Veggielution

Veggielution's eastside grown (eg) program - started in 2018 - provides an eight months food entrepreneurship training for cohorts of 20 east san jose home- and mobile-based food entrepreneurs to start their own business. This program is part of the s s puede collective's 'jobs to grow' initiative, which focuses on economic mobility, neighborhood belonging, and agency for cohorts of food entrepreneurs (Veggielution) and child care providers (grail family services). Most of the eg program participants are low-income latino immigrants and report that their biggest difficulty is securing adequate capital to launch their business upon graduation. By overcoming the challenges, the eastside grown team has grown to better anticipate barriers, streamline the permitting process, provide resources to address social/technical challenges, all while prioritizing equity and upward economic mobility for future east san jose food entrepreneurs.

The organizing and advocacy team works to strengthen supporting relationships with community members, east san jose agencies, and partnering organizations to provide additional resources to the community. Through organizing training and civic engagement opportunities, Veggielution seeks to affect change in the social and economic conditions to help create a sense of agency, belonging, and economic self-sufficiency for our east san jose community.

Eastside connect includes a farm box distribution program which improves food security for east san jose's most vulnerable residents and a weekly farm stand, which provides fresh, locally grown, and affordable produce to the community and accepts electronic benefits transfer (ebt) cards for calfresh. Each week over 300 farm boxes are distributed to economically vulnerable, mobility challenged, and food-insecure, mainly latinx, east san jose residents who live in qualified census tracts located in the 95116, 95122, and 95127 zip codes.

Si se puede collectiveveggielution's community roots are further expanded by its membership in the si se puede collective (sspc), a group of five organizations that have been embedded in the mayfair neighborhood for decades, building trust and understanding of residents' day-to-day realities and lived experience. Many of the member agencies are founded or led by women of color. The sspc has built ongoing processes to engage residents, not only as recipients of services, but as leaders who co-create, develop, and learn programs, services, organizing, and advocacy efforts.