Preserving Hope

Marin County nonprofit gets into the food business.

CAM, a widespread nonprofit social services agency that provides support to Marin County’s low-income families, created the new business in response to an increase in the demand for its services at a time when government support is decreasing and grants are more difficult to obtain. Despite hard times, “Closing the doors is not an option for us,” says Development Director Russell Hamel. Thus, as the fund-raising climate changed and the need for additional income became more pressing, CAM began to explore the possibility of an enterprise that would bring in more money and create employment opportunities. It found the solution in FoodWorks, which opened in San Rafael in June 2011. “It’s a pathway to the future,” says Hamel.

The evolution of an idea

“We decided we needed to be less dependent on state and federal funds and more self-sufficient in terms of creating revenue sources,” says Richard McKee, who oversees human needs/facilities for CAM. The organization found a way to do that with a kitchen it already owned.

Initially, CAM operated its food program out of a tiny kitchen in the Manzanita School in Marin City, but when that building was demolished in 2003 to make way for a new middle school, CAM arranged to share use of the kitchen at Whistlestop Wheels (which promotes independence, well-being and quality of life for older adults and people living with disabilities in Marin County). From there, it continued to provide cold breakfasts, hot lunches and snacks for the children in its programs. Although the relationship was productive, a larger space was needed, so McKee continued pursuing the dream of a kitchen of CAM’s own.

He had met Marilyn Tim of All Stirred Up when she built a kitchen at the Vineyard in Terra Linda. “She didn’t spare any expense in the construction of the facility, and it showed,” he says. “It was really sort of my ideal.” Several years later, when he was at the Vineyard looking at another space, the real estate agent mentioned that the kitchen was for sale; McKee recalls saying, “I know this kitchen. I’ve been coveting it for six years.”

He checked it out, but the price was out of CAM’s range. Eventually it came down, and CAM was able to negotiate a purchase with proceeds from its successful Dream House raffle (see sidebar beow). Now called CAM’s Central Kitchen, McKee believes it’s one of the top two or three commercial kitchens in the county. “When we acquired the kitchen, we weren’t really thinking too much about other enterprises, but rather about having a secure home for the programs, setting up the kitchen to met our needs and reducing our space costs to the program.”

CAM began using Central Kitchen from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. to serve its programs, as planned, but soon discovered that, for a kitchen to be profitable, it needs to operate 24 hours a day. Staff members considered making use of the downtime by sharing the facility with a night baker, but then some creative thinking came into the picture, leading to the vision of FoodWorks. “The kitchen was being under utilized,” says McKee. “We had an opportunity to create new, unrestricted revenues through the development of this social enterprise.”

Executive director Gail Theller started thinking about using the kitchen to make jams. While she and the staff were researching to find out if it was feasible, they met Merrilee Olson, a well-known chef and food product development specialist who’s respected in the canning community, who became enthusiastic about the idea of CAM using its kitchen to make preserved food products. She, Theller and Hamel began to discuss the idea of co-packing, in which CAM would make money by providing a canning service focused on using local produce to make artisanal products for local markets, wineries and the farmers themselves. The group bought the idea, and Olson’s expertise was the key. “The idea went next to the agency’s board of directors, which took a leap of faith and supported the venture as an investment in CAM’s future,” says Theller.

Olson’s experience, which ranges from large-quantity food production to artisanal preserves, is one of FoodWorks’ biggest assets. For 10 years, she worked in various capacities, including as culinary director for Bon Appétit Management Company, which provides sustainable food services for large corporations and college restaurants and then she started her own company, called PRESERVEsonoma.

At the beginning of her foray into producing preserves, Olson got inspiration from a gentleman named Peter Wagner, whom she met by chance when he was seated next to her at a Sonoma County forum to discuss farm issues. “He said, ‘I have this recipe for my Aunt Aggie’s tomato relish,’” Olson explains, and he told her it had been in his family for more than 100 years. “He had a whole program. He knew exactly where he wanted to take this food product. He’d been a successful businessman, and he was our very first client.” Later, as she was working on a test batch of the relish, Olson thought, “This is too cool. This is someone’s dream.” Wagner died unexpectedly before his relish reached the marketplace, but his daughter is taking his project to completion. “It’s good. It should go forward,” says Olson.

Equipped with both a background in heading up a food production business and a desire to help people fulfill their dreams, Olson signed on and has been with FoodWorks as program director since its debut. She spent the first month setting up suppliers and reaching out to potential clients. Then, starting small, she and two part-time employees began production, mostly between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m., Monday through Friday. By the time fall arrived, they had a roster of 12 clients, and word was spreading.

“It’s all high-acid or acidified product, produced in bottles or jars,” says Olson, who gives clients a choice of containers, which she purchases in small quantities when they’ve decided on the shape and size they want. FoodWorks doesn’t provide labels, but as part of the service, Olson can recommend designers to help clients add that finishing touch as they prepare to take their products to the marketplace. “We’re building, and we’re figuring out how to do things efficiently,” she says. “I’m really encouraged.”

Theller believes FoodWorks and CAM are a good match. “We established the food bank long ago. We know food, and we know low-income people,” she says. “We won’t be competing with established businesses—we don’t want to take business away from anyone else. We’re a social service agency that’s dedicated to eliminating poverty. We will designate profits to children’s programs,” she adds. “We have to do whatever we can to relieve the financial burden attendant to these programs.”

As beneficial as it is for CAM, FoodWorks is also a boon for farmers, because it gives them an opportunity to use surplus produce that might otherwise be wasted to gain value-added products. “The local growers were concerned about the fact they were plowing under food,” says McKee. “Preserving food is a good way to use the excess and put it into a product they can sell.”

“It’s a win-win all the way around,” says Theller.

Building from the ground up

It was Indian summer, and the aroma of slowly simmering apples and the scent of lavender perfumed the air at Central Kitchen. The harvest was in, and FoodWorks was up and running.

The staff was busy making apple-lavender jelly for McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma, where Ellen Roggeman is the official jam maker. Roggeman had her own recipe, which worked well for the small batches the ranch had produced in the past, but McEvoy wanted to expand production with larger batches—although not too large—and FoodWorks was able to help on two fronts.

First, increasing the amount a recipe yields goes beyond simply multiplying the quantity of the ingredients. Olson’s skills as a product developer allowed her and Roggeman to collaboratively make the correct modifications so the jelly would successfully make the transition to larger-scale production. Second, FoodWorks deals in much smaller batches than big manufacturers, who demand a minimum order of at least 300 cases. “We’re available because we do small runs. Twenty-five cases [300 jars] is our smallest run,” says Olson. The scope of FoodWorks’ volume let McEvoy order a quantity that suited its specific needs.

Dawn Pacheco of Medlock Ames Winery in Healdsburg’s Alexander Valley heard about FoodWorks through the grapevine (pun intended) and approached Olson when the winery decided to sell products made from its own crops in its tasting room. She says that, although Medlock Ames was already doing small-scale, in-house canning of its own produce, it was unable to meet the heightened demands of its new Alexander Valley tasting room. Partnering with a like-minded commercial kitchen made this possible.

Pacheco had the winery’s own recipes, but Olson reformulated them so that FoodWorks could produce them in larger quantities. They encountered challenges—timing the tomato harvest to coincide with the booking of space at FoodWorks was one—but the process turned out to be relatively easy. “Working with Merrilee was fabulous. She was really flexible, which was what we needed,” says Pacheco. And she’s delighted with the winery’s new products—pear-apple butter with Medlock Ames rosé wine, strawberry jam, rustic tomato sauce and roasted tomatoes.

Lou Preston of Healdsburg’s Preston of Dry Creek approached Olson because she’s well-known in the world of preserved foods and has a reputation for creativity in recipe development. “We’ve expanded and diversified into different crops,” he says, and their farm has an overabundance at various times throughout the year. Olson developed recipes for strawberry preserves and conserves for him, one of which includes wine and another that incorporates the walnuts Preston grows and sun dries. The preserves join a lineup of handcrafted foods that includes olive oil, sauerkraut, pickles and cured olives and freshly baked breads, which foodie visitors purchase from the winery’s shop to put together tasty picnics they can enjoy on the grounds.

Preston is pleased with his experience working with FoodWorks. “As a new project, it’s been creative and fun,” he says, adding that he plans to work with Olson again because he believes in developing relationships and building on them.

FoodWorks, which is a CCOF certified organic handler, is off to a good start, but it needs to grow. “We need help to get this off the ground. It’s not going to be self-sustaining for a while longer. We definitely need more clients, we need philanthropists, and we need people who are interested in strengthening the local food shed,” says Olson. “We live in an area that’s at the forward edge of the sustainable food movement. We know how important our local farmers are,” she says, reflecting on how fortunate we are to live where farmers’ markets are easily accessible.

So far, under the terms of its license from the California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch, FoodWorks is licensed to produce only high-acid products such as preserves, tomato sauce, barbecue sauce and salad dressing, but Olson hopes to have a full cannery license and equipment some day. “It would be exciting to do a five-farmer soup,” she says, envisioning a collaborative project with several growers.

FoodWorks is a big step forward for CAM, and even though it’s just getting started, Olson is already looking ahead. She envisions a future in which it’s large enough to provide local jobs and offer classes and community events, perhaps using gleaned products. “This can be a lot of things,” she concludes. “And all proceeds benefit people who need it.”

Community Action Marin: A Nonprofit’s Origins and Its Programs

Active in Marin County for 45 years, Community Action Marin (CAM) is a private social services agency and a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that began as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty in 1966 and became Marin County’s official anti-poverty agency in 1967. “We started with a $40,000 grant and one small office,” says development director Russell Hamel. Initially, the organization gave grants to help people navigate the social support system, and it grew substantially over time, but always with the same goal, to help low-income families and assist them to become self-sufficient. “We want to put people back to work,” says Hamel. “Self-sufficiency is the key.”

The Dream House Raffle

As unusual as a fund-raiser’s venturing into the food business might seem, that CAM would strike out in a new direction to support its mission is hardly a surprise. The organization is a leader in innovative thinking, and it’s proved its mettle in taking on new challenges. A prime example is its Dream House Raffle, a major fund-raiser that gives ticket holders a chance to win a Marin County house worth $2 million as well as $300,000 in cash prizes in several Early Bird drawings. The fifth annual Dream House Raffle, which offers a house in San Rafael with a view of China Camp as the grand prize, is now underway and will conclude with the final drawing on Friday, February 10.

“The raffle was really our first big business venture,” says Hamel. “We had deficits every year, and they seemed to be growing.” Then the Palos Verdes Art Center held a one-time raffle to sell a house it had inherited, and it lit a spark at CAM. Using Palos Verdes as a model, organizers started to devise a new fund-raising strategy.

Getting the first raffle up and running wasn’t easy. CAM representatives worked with staff at the California Attorney General’s office to address issues related to gaming, and the organization had to learn and grow into the concept, says Hamel. In addition, not everyone at CAM was supportive of the raffle. “Our board was very divided on doing this,” he says. CAM overcame the hurdles, however, and the raffle quickly became so successful that it attracted the attention of other fund-raisers who went on to emulate it. “We got press all over the world,” says Hamel, adding that CAM also had hundreds of inquiries from other organizations. Even better, it got the support of members of the community, because, as Hamel observes, people claim they want to win, but are happy to have their money go to a good cause regardless of the outcome.

CAM sold all 35,000 tickets that first year, and in its first four years, the raffle grossed $20 million, allowing the organization to put almost $15 million into the community, which serve 3,000 people each day and ranges from Head Start preschools to financial literacy programs that teach people about financial management and credit restoration. Beyond that, Hamel observes that the raffle also uses the services of local businesses, such as printers, graphic artists and advertising. “We’ve put a lot of money back into the community,” he says. “We’ve learned what works.”