What is San Benito Bounty doing?

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

San Benito Bounty was founded in early 2009.  Its primary function is to celebrate, brand and promote the beautiful produce, unique places, wonderful products and awesome people of San Benito County.  With its rural heritage and traditions, it is a breath of fresh air within an hour’s drive of Silicon Valley.

It is now 2010.  Progress has been made in several of the goals set by the organization at its inception.  Working with the Community Alliance for Family Farmers, the Harvest of the Month program has been introduced into the county.  At many school sites and afterschool programs, a monthly box of local produce is delivered, complete with curriculum aligned with state standards for the teachers to use in the classroom and a bilingual newsletter with nutritional information and recipes to go home to the students’ families.  Later collaboration with the Ag in the Classroom committee of the Farm Bureau expanded the program.  The children have been tasting raw fruits and vegetables and absolutely loving it!

In addition, this website is being developed through the generosity of Teknova, whose CEO Ted Davis is a current member of the San Benito Bounty Board of Directors.  The design is the brilliant work of Kathy Schipper’s team at Shipper Design.  Kathy was also the creator of our beautiful and whimsical logo.  Without the vision of Ted and Kathy, and the talent of Luis Alvarez, this website would not have been  possible.  Be looking for a community calendar and bulletin board in future days.

San Benito Bounty is hard at work on a series of free community workshops which follow the the ideas of chef Jamie Oliver, the 2010 TED Award winner.  With his Food Revolution, Oliver proposes every child should know how to cook ten healthy, quick and inexpensive meals before graduating from high school.  What a great idea to buck the current trend of fast food and poor eating which is creating the first generation whose life expectancy is LESS than its parents.  Diabetes and obesity account for the lion’s share of health care costs, and easily avoidable with proper diet.

The  Grow Gardens! campaign fosters the creation and continuation of vegetable gardens whether on private, public or organizational land.  Plans are underway for gardens at the Si! Se Puede! afterschool site at the Villa Luna Apartments and at Emmaus House.  In partnership with Quicksilver Farm, anyone looking to grow produce for personal consumption or donation to the San Benito Food Bank is given technical assistance…and compost, too!

San Benito Bounty is a founding member of the Silicon Valley Food Systems Collaborative, an off-shoot of The Health Trust, to bring together producers, consumers, educators and advocates to cultivate a sustainable, regional food system to provide healthful and affordable food.  Its goal is to transform the local and regional food systems to be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable resulting in better health and well-being for both people and the land by 2015.

The first tourism efforts are underway with a partnership of San Benito Bounty and the Pinnacles Partnership (a support organization for the Pinnacles National Monument) to create educational tours built around the agricultural corridor of Highway 25 south of Tres Pinos, the San Andreas fault, the Pinnacles National Monument and the condor nest habitat.

Members of San Benito Bounty are currently working to create a Slow Food convivia in the county.  Slow Food will be featured in an up-coming blog.

In the coming months, San Benito Bounty will be working to create easier ways for the residents of San Benito to access fresh produce and agricultural products such as our wines, oils and goat milk cosmetics, supporting both the local farmers and delighting the taste buds of our community.  We’ll keep you apprised of progress in this blog.  Buying local helps our economy, reduces transportation costs and fossil fuel use and allows us access to superior quality and freshness.

Thank you for your interest in the efforts and progress of San Benito Bounty.  If you would like to donate monetary support or volunteer your time, contact Nants Foley at 831.801.5110 or e-mail nants@sanbenitobounty.org.

It’s a good life.

Tags: 2010 TED Award, CAFF, California Alliance with California Farmers, Food Revolution, Harvest of the Month, Jamie Oliver, Pinnacle National Monument, Schipper Design, Slow Food, Teknova
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »