Foodies were delighted when Whole Foods Market Sacramento hosted a Food Truck Pop-up by FoodMob on July 23. Whole Foods Sacramento donated 5% of total food truck sales, as well as doubled all the reusable bag credits that night for its Nickels for Nonprofits program to benefit our food literacy programs.

Christina Clarke, marketing team leader of Whole Foods Sacramento, worked with Catherine Enfield of FoodMob to plan the Food Truck Pop-up special event.

“While Catherine and I were thinking of a time to have the food trucks come out, I said ‘Hey, why don’t you have them donate some money back to California Food Literacy Center as well and we can tie everyone in.’ It’s a nice partnership all the way around,” said Christina.

Visitors got to feast on a variety of delicious dishes from Indian Fusion Food, Gail’s Food Flyer, California Love Truck, Miz Shirley Marie’s Cuisine On Wheels, Mama’s and the Tapas, and New Bite Catering. In addition to working with FoodMob, Catherine also created the Sacramento Food Film Festival that California Food Literacy Center has participated in since its inception.

At the Food Truck Pop-up, our booth was manned by one of our volunteers and Food Literacy Advocates, Everett Lacey. He spoke to people about our programs and set up arts and crafts for kids to create their own California Food Literacy cookbooks. Everett is one of the graduates of our inaugural Food Literacy Academy and has been tirelessly volunteering and representing our organization at many events. In addition, he teaches food literacy once a week in Greehaven at the public library.

“Since I’ve been working with them [California Food Literacy], it’s just really cool to see all the little kids actually learn something,” said Everett. “If you give them a strawberry and an organic strawberry, they’re going to like the organic one better and it’s something they’ll remember for the rest of their life”

Our awesome volunteers have been doing kids’ food literacy activities at Whole Foods Market in Sacramento and Roseville. We will be at the Roseville store on Saturday, Aug 10 and Saturday, Sept 21. Check our Facebook page for upcoming events and updates.

The Nickels for Nonprofits program started at the beginning of July and will continue through September. Shoppers who bring reusable bags at the stores in Sacramento and Roseville will receive a five cent credit that they can apply to their bill or donate to California Food Literacy Center. Shop at these stores and support our programs!

Article by Heather Teoh

Interviews and photos by Emma Kuchera