Located on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay sits Alameda County, where Dig Deep Farms’ two farm sites grow rows and rows of fresh food. Dig Deep Farms is a Black-led and BIPOC nonprofit organic farming operation that serves the community with its harvests and its commitment to providing economically viable jobs and careers in farming.

“Farming in America in particular, but also commercially and globally, it’s based on exploitation and making as much money for as little as you can pay. And we have to turn that around in a big way,” says Sasha Shankar, one of the farm directors.

Our food system relies on the security of small farms, but these farms face many obstacles—including land access, access to business resources, and access to buyers. To counter those challenges, Dig Deep Farms has entered into a partnership with the Alameda County Community Food Bank (ACCFB) as a way to accomplish its goals. For the next two to three years, ACCFB will provide institutional support, such as assuming the lease agreements for the farm locations. This will allow Dig Deep Farms to focus on growing a sustainable business, one that will stand on its own in just a few years.

Shifting priorities

Many people think of food banks as a place simply to get a meal. But in the several decades that the Alameda County Community Food Bank has been in operation, the organization has moved beyond hunger relief to addressing poverty systemically. 

“ACCFB has a long history of not addressing hunger in a vacuum or addressing food insecurity in a transactional way, but really wanting to look at those root causes and think about how we can offer solutions to hunger at that root cause level,” says Allison Pratt, chief of strategy and partnerships for ACCFB. “We took a look at how much money we were spending each year on food…and we realized that where we placed those dollars actually does make a difference in the food system.” 

“One of the frames that we’re working with as a food bank is our desire to move from a kind of food charity model, or exclusively a food charity model, to a food justice model,” says Susie Wise, ACCFB director of strategy. “Our understanding of where our food comes from, who grows it, who has resources in order to become farmers—these are aspects of bringing a food justice lens to our work.” 

For them, this manifests in several different ways—for example, ACCFB team members went to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress for anti-hunger policies in the Farm Bill. Now, they are also investing in a farm that they see doing important work to strengthen the food system.

Dig Deep Farms was cofounded in 2010 as a social enterprise project by Martin Neideffer Hilary Bass. The farm’s mission has stretched beyond the act of growing food, to strengthening the community’s food system. For example, it has been a part of the local food as medicine initiative Recipe4Health, which integrates food into the treatment and prevention of chronic illness. One of Dig Deep Farms’ key ongoing priorities is paying employees a living wage and providing similar benefits to other jobs, to make farming a viable profession. 

“One of the reasons why folks are not entering the field, they’re hearing [there’s] no money to be made,” says Troy Horton, one of the farm directors. “They can’t make a living. It’s backbreaking work. And then if we go to those historically underserved, underrepresented folks, it’s even more grim. One of the things. Our primary focus was trying to create a real living wage for folks doing it.”

For the next few years, ACCFB will “incubate” Dig Deep Farms by assuming the lease agreements of Dig Deep Farms’ two farm sites, plus providing logistical, human resource, and financial support.

While a partnership between a farm and a food bank is not common, this partnership can become an example for others. 

“The incubator concept invites food banks to consider that question—what does it take to end hunger, in addition to continuing to grow food banks? What are the other pieces of our food system that are going to be vital if we’re actually going to achieve our mission?” says Pratt. “Supporting farmers and supporting equity in how our food is produced, creating economic activity through those channels, all helps to create a system where people have access to what they need.”

Horton points out that one of the big obstacles facing small farmers is the lack of support they get in comparison to large commodity crop farmers. Finding pathways to support, through partnerships, grants, and more, can strengthen small farms.

“That’s what we’re always preaching—us urban farmers or small farmers need to be subsidized, just like the big farmers,” says Horton.