendants of the mutsun- and awaswas-speaking peoples who have occupied the greater monterey bay area and the region south of san francisco bay, including the Pie Ranch land, for thousands of years. Pie Ranch and amlt built and maintain a native american garden at Pie Ranch, which educates 6,000 guided visitors a year about the culture, traditional knowledge, and history of the indigenous peoples of our region, and serves as a healing and educational site for tribe members to restore their indigenous knowledge about native plants and traditional environmental and resource management. The project centers the experience of native peoples in the story Pie Ranch shares with the public about the land and history of this region. In 2021, we started a collaboration with other bay area organizations to be called the people's food and farm bill. This organizing team is tasked with carrying out a robust and expansive community-based effort that enables bay area residents to build a collective vision for a more integrated, equitable and resilient regional food system. This vision will provide the foundational material for an intended regional public funding measure to be put forth in 2024. This scope is a continuance of role, responsibilities, and activities, initiated in november 2020 and financially sustained through december 2021, through the usda-funded regional food systems partnership (rfsp) project "community-driven visioning and planning for a just and sustainable bay area regional food system." The cascade farm and Ranch regenerator, launched in 2019, provides mentorship, training, and resources for beginning farm and Ranch businesses in an ag-business "incubator." The regenerator aims to create a pathway for new and early-stage organic farmers to achieve business viability, with an emphasis on providing equitable economic and wealth-building opportunities for under-resourced farmers of color, women, former farm workers, latinx and indigenous american producers, and people from under-resourced communities. More than a traditional business incubator, the project will model a collaborative farming community in which all of the regenerator farms will follow a common, site-wide plan to employ climate-friendly farming techniques, reduce environmental contamination, reduce the carbon load in the atmosphere, preserve water resources, and provide habitat for wildlife. We currently have 2 small agricultural businesses at the cascade regenerator, and we hope to have 7-10 farms in operation by the end of 2025, with at least 75% owned by institutionally underserved farmers, ranchers, and land-stewards. Also on august 21, 2020, as a consequence of the czu wildfires, Pie Ranch lost the historic steele house, that housed our farm employees, and other valuable farm infrastructure, like our irrigation system and the greenhouse and we were forced to pause our emerging farmer training program. This program used to offer nine-month residential farm apprenticeships and three-month summer internships to train 5-8 participants per year in all aspects of operating a diversified, organic production farm. Emerging farmers are immersed in all the activities of Pie Ranch, helping to operate every aspect of the farm, and leading farm tours for youth and adults. They participated in formal classes, studied sustainable agriculture theory, and attended workshops taught by Pie Ranch staff and guest instructors in regenerative agricultural methods, small farm marketing and management, community-supported agriculture (csa), food justice, while learning hands- on skills to operate an economically-viable, regenerative farm. Since 2006, we have trained over 100 new farmers through our apprenticeships and internships, many of whom are still farming in northern California. Pie Ranch is currently deciding whether we will continue doing this program beyond 2022, depending on wildfire recovery status, housing availability, funding and organizational