California Food Education (FoodEd) is a nonprofit organization working in the San Francisco Bay Area.
California Food Education was founded in 2019 by the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association (PCFMA). PCFMA is a nonprofit organization that operates certified farmers’ markets around the San Francisco Bay Area. Over its 30 years of operation, PCFMA has seen a transformation in California’s farmers’ markets; from a collection of markets in a few communities to becoming common in communities throughout the state. As the number of farmers’ markets has grown, so has their role. Today farmers’ markets continue to support direct connections between farmers and consumers while also supporting education about food and farming and food access for low income consumers.
PCFMA realized that for farmers’ markets to successfully fulfill these new roles, they would need to grow beyond their traditional roles as organizers of fun community events that facilitated face-to-face encounters between farmers and customers. FoodEd was founded to help PCFMA, and other farmers’ markets, develop the skills, capacity, and resources needed in these new roles.
FoodEd welcomes your thoughts about how it can best pursue its mission to increase community knowledge about food while supporting and sustaining a strong local food system. Please share your ideas with us through the tool on the Contact page of the website.