Our Mission

We are passionate about producing food of the highest quality using sustainable and humane practices. We believe that the way to achieve better health is by increasing the quality food you that consume. Our mission is to produce nutrient dense, healthy food in a sustainable way. To us, this means using farming practices that work with nature.

At The Cool Farm we take our customers' needs very seriously. When we moved to Cool, CA we were impressed with the healthy offerings at the local stores. However, because so much of the food was grown outside the area, a single 1.25 lb. Beefsteak tomato cost $4.25 which seemed wildly unaffordable to someone on a fixed budget.

There was a time in my life when we were receiving food assistance from a food pantry. While we were grateful for the food it was always a humiliating experience. That experience, for me, was the birth of many questions about socioeconomic inequities. One such question concerned how to provide both the financially stable and those experiencing financial hardship equitable access to healthy food.

OUR LOCAL NEED:

In our community, the population of Cool (4100), Greenwood (1000), Garden Valley (2400), Georgetown (2500), Pilot Hill (800), Lotus/Coloma (650) and surrounding areas totals about 10,000 people. 1 in 8 are suffering from food insecurity. In our local area that means:

1250 persons in our area
are food insecure.
415 are under the age of 12.
are food insecure.
All of them
go to bed hungry
every night.

ANECDOTAL EFFECTS:

When a young school age child can't sleep, because they suffer all night with hunger pains its hard for them to concentrate in school, or on anything else but counting down the minutes until "free lunch". How does a child maintain self confidence when they are labeled and teased as the poor kid. Some children can't survive that cruelty, and many end up hating school. They can become angry, how do I know, because I was once a child that struggled with food insecurity.

Not everyone is on public assistance simply to maintain their dignity. They would rather suffer. Those in our community with public assistance still deal with public and private ridicule, and often still lack enough food to sustain a healthy diet. While this is a complex problem, and can't be solved easily The Cool Farm is committed to "being the change" and doing our part for our community.

AN IDEA:

What if...
We have a way to benefit our community.
Bring healthy food to all.
Allowing those with the food insecure to maintain
anonymity and food security at the same time.

A SOLUTION:

We are a "take what you need, pay what you can" farm stand. We have full market prices displayed for all products. When our farm stand is unmanned, you take what you need home with you and can pay online via your cellphone or PC. When the farm stand is open, it works the same way. We give you a ticket with the price on it and you follow the same process. go We don't track names or payments.

It is an honor based system. You can pay the full price, partial price, nothing or even more.

We have been asked..."Wont people take advantage?" It is possible, but we feel that those who can pay will, and those who can't wont, and that's ok.

OUR COMMITMENT:

This is our mission, to bring healthy food those who can AND can't afford healthy food.