The California State Employees Food Drive, led by CDFA’s Office of Farm to Fork, resulted in California state agencies donating 11,604 pounds of food, $89,089 in monetary donations, 784 turkeys, 461 Run to Feed the Hungry registrations (money goes to food banks), and 706 volunteer hours.
“We’re proud to announce that California state employees are continuing to raise food, funds and awareness about hunger issues in our state through the California State Employees Food Drive,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “We thank all who participated and encourage everybody to visit www.fooddrive.ca.gov/donate/ year-round to find food banks in each county seeking donations or volunteers to help increase food security.”
The food drive ran from November 6, 2023, to January 8, 2024. It included two state employee volunteer days at Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. Overall, more than 60 food banks or organizations are supported by the California State Employees Food Drive.
The California Water Commission has approved a white paper that contains potential strategies to protect communities and fish and wildlife in the event of drought.
The white paper is in support of Water Resilience Portfolio Action 26.3, and will be shared with the Secretaries for Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Food and Agriculture, who requested the Commission’s engagement on this topic.
California is a drought-prone state. Climate change exacerbates drought conditions in California by creating hotter and drier baseline conditions, leading to more intense droughts. Additionally, climate change is creating the conditions for “weather whiplash” – a phenomenon California experienced in the 2022-2023 water year, swinging rapidly from severe drought to record-breaking precipitation events and flooding.
To ensure California’s people and environment have sufficient water during times of drought, the State will need to adapt to this new normal of ongoing weather extremes.
“California has experienced two of the worst droughts in our state’s history in the last decade alone,” said Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “While we’ve invested billions across the state to become more drought resilient in light of this new reality, there’s more we need to do to prepare for the next drought, whenever it comes. These thoughtful recommendations by the Water Commission point the way forward and I’m eager to explore how these ideas can be applied in coming years.”
The Commission’s work on drought is forward-looking. The strategies proposed by the Commission integrate months of conversations with State agencies, experts, Tribes, water users, interest groups, interested parties, and the public. The Commission has taken the input it received and charted a through-line, developing four key strategies for augmenting California’s communities’ and fish and wildlife species’ drought resilience.
1. Scale up groundwater recharge. During flood events, when all other water rights and environmental needs are met, channeling excess flows to groundwater recharge can build drought reserves. The State can help scale up groundwater recharge by planning and preparing for recharge during times of high flow, promoting recharge efforts through outreach and financial incentives, efficiently permitting recharge projects, supporting the infrastructure needed to conduct recharge, and continuing to apply lessons learned.
2. Conduct watershed-level planning to reduce drought impacts to ecosystems. To enable fish and wildlife to be more resilient to drought, the State must support fish and wildlife during drought and work to recover ecosystem function during non-drought periods, supporting viable populations that can weather the next drought period. The State can help reduce drought impacts to fish and wildlife by improving water availability for species, advancing habitat restoration and conservation projects, integrating forest management into drought planning, and creating a plan to protect species during drought emergencies.
3. Better position communities to prepare for and respond to drought emergencies. During drought, communities need resources to ensure that vulnerable community members are safe in times of crisis. In advance of drought, they need support to help abate future vulnerabilities to water scarcity by improving water systems and integrating water use into land use planning. The State can help communities prepare for and respond to drought by offering climate disaster funding, ramping up efforts to improve water system resilience and regional water solutions, and supporting integrated land and water planning.
4. Support improved coordination, information, and communication in drought and non-drought years. In California, droughts need to be dealt with as a chronic phenomenon and not an occasional emergency. The State needs to continue to align its staff capacity, improve its data collection, and contextualize its drought communication, moving from a crisis mindset to recognizing drought as a natural and inevitable element of the state’s hydrologic cycle.
“Groundwater recharge to replenish our aquifers is a key water strategy for a hotter, drier future,” said California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross. “It provides important ecosystem benefits, protects drinking water wells, and supports climate-resilient agriculture for healthy food production and thriving rural communities.”
The strategies and actions outlined in this paper are additive to the important work already underway by State agencies. The Commission expects State decision-makers to weigh whether and when to move forward with these suggested strategies.
“Drought impacts all of California’s water users, but some – small, rural communities and fish and wildlife – are particularly vulnerable,” said Commissioner Sandra Matsumoto. “The strategies proposed by the Commission will help the State protect these vulnerable water users in the event of drought. To move forward, water sectors, users, and managers must work together to minimize the impacts of drought on all Californians.”
The USDA is now accepting applications for grants to help agricultural producers maximize the value of their products and venture into new and better markets.
The USDA is making the grants available under the Value-Added Producer Grants program. The grants help farmers and ranchers generate new products, create marketing opportunities, and increase their incomes through value-added activities.
Eligible applicants include independent producers, agricultural producer groups, farmer or rancher cooperatives, and majority-controlled producer-based business ventures.
The USDA may award up to $75,000 for planning activities or up to $250,000 for working capital expenses related to producing and marketing a value-added agricultural product.
Planning activities may include conducting feasibility studies and developing business plans. Working capital expenses may include costs associated with processing, marketing, advertising, inventory and salaries.
The USDA is particularly interested in applications that will advance Biden-Harris Administration priorities to:
• Reduce climate pollution and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change through economic support to rural communities.
• Ensure all rural residents have equitable access to Rural Development (RD) programs and benefits from RD-funded projects;
• Help rural communities recover economically through more and better market opportunities and through improved infrastructure.
Paper applications must be postmarked and delivered by mail, email or in person to the state office where the project is proposed by close of business on April 16, 2024. Electronic applications will be accepted via Grants.gov until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on April 11, 2024.
For decades, urban farms and community gardens have helped meet demand for fresh and local produce. Urban farming creatively utilizes limited space, conserves land and transforms vacant lots or buildings into productive greenspaces. Farming in cities can be a rewarding way for communities to grow healthy food while receiving a wide range of other interrelated environmental, economic and social benefits.
Profiles of SARE grant recipients illustrate how urban farmers, researchers, educators and consumers can work together to foster entrepreneurship, improve food security and contribute to local economies while increasing biodiversity and reducing the distance food travels from field to table.
This is National Milk Day in the US, and in recognition of that, here’s a video produced by the Food and Drug Administration noting that 100 years have passed since the establishment of the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO).
In connection with the ordinance, CDFA’s Milk and Dairy Food Safety Branch has maintained active participation in the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments, and continues to hold leadership roles as the standards and practices in the PMO are updated every two years in a cooperative manner by all 50 states, industry and FDA.
Government agencies all work together to provide a safe and wholesome supply of milk and dairy products to Californians and all of the US.
California produces approximately 20 percent of the nation’s milk supply.
Monarch butterflies and their host plant, milkweeds, have historically been prevalent throughout California. In recent decades the monarch population has significantly declined, and the population is now a fraction of its size compared to the 1980s.
In California, monarchs overwinter along the Pacific Coast. Large gatherings of monarchs can be seen at over-wintering sites such as the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary. These monarch clusters are counted to help determine population size. After winter the monarchs head inland to spend the spring and summer breeding. The Central Valley is a critical part of their breeding range.
The interagency group learning about and experiencing the established monarch butterfly and pollinator habitat enhancement pilot project on the San Luis Canal.
CDFA representatives including myself and deputy secretary Virginia Jameson recently participated in a tour of the Grassland Water District monarch butterfly habitat project in Merced County. Leaders from the Almond Alliance, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Wonderful Company, Xerces, the Great Valley Seed Company, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) also participated. Jonathan Birdsong, western regional director of NFWF, organized the tour, and Grasslands Water District (GWD) general manager Ric Ortega led it.
Grasslands is in the largest contiguous block of wetlands remaining in California’s Central Valley. The Western Monarch travels through the area on its migratory path, seeking out host plants for nectar and ovipositioning (egg-laying).
In 2021, the water district successfully established a monarch butterfly and pollinator habitat enhancement pilot project on the San Luis Canal, with a mix of perennial pollinator species, including narrow-leaf milkweed. The unlined canal bank is a prime location because the plants can thrive with very little supplemental irrigation.
Opening a milkweed pod found along the Monarch friendly canals.
The GWD is expanding this effort in the 2023-24 planting season with a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and was able to leverage that grant to receive additional funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board.
“The recent momentum and early success of the Monarch Recovery Program in and around the managed wetlands of the Grassland Ecological Area is a great example of collaboration between private landowners, native plant farms, and state and federal resource agencies,” said Ric Ortega.
The tour led to a thoughtful discussion of how to increase pollinator habitat in California’s San Joaquin Valley through interagency collaboration and incentives such as CDFA’s Pollinator Habitat Program.
Opinion piece by Kelsey Nederveld and Patrick Mulvaney
*Note – the Sacramento City Unified School District received $376,500 in 2021 and $466,570 in 2022 through CDFA’s California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program to source local produce and help students identify and cook with the produce. Stay tuned for the next round of CDFA farm to school funding opening soon!
For many of the students in the Sacramento City Unified School District, school meals are their biggest meals of the day. When California passed School Meals for All in 2021 in response to increasing child hunger, we became the first state in the nation to provide every student — regardless of income — free, nutritious breakfast and lunch, with more emphasis on fresh local ingredients. As the quality and nutrition of school meals improves, clear benefits are emerging, and more kids and families are participating.
The value of more kids enjoying school meals together is becoming evident every day in our kitchens and cafeterias. The stigma and shame that came with being very obviously a “free lunch kid” is diminishing; and the sense of community that comes with more kids eating together from the same menus not only ensures that all kids eat more nutritious food, but also improves campus culture and relieves the strain on families as food costs skyrocket.
Our efforts to transition more of the 40,000 meals we serve each school day from prepackaged, highly processed foods to fresher, healthier, tastier food for kids demands continued investment in kitchen equipment and culinary training.
California’s Kitchen Infrastructure and Training (KIT) program provided $4.8 million dollars to Sacramento City Unified in 2022. This funding has allowed the district to create more efficient and welcoming cafeterias and provide training for its 400 nutrition employees in order to serve more locally sourced, freshly prepared food. The district now has three chefs on staff, is training staff to freshly prepare more menu items and has elevated many front-line workers to kitchen leads, providing rewarding and viable career paths.
The school district’s back-of-house operation includes a 50,000 square foot warehouse with capacity to store refrigerated, frozen and dry goods that are purchased locally as well as 14 delivery trucks which make daily deliveries to our 80 school sites. We procure locally grown and produced ingredients from local producers including fresh, raw chicken breasts and drumsticks from Foster Farms, mandarins from Penryn and apples from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Local sourcing saves us money as food costs have soared: We save $90,000 a year in delivery costs by picking up our own apples rather than buying apples grown and shipped from outside the region or state. Buying local ingredients that don’t need to be overly packaged and transported long distances is also climate smart, especially when hundreds of farmers and local producers are within a few miles.
KIT funding has been used by districts throughout the state to meet the rising demand for free, nutritious meals which increased in the 2022-23 school year to 826 million meals served — up 2 million from 2018-19. Statewide, 92% of eligible local school districts opted-in to receive the 2022 KIT funds, demonstrating how much pent-up demand exists to replace inefficient and aged kitchen equipment, and to train and increase the skills of our school nutrition workforce.
It is critical that these investments continue so all schools can fully implement the benefits of California’s groundbreaking School Meals for All and Farm to School programs, dependent on KIT funding for continued success. We are making great strides toward making access to healthier food equitable in Sacramento schools and throughout the state, but we need KIT funding to ensure that we can expand these programs.
The benefits of healthy, locally sourced, free meals for all our kids are undisputed — improving academic performance and long-term health, fighting child hunger, boosting the local economy and giving school nutrition staff the tools and support they need to provide meals made with care and intention.
Sacramento is known as the Farm-to-Fork Capital of America and is increasingly gaining media attention on a national level. But the gift of our home grown foods shouldn’t only be enjoyed by those who dine in our restaurants; it should be shared with the thousands of kids in our schools.
Kelsey Nederveld is the assistant director for nutrition services for Sacramento City Unified School District. Patrick Mulvaney is the head chef and owner of Mulvaney’s B&L, a leader in Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork movement and co-founder of the “Train the Trainer” program at American River College.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross, center-front, holding a Cal Poly celebratory banner along with Cal Poly Pomona president Soraya Coley (left of secretary) and Joe Shea, deputy cabinet secretary for Governor Gavin Newsom. At the far right is Mike Mellano of Mellano & Company, a family of flower growers, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo president Jeffrey Armstrong (mobile device users may have to open photo). They are joined by students who designed and built the Cal Poly Universities float.
By CDFA Secretary Karen Ross
This was an especially notable year for the Cal Poly Universities at the Rose Parade — the 75th anniversary of their first float entry!
It is always a treat to be a part of the festivities in Pasadena leading up to the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. In the past, this was a tradition started by CA GROWN and the CA Cut Flower Commission to include California Grown certification of floats displaying at least 85 percent of flowers, greens and other organic ag materials grown in the Golden State. While challenges brought by COVID and supply chain interruptions caused a pause in that process, two floats sponsored this year by the Tournament of Roses, representing the schools participating in the Rose Bowl football game, were certified CAGROWN.
All the floats are beautiful! What makes Cal Poly’s annual entry distinctive is that it’s the only one student-designed and built on two different campuses, and it’s the perfect example of Cal Poly’s “Learn by Doing” approach, which is core to the curriculum inside and outside of the classroom. This year’s float, “Shock and Roll: Powering the Musical Current,” featured floral products plus a creative use of agricultural products such as citrus, pomegranates, rice, onion seed, carrots, lentils, mushrooms, cabbage, corn and eggplant.
The float won the Crown City Innovator Award for the most outstanding use of imagination, innovation and technology, including the use of pneumatic, hydraulic and electrical systems to power the float’s elements.
Congratulations to Cal Poly on such a richly deserved achievement! And a big thank you to California Grown and the Tournament of Roses leadership for developing and maintaining such a meaningful connection to the Rose Parade.
A multidisciplinary group of students from South Korea recently traveled to California to learn more about animal blood banks, meeting with CDFA veterinarians (pictured: Dr. Sean Brady) to discuss current animal blood banking rules and regulations as well as methods being used to promote community blood banking. CDFA has released an animal blood banking guidance resource and has begun registering animal blood and blood component products from community blood banks.
