Ceres Community Project Moves into First Dedicated Marin Kitchen

Ceres Community Project, a local nonprofit based in Sebastopol serving Marin and Sonoma counties, is proud to announce that they have moved into a new commercial kitchen in Novato.

Cathryn Couch, Founder and CEO, said, “We are so thrilled about this new kitchen that will give our team full access, seven days a week. This means we’ll be able to add a fourth shift for youth volunteers, giving 30% more young people a chance to be involved. The kitchen will also enable Ceres to provide up to 50,000 more medically tailored meals a year to community members in need.”

Since the start of Ceres’ Marin County program in 2010, they have operated from shared commercial kitchen spaces with constrained hours, storage, and equipment; because of this, they have faced limitations on production and volunteer capacity. Their new kitchen had long been used by Good Earth Natural Foods. Upgrades to the kitchen were made possible by generous donors including the Buck Family Fund of Marin Community Foundation, The Bothin Foundation, and Good Earth Natural Foods. The new kitchen will allow Ceres to gradually scale up meal production so they may support more clients and their families, including underserved areas like West Marin.

They expect to add volunteer shifts to their weekly schedule, starting with new morning shifts, and eventually employing the same model they use in their Sonoma County kitchens, with four cooking days and 2 delivery days per week. This means that teens currently on a waitlist can join their Youth Development Program, where they’ll gain confidence and new skills, learn to prepare and enjoy healthy meals, and benefit from the caring, supportive atmosphere created by Ceres staff, adult mentors and peer Teen Chefs. The site will even feature an herb garden, which Teen Chefs will tend, alongside a couple of adult volunteers who are Master Gardeners.

Lastly, the staff and volunteers are thrilled that they could craft and design the facility to optimize their specific workflows and needs, rather than having to set up and break down their space each week. In fact, upon hearing the news, one Teen Chef excitedly exclaimed, “So we’ll always know exactly where the spices are?!” Excitement abounds as everything—and everyone— now has a permanent home.

About Ceres Community Project: Founded in 2007, Ceres Community Project is a nonprofit organization with an integrated model which provides youth development plus 200,000 medically tailored meals annually for local families facing a chronic or acute health challenge. Based in Sebastopol, Ceres has three commercial kitchens and two gardens serving Sonoma and Marin counties, has trained 13 communities across the country and in Denmark to replicate their model, and is actively engaged in policy work at the state and federal level to integrate medically tailored food interventions into health care as a fully reimbursable benefit.