Little in the Land of the Plenty:
Sacramento Restaurants go from Candlelit to Meal Kit
By Viktoria Kachagina 27 May 2020
“We’re used to being very, kind of, like thoughtful and contemporary and avant-garde with how we think about food. And this program is about giving calories to as many people who are at risk as possible." - Brad Cecchi, co-owner and chef at Canon
Canon staff member packs food for meal kits
Map showing areas with low access to fresh foods in purple. South Sacramento is outlined in red showing food deserts.
Source: 2014 Regional Food Desert Mapping Study
Canon has transformed into a micro-commissary, where Family Meals are prepared
Chart explaining the basic model of the Family Meal Program
Binchoyaki's prepared Family Meal
Source: Tokiko Sawada from Binchoyaki
Tokiko Sawada outside her restaurant
“After everything goes back to normal, are we going to forget about them?" - Tokiko Sawada, co-owner and chef at Binchoyaki
Sacramento's water-tower welcoming people to the land of Farm-to-Fork
SACRAMENTO, CA — Instead of preparing elegant dishes set on white
plates with zig-zagging drizzles of piquant sauce, the kitchen staff at
Canon, a local Farm-to-Fork restaurant, stand six feet apart in an
assembly line placing meals in to-go boxes.
The restaurant’s inviting ambiance illuminated by frosted chandeliers
is still present, but a different energy fills the air.
Nobody is polishing wine glasses, folding napkins, or shining silverware
on wooden tables. A bartender isn’t behind the marble tabletop pouring
drinks into glasses topped with fresh lemon slices.
Employees now wear masks and gloves, quickly preparing meals to feed
the most vulnerable populations affected by COVID-19.
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“We’re having to be creative as chefs and work our creativity muscle,”
said Brad Cecchi, co-owner and chef at Canon, adding their new way
of cooking must be “approachable for people who aren’t used to
eating the way that we’re used to cooking.”
COVID-19 struck the state’s Capitol threatening its Farm-to-Fork status,
causing local restaurants to rely on the local food system more than ever
to save their businesses, while coming to their reckoning by finally
addressing the food insecurity issues so prevalent in the city.
Though the pandemic created national challenges in the food system, it
shook the core of Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork movement by forcing it to
face the ugly truth — the food insecurity experienced by many in this
food-rich city.
From the City of Trees to the Farm-to-Fork Capitol of America
Sacramento, formerly named the City of Trees, was established
as the Farm-to-Fork Capitol in 2012, paying homage to its 1.5 million
acres of farmland.
Subsequently, the local food scene grew and restaurants, like Canon
and Mulvaney’s B&L, attracted locals and tourists alike with their
changing menus showcasing the region’s seasonal quality ingredients,
like fresh tomatoes, grown on one of its 8,000 acres of boutique farms.
The Farm-to-Fork movement was an economic strategy that connected
farmers to restaurants, marketing Sacramento as the land of the plenty,
where the rich taste of local ingredients is accessible to all, said Emma
Koefoed, project manager at Valley Vision, a nonprofit aimed at
strengthening the local food economy.
But it is not until the pandemic that local restaurants began providing
fresh food access to underserved populations. “COVID-19 has sort of
made clear a lot of the very fundamental problems that we have with
our food system,” said Adrian Rehn, a volunteer for the Sacramento
Food Policy Council. At the heart of these fundamental problems is the
paradox of vast food insecurity in the region of boundless agriculture.
Food Access and Food Insecurity Before the Virus in the
Land of Farm-to-Fork
But prior to COVID-19, despite the city’s push for Farm-to-Fork
and local farms supplying eateries with produce, many go hungry.
While California had an overall rate of 11% of food insecurity in 2017,
Sacramento’s rate stands at 14.4% as reported by Feeding America,
a nonprofit connecting food banks across the U.S. Consequently, nearly
215,000 individuals out of Sacramento’s overall population of 500,000 do
not know when their next meal is.
The Sacramento Area Council of Governments reported this issue’s irony
in their 2014 Regional Food Desert Mapping study, which analyzed
amounts of food outlets in the city. Despite the city’s 40 farmers’ markets,
including one of the largest Certified Farmers’ Markets in the state, areas,
like South Sacramento, remain food insecure.
These food insecure areas are food deserts and experts say their residents
are disproportionately people of color, living in neighborhoods where access
to grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food options are unavailable.
COVID-19 and its Exacerbation of Food Insecurity
The pandemic dented the U.S. food system and severely hit California,
impacting food production, distribution, and its accessibility.
In Sacramento, the Farm-to-Fork chain suffers as local farms struggle selling
their products to restaurants, which cannot operate under usual standards.
Adjusting to delivery or takeout strategies is not simple, resulting in restaurants
and farms losing money.
Despite this disruption, the thorn surfacing is the increased number
of food insecure people affected by the pandemic.
The Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services (SFBFS) is seeing this
firsthand. “We have so many new people that are visiting food programs,”
said Blake Young, President and CEO of the SFBFS during a live webinar in April.
The SFBFS served 150,000 people monthly at 220 partner agencies before
the pandemic and is now meeting growing needs because of massive
unemployment. It’s working relentlessly, ensuring people are fed despite
food donation delays, and having to close 60% of its agencies because most
volunteers are seniors, the largest at-risk group of contracting the virus.
Since COVID-19, Sacramento food deserts became more vulnerable. Schools
closed, which provide children from low-income families with free meals,
unemployment increased, and the elderly cannot leave their homes to access
food, said Julia Burrows, senior policy adviser to Mayor Darrell Steinberg
during a live webinar in April.
But while the pandemic hindered the Farm-to-Fork movement, it, ironically,
presented a solution to the problem of food deserts spreading throughout the city.
The Forefront of the Farm-to-Fork Movement Steps Up
Now, local restaurants at the movement’s forefront are making meals to
sustain their businesses and provide sustenance to food insecure populations.
Once Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered California to shelter-in-place, Sacramento’s
Michelin-rated restaurant, Canon, was one of the restaurants deciding what to
do as restaurants closed.
“Our initial reaction was what do we do about our staff?” said Cecchi, concerned
about the restaurant’s 29 employees. “All of a sudden their world’s all shaken up
as much as ours are.”
Canon and four other upscale local restaurants brainstormed ways to save
their businesses, support their employees, and serve vulnerable populations
facing challenges due to COVID-19.
They found a need in the community, realizing food banks struggled meeting
the needs of growing numbers of food insecure people.
Restaurants created the Family Meal plan, which transformed their white-tablecloth
dining rooms into micro-commissaries, with cardboard to-go boxes spread out on
tables filled with meals varying by restaurant. Kits have included a type of protein,
potatoes, rice, chili, and fruit.
It’s difficult adjusting to a new way of cooking, but creating and distributing these
meals helps restaurants stay in business, while helping those in desperate need.
“We’re used to being very, kind of, like thoughtful and contemporary and avant-garde
with how we think about food. And this program is about giving calories to as many
people who are at risk as possible,” Cecchi said.
To provide meals to food insecure populations, funds are raised through crowdfunding.
Community members can contribute donations by sponsoring a meal, which feeds
those in need and benefits the food service supply chain.
Every $20 spent on a kit feeds a family of four, or one individual up to four days,
while helping pay kitchen staff and local farmers for meal ingredients. The
restaurants make a minimum of 500 kits weekly, which are distributed to schools,
churches, community centers, and elderly homes, feeding nearly 2,000 people.
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Binchoyaki, a Japanese restaurant contributing to this effort has successfully
kept its 11 employees, helping this mom-and-pop shop prevent economic losses.
Tokiko Sawada, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband, said they’re grateful
for the Family Meals, since because of COVID-19, they filed for unemployment, but
“haven’t seen a dime.”
While their staff faces difficulties in working efficiently in a small
space with limited refrigeration, and struggling to calculate time
to source ingredients, cook food, assemble and store the meals for
distribution, there is a silver lining.
“We’re grateful that we’re still able to walk and get out and go get food,
but some people don’t have that choice. Not only that, you know,
it could also be their physical health or mental health. And so for us
being able to nourish them not just physically, but also mentally, is a big
way to give back,” Sawada said.
Sawada has made previous efforts to serve the local community near her
restaurant, especially the homeless. Outside Binchoyaki, it isn’t
surprising to see homeless individuals roaming around, looking for
food through the alley’s dumpsters.
“Having a warm food, it’s a privilege,” she said. Between running a business
with her husband, supporting their family and paying their staff, they couldn’t
always find time to provide food to underserved populations. But with the
Family Meal program, it’s been rewarding to see the community come
together and help the most vulnerable.
While providing assistance to food insecure populations, Sawada is
also helping local farmers by purchasing as locally as possible for meal
kit ingredients. Cecchi is similarly in more contact with local farmers
than ever before. With local restaurants closing and competition with
larger agricultural producers, Sacramento Valley farmers are struggling
to stay afloat during the pandemic.
Restaurants in the Family Meal program are sustaining the Farm-to-Fork
chain by purchasing any imperfect produce — vegetables and fruit with
leafy stems, jagged edges, and dirt on them, helping out the farmers who
are risking their lives by continuing working the fields, while giving
restaurants a price break.
As it stands, this meal distribution system is helping the Farm-to-Fork
movement sustain itself during the pandemic, while serving the needs
of the most vulnerable.
What is Expected after the Pandemic Ends?
The Family Meal program brought comforting and fulfilling meals to
those who cannot easily access food now, while shedding light on the
food insecurity that existed in Sacramento before the pandemic.
“We often recognize that we have more people in need than we have
resources. The pandemic showed us that partnerships like this are
needed,” Derrell Roberts, co-founder of the Roberts Family Development
Center, which redistributed Family Meals to nearly 70 families, said.
Roberts hopes this restaurant partnership continues because it
effectively fills a need in the community.
Currently, it is unclear if the Farm-to-Fork movement will survive,
but this Family Meal program gave local restaurants food for thought.
Sawada wonders what the future holds for food insecure populations.
“After everything goes back to normal, are we going to forget about
them?” she said.
Will local restaurants continue this partnership that sustained their
businesses, helped farmers, and fed underserved populations
after COVID-19?
Cecchi is unsure that when the pandemic ends and businesses will fully
reopen that Canon will “logistically and safely produce the food that’s
required for the Family Meal,” since the restaurant was converted into
a different environment to make it succeed. It requires a “different muscle”
to make thousands of meals weekly, Cecchi said.
But the way Family Meal was “built from its bones,” Cecchi hopes someone
else will take it on to continue raising funds and donations to support food
insecure populations.
The uncertainty of what the Farm-to-Fork movement will look like in
the future is heavy. It established Sacramento as the land of the plenty,
but it took the pandemic for the movement to reckon with the vast food
insecurities faced by so many in the city.
Currently, the infamous water tower with the phrase, “Welcome to Sacramento,
America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital,” casts a shadow over the city, revealing the
uncertainty whether the city will live up to its moniker.
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Author Bio:
Viktoria Kachagina is currently a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She will graduate in June with a Bachelor’s in Sociology and a Journalism Certificate.
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Words: 1800
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