When I was growing up it was common practice to supply men who came to work at harvest time with room and board; many of them were transient and would move from job to job.

The room was mainly a bed in the Sleep House with access to a shower and an outhouse. The board consisted of home cooked meals shared with my grandparents and their family. My grandmother would do the cooking and everyone would join around the table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

These days, we don’t supply room and board to our employees, but we do offer a daily supply of fresh vegetables from the farm: tomatoes, melons, watermelons, peppers, cucumber, and zucchini. We are grateful for all our employees contributions to our farm and we willingly share the bounty of the farm with everyone involved.

But, in the tradition and spirit of sharing meals, we wanted to offer more.

Yesterday, in conjunction with the Yolo Food Bank, we initiated a program to distribute food to all of our employees. Each employee received two boxes – one produce box filled with greens, potatoes, onions, and fruit and a second box containing meat, beans, rice, and tortillas or bread. Any employee who was interested signed up ahead of time. At the end of the day, everyone stopped by our cooler to pick up the boxes before heading home.

Many smiling faces.

Our Thanks to the Yolo Food Bank for helping set this up and supplying much of the food. This distribution will become a weekly occurrence on our farm.

Although we can’t share meals the way we’re used to, we do still want to do what we can to make sure everyone and their families are fed, joining around the table to share dinner at home.