California Jobs First Grant to Build a Community of Practice

The Santa Barbara Food Action Network partnered with local stakeholders to receive and manage the grant of:

  1. Amount: $190,000
  2. Purpose: Cross-regional coordination, planning, capacity building, industry cluster broadening and deepening, and expanding partnerships

Actions:

  1. Hiring of Food System Network Coordinator – DONE
  2. Secure Industry cluster facilitators for Blue Economy, Working Lands, Food Hubs, Commercial Kitchens  – DONE
  3. Facilitated bi-monthly Community of Practice (CoP) meetings and ongoing industry cluster gatherings – ONGOING
  4. Conducting market studies, metric design for effective impact measurement – ONGOING
  5. Central Coast Food Industry Market Study completed by Dr. Jamshid Damooei – DONE
  6. Impact metric design for the Central Coast Regional Food System by NAFSN and Dr. Damooei – IN PROCESS
  7. Creation of the Central Coast Food System Hub to support continuous information, resource sharing, and public reporting (Pharos Creative, with continuous input and decision making led by CoP members)
  8. Project implementation April 1 – August 2026
  9. Project title (and the ultimate goal of the CoP): Building An Inclusive and Prosperous Central Coast Regional Food System
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