Fresh Approach

✨️We feasted, We flourished⁠✨️⁠
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Truly, we can't thank our community of friends, family, donors, and supporters enough for showing up and making this year's feast & flourish the biggest AND most successful fundraiser event in Fresh Approach's history!⁠
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🌻Our Food Access team hosted a seasonal fruit sampling with our Mobile Farmers' Market truck⁠
🌻Our Garden team facilitated a seed planting and water coloring activity for guests⁠
🌻Our Nutrition team organized two cooking demos⁠
🌻Live music performed by Eastside College Prep Band and a dance performance from East Palo Alto's Step It Up Dance⁠
🌻A seasonal-inspired dinner from Blue Heron Catering
🌻Halfmoon Bay's Jettywave Distillery offered a special cocktail made with a simple syrup derived from our garden's herbs⁠
🌻Marcus D. Najera of Star 101.3 hosted our FIRST-EVER live auction featuring one-of-a-kind experiences⁠
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💰️By the end of the night, we raised nearly $50,000 to go towards continuing to nourish the East Palo Alto Community Garden!⁠
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And of course, this evening wouldn't have happened without the dedication, planning, and hard work of the Fresh Approach staff, community ambassadors, and volunteers!⁠
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➡️In case you missed the festive evening, you can still support our work by becoming a donor today: https://www.freshapproach.org/donate/
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P.S. Special thanks to our in-kind sponsors and donors, | | F&M Bank | Dana & Tom Hayse | | | |

🍂Community Gardening Workshop: Fall Cooking with NomRight🍂⁠
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Looking to be inspired by the delicious veggies of fall?⁠
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🥬Join us for this special cooking demo with the voice behind NomRight, Ja Aphale, and learn how to recreate one of her signature "green bowls", the White Bean Fennel Green Bowl!⁠
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📅 Saturday, October 3⁠
📍 East Palo Alto Community Garden ⁠
⏰ 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM⁠
➡️ RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cooking-with-nomright-cocinando-con-nomright-tickets-2001712234177

👨🏿‍🌾💚 Support your community by getting involved with Fresh Approach!⁠
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🪴Behind every thriving garden bed is a team that showed up, dug in, and gave back to the soil. Plant seeds of nourishment and community resiliency in East Palo Alto: sign up for a volunteer garden workday, or volunteer at the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market!⁠
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👥 Team Building with a Cause: Strengthen your team by helping Fresh Approach build their new community garden in East Palo Alto from the ground up. Join us in building garden beds, planting veggies, and more!⁠
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🚛 Support our Mobile Farmers' Market operations as a volunteer and help deliver fresh, local produce to underserved Bay Area communities!✨⁠
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➡️Our volunteer opportunities: https://www.freshapproach.org/volunteer-opportunities/

➡️Our team building opportunities: https://www.freshapproach.org/team-building-opportunities/

Across California…⁠
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🌱52 counties. ⁠
🌱888 small farms.⁠
🌱$52 million invested in local growers. ⁠
🌱20 million lbs of fresh produce distributed.⁠
🌱One incredible story of what's possible when we invest in local food systems.⁠
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Our Farms Together Impact Report is finally here — and it's packed with the numbers, the stories, and the lessons learned from one of the largest local food purchasing programs in the nation!⁠
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"[Farms Together] It has drawn a wide circle of goodness around my community. The families who receive my produce spend less money and eat more nutritious, organic food." -Yadira Mendiola, Owner/Operator of The Queen of Vegetables Organic Farm⁠
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And that's the real impact — farmers thriving, families eating better, and communities growing stronger together. 🥕🍅🥬⁠
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➡️To read the full report here: https://www.freshapproach.org/farms-together/
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📢 P.S. Tag someone who needs to see this, and if you're a Farms Together partner, farmer, or collaborator, share this post and tag us — we want to celebrate this with you!⁠
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🌱🌼Last Saturday, we learned about how to transform our lawns into thriving gardens!⁠
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Brian Tatsuta of walked us through the different methods for removing existing plant material⁠, how to prep the space for new plants, and the variety of native California plants to consider for these of projects.⁠
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A big piece that Brian emphasized for us to consider is how we want to utilize the space:⁠
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✨️“We don’t need to follow traditional methods just because we grew up with it. The options are endless for building a garden that is better adapted to our current lifestyles and climate conditions.” ✨️⁠
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💚From the types of plants and materials AND where to buy them or get them for free, to the best time of the year to start these types of projects, everyone walked away ready to transform their lawns into something more vibrant.⁠
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➡️P.S. If you want to learn more about these types of projects, be sure to follow Grass Roots Ecology!

‼️We’re about a week away from feast & flourish: This is your LAST chance to snag your tickets for our garden dinner filled with food, fun, and impact!⁠
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📅Saturday, September 19th, 5:00 - 8:00 PM⁠
📍East Palo Alto Community Garden | 230 Demeter St, East Palo Alto⁠
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✨️We can't wait to feast & flourish with you!✨️⁠
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➡️LAST CHANCE to buy tickets: https://givebutter.com/c/feast_flourish
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🌱With YOUR ticket purchase and engagement in our auction, together we can continue to nourish our thriving community garden and provide more nourishing food options for East Palo Alto!⁠
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P.S. We deeply appreciate our in-kind sponsors and donors, | | F&M Bank | Dana & Tom Hayse | | | |

🍃 Build skills & lead your community: Join our team as a Fresh Approach Community Ambassador!⁠
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🥕 South Bay Nutrition Education Community Ambassador⁠
➡️Conduct outreach for our VeggieRx Nutrition classes, lead farmers’ market cooking demonstrations highlighting seasonal produce, and support nutrition education workshops!⁠
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6-8 hours/week | September 2026 – June 2027⁠ | $22/hour ⁠
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✨️Bilingual candidates encouraged to apply!⁠
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📌 Apply today and see full details on time commitment and training here: https://www.freshapproach.org/community-ambassador-opportunities/

🌿A couple of weeks ago, our Nutrition Education Intern, Bim, completed her first solo cooking demo featuring a parsley smoothie at the East Palo Alto Community Garden!⁠
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💚"When Bim first started with us, she was pretty quiet, but as we did more demonstrations throughout the South Bay, she got to interact with the community and start opening up. Although she was nervous to lead her first demo, we saw a change in her. From selecting the recipe to communicating to participants about the nutrition benefits of the recipe and making them feel excited about how to utilize parsley is a new way for the community to enjoy, Bim led with confidence." shares Yohana, our Nutrition Education Program Specialist.⁠
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It's truly special to see our interns grow and flourish with all the right support.⁠
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We wish Bim the very best in her next venture!✨️⁠
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➡️P.S. Before Bim completed her internship with us, she worked on developing a comprehensive list of culturally-relevant wellness tips that we will be sharing out in the coming months!

Our newsletters provide you with all the nourishing Fresh Approach updates, including farmers’ market schedules, monthly gardening workshops, volunteer and team building opportunities, seasonal recipes, and stories of impact!⁠
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➡️Sign-up here: https://shorturl.at/elHa1

🍎🍇September marks the end of the summer and the beginning of fall: a beautiful month that brings us succulent stone fruits, juicy apples, plump figs, and sweet grapes!⁠
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💰Shop Fresh, Save More: our Fruit & Veggie Savings Programs helps make the fresh fruits and veggies at our markets more affordable for community members using government benefits!⁠
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📅 Mark your calendars: our Mobile Farmers’ Markets will be closed from September 7 – September 11.⁠
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➡️Every fruit and veggie you buy at one of our farmers' markets is contributing to building something more nourishing for us all!