On Wednesday, Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom announced a $15 million campaign to expand the Farm to Family Program, a partnership between CDFA and the California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) to facilitate food donations from farmers and ranchers by supporting food production, processing and distribution of the food supply chain.

To jumpstart the $15 million campaign, intended to run through the end of the year, the Governor unveiled $3.64 million in new funding, including $2.86 million from USDA and $775,000 committed by philanthropy.

CDFA received approval from the USDA to redirect $2 million in unused Specialty Crop Block Grant funds to the CAFB to offset the costs of picking, packing and transporting donated produce. An additional $861,854 from the USDA Farm to Food Bank program was awarded to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to support the program.

These funds will support the donation of 21 million pounds of fresh crops for the month of May.

Farm to Family partners with 41 food banks serving all 58 counties, and handles the logistics of packaging the food and communicating with food banks.

Roughly 128 farmers and ranchers are donating to the CAFB and another 200 farmers have expressed interest in participating.

For additional details about the program, please contact Director of Farm to Family Steve Linkhart at (510) 350-9916 or [email protected].