Tania Garcia-Cadena grew up in Woodland, the county seat of Yolo County, and said she’s always been surrounded by farmworkers. Her father was one and, before that, her grandfather moved his family to the region to work in the fields.
On top of serving as a Woodland councilmember, she is the executive director of the Woodland Food Closet, a nonprofit organization providing three days’ worth of meals a month to food-insecure individuals and families.
She said she wasn’t surprised to learn that the county’s agricultural workers were food insecure, considering their low pay, but was shocked by how bad it was.
Last year, the Yolo Food Bank released a report that found that over half of the county’s agricultural workers were food insecure.
“They’re not necessarily able to go out and shop at Nugget and Raley’s based on their pay,” she said. “They’re making tortillas, they’re eating rice and beans and adding a little bit of meat here and there, which is not the way most people in our community are eating.”
And although her nonprofit aims to address food insecurity within a city known for its agricultural roots, she hardly sees any farmworkers visit the food closet. Garcia-Cadena said there are a few reasons for that including pride, language barriers and transportation issues.
But more recently, she thinks fear is preventing farmworkers, particularly undocumented immigrants, from reaching out.
“We have had people who have contacted us to ask what type of information they need to provide if they come to get food,” she said. “There is that concern that we may be gathering information that could be used against them for deportation purposes.”
That concern has grown in recent weeks as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles and detainments in Sacramento have increased.
That’s why Garcia-Cadena was glad to learn that Cultivo, a Yolo Food Bank program aimed at bringing food directly to farmworkers’ homes and work sites, was expanding in Yolo County to better serve farmworker families.
“I just hope that farmworkers take advantage of it,” she said. “They’re not going to need to provide information that could possibly be used against them.”
Origins of Cultivo
The roots of the Cultivo program date back to 2024, with the release of the Food Bank’s report.
“There are over 7,000 agricultural workers in Yolo County, many of whom are permanent residents… I think upwards of 90% of those agricultural workers live in Yolo County.” Yolo County District 2 Supervisor Lucas Frerichs told Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez earlier this year.
Frerichs said his district includes a lot of rural areas and farms. He said the scale of food insecurity can be difficult to imagine especially when compared to Yolo County’s rich agricultural history and economy.
“Think of the amount of bounty that exists,” he said. “And then people that are actually doing the work —growing and harvesting the food — are the folks that are actually not even able to have food security.”
Yolo Food Bank Executive Director Karen Baker told Insight that agricultural workers face numerous barriers to accessing food. “Some of it was transportation, some of it was just their work hours… their proximity to some distributions and other charitable food system opportunities that they just could not tap into,” she said.
In response to these findings, the food bank launched Cultivo following the investment of $200,000 by Sutter Health.
The program’s inaugural year saw over 36,000 pounds of food distributed to over 1,000 farmworker households, including through 13 distribution events at worksites and residences.
This year the Food Bank is aiming higher, setting a goal of serving over 2,500 farmworker households.
Frerichs said he has volunteered at several of these distributions. “To see folks from different farms, especially farmworkers, now with the Cultivo program coming… it’s very gratifying to be able to make sure that people who are doing the work and growing that food, are actually being helped by the food bank,” he said.
The food bank says Cultivo will hold recurring food distributions at four housing complexes and two agricultural sites through October. It is also planning to host one-time distributions during off-harvest months to continue providing food to farmworkers.
Providing a culturally-appropriate meal
Baker noted that the county’s agricultural worker population is largely Latino. As a result, she says the food bank provides staples including flour tortillas, rice, corn, beans, ground meat and fresh tomatillos, “things that people can make food that they are comfortable with serving to their families, from their traditions.”
But, she said, Cultivo adjusts its offerings for immigrant communities from other backgrounds as well.
“Our tomato packing plants have a lot of Punjabi community members who come over from India,” Baker said. “It’s especially important right when they arrive… they haven’t yet received their paycheck and that food becomes really important.”
Facing financial uncertainty
Garcia-Cadena, with the Woodland Food Closet, said her organization isn’t dependent on state and federal funding, but does receive some of its food from the food bank.
“As they get cuts, it will affect us,” she said.
She noted that The Emergency Food Assistance Program, a federal program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which supplements the diets of low-income people by providing no-cost, American-grown foods, is currently frozen by the Trump Administration. The program usually provides 30,000 pounds of food annually to the food closet through the Yolo Food Bank.
“If that gets cut, that’s a lot of food that we won’t be getting,” she said.
Currently, people are able to visit the food closet once a month. Without the food assistance program and help from the food bank, she’s not sure that’ll be possible in the future.
“Pre-pandemic, people could come twice a year and we’ve been able to open it up to once a month, but we don’t know if that’s going to be sustainable,” she said.
Frerichs acknowledged that Sutter Health’s funding for Cultivo is a two-year seed investment. This year, he contributed an additional $20,000 to the program from his own district’s community benefits fund.
Frerichs said while Cultivo has already proven its worth, funding the program is the “million dollar question,” especially with many local governments facing difficult budget situations.
“I think that is going to be a really good question that we go back to a variety of funding partners, and show them the results in action… show how their contributions have directly benefitted those in need.”
Last Tuesday, the Yolo Food Bank announced it was awarded a $1 million grant over three years from the Sacramento Region Community Foundation to address food needs and improve food security.
The food bank says the funding will be used to provide free food boxes for families in Winters and Esparto, boost the organization’s Harvest Program, and fund a study about diverse food needs in the county.
Gerardo Zavala is the communities reporter at CapRadio.
Sarit Laschinsky is the producer for Insight, CapRadio’s news-talk program.
CapRadio is a partner of The Intersection and CVJC.
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