Currys, Salesforce tackle hunger
Ayesha and Stephen Curry at last year’s Oakland launch of Eat. Learn. Play. The program is part of a new initiative to feed families and help minority and female farmers.
As a growing number of families in the Bay Area struggle with food insecurity during the pandemic, minorityowned farms grapple with excess waste due to mounting restaurant closures. An ambitious new Bay Area pilot program has gotten under way to address both issues.
The program is being led by Salesforce and Eat. Learn. Play., the family foundation of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and his restaurateur wife, Ayesha. The new farmfocused pilot, which was jumpstarted through a $400,000 donation from Salesforce to the Currys’ foundation, has a goal of obtaining 300 tons of farm produce from local, minorityowned farms, and packaging it into 30,000 boxes of food for lowincome residents, most of whom are in minority households. The boxes are available through school pickup sites and home deliveries.
The focus on students is significant. Within the Oakland Unified School District, more than 70% already qualified for free and reducedprice lunches
before the pandemic, according to Superintendent Kyla JohnsonTrammell.
“COVID(19) just further exposed the cracks in equality in our food systems,” said Ebony Beckwith, chief philanthropy officer at Salesforce. “We’re experiencing one of the biggest civil rights moments of our time. It’s important for action to be taken.”
Over its first two weeks, the program has delivered more than 50 tons of produce to more than 7,000 families within the Oakland school district. Of the 26 people hired for boxing and deliveries, 90% are parents living in Oakland and a majority lost jobs during the pandemic, according to the program’s organizers. Nonprofits World Central Kitchen, the Numi Foundation and Full Harvest are managing the farm inventory, along with food distribution.
The Currys also recently began working with chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen to fund 2 million meals for Bay Area residents prepared by local restaurants.
Coke Family Farms, which works with a diverse roster of over 60 minority and female growers across Central California, is already benefiting from the pilot program.
“When COVID hit, we saw significant disruption to many of the small farmers who make up our community,” Adele Gemignani of Coke Family Farms said in an emailed statement. “This initiative has helped us weather a very difficult time, providing an outlet for much of the produce our farmers grow while keeping our farming crews employed.”
The pilot program, slated to continue throughout the pandemic, follows a growing trend in the farming world. Traditional revenue sources have collapsed for farms, and more are looking for ways to curb waste while still feeding their surrounding communities. Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture contributed more than $1 million to a regional effort to deliver produce to thousands of families in seven Bay Area counties.
Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillips
“When COVID hit, we saw significant disruption to ... small farmers.”
Adele Gemignani, Coke Family Farms