Achieving Food Security

Fresher

About Us

Everybody goes to bed well fed. This vision has been the driving force from the earliest days of Fresher, originally formed in 2006 by Rabbi David Azen as the non-profit Fresh Producers. Eventually, we realized Fresh Producers need to be in partnership with Fresh Consumers, and Fresher became the umbrella for the formula

Fresh Producers + Fresh Consumers = The Fresher Future.

Now, we aim to achieve food security through the business of ending hunger – a social enterprise model for food security through Fresher Family and Neighborhood Meal Plans. Bringing together workforce skills development and a pathway toward a culinary career as a Fresher Community Chef, we support communities in creating, owning and sustaining a nutritious cycle of health, wealth and skills for life.

Over the last four years, as we shifted toward a model for healthier, affordable ready-made meals that can jumpstart better eating for folks who may not have the skills, time or resources to put good food on the table every night, we have worked to restore the Sam and Bonnie Pannell Community Center Pool Kitchen. With the incredible support of Councilmember Larry Carr, the City of Sacramento Department of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, and the City Building Department, as well as FHRA, we have a home base in Meadowview, South Sacramento, a USDA certified food desert.

Prior to this latest phase, Fresh Producers led several innovations in the Sacramento area, including a service learning curriculum for the entire junior class at Health Professions High School that integrated nutrition education into every subject area and led to a community based project; a social entrepreneurship program featuring youth selling produce in areas of limited fresh food access, that sent a team from Hiram Johnson High School to Chicago to for the SAGE (Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship) national competition; installed garden beds and initiated the gardening curriculum now run internally by the Sacramento County Youth Detention Center, giving skills and inspiration to incarcerated young people; and now, attempting the first neighborhood based meal plan for all consumers.

With support over the years from the funders listed below, we have been able to reach this moment where we can integrate our efforts and work with farm-to-every-fork partners as well as youth and family non-profits to fulfill the goal of a food system that works for everybody.

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Fresher

Funders