Our Strategies

Our work is centered around strategies with a focus on identifying and shifting policies and practices to strengthen Del Norte’s local food system.

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Our History

The Del Norte and Tribal Lands Community Food Council (DNATL CFC) was founded in 2010 by community members who recognized the pressing need to improve access to healthy food in our region. Over time, this initiative evolved into a key player in enhancing local food systems, promoting food sovereignty, and increase food access for the rural Del Norte Community. In 2016, to ensure the program's sustainability and growth, DNATL CFC became a fiscally sponsored project of the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods (FRCR). This partnership allowed DNATL CFC to benefit from FRCR’s established infrastructure while maintaining its own leadership and direction through a dedicated DNATL CFC director.

Under this structure, DNATL CFC expanded its programs, increased staff, and broadened its impact across the community. Throughout 2018-2023, the DNATL CFC helped launch and run a nutrition-based choice food pantry (Pacific Pantry), a county mobile pantry (Pacific Northwest Fresh), a food bank program, and food recovery program before handing over leadership of emergency food distribution to the Family Resource Center of the Redwoods in Fall of 2023. This decision was made in order to shift a more direct focus on education and training to increase local food production and provide regional supply chain support. Growing demands for staff and facility space began to exceed the capacity of the FRCR and the DNATL CFC decided to transition into an independent nonprofit organization to build on its strong foundation, continue its successful programs, and explore new opportunities to further its mission of promoting access to nutritious local food and food sovereignty.

We continue to lead and implement our programs that include convening a county-wide food policy council, hosting workshops and events to shift food culture, running a community food forest garden program, managing school gardens, leading county-wide emergency food system planning, providing beginning farmer training & land match, organizing local food procurement & aggregation, and developing food system career pathways.