New Leaf Community Markets Moves to Help Agricultural Workers

California food retailer New Leaf Community Markets, an independent grocer within the Good Food Holdings family of brands, is donating $30,000 to organizations dedicated to helping farmworkers. The funds will be divided between two groups aiding communities in New Leaf’s Central Coast market area: the Center for Farmworker Families and Ayudando Latinos A Soñar (ALAS).

“2020 and 2021 have been the worst years for farmworkers that I have seen in our county in over 20 years,” said Dr. Ann López, director of the Watsonville, Calif.-based Center for Farmworker Families. “Because of the support we have received from New Leaf Community Markets, we will be able to provide desperate farmworkers with much-needed rental assistance, money for food and household goods, school supplies and clothing for the children of farmworkers, and $500 scholarships for farmworker children studying for higher education. I have no idea what the community would do without this generous support.” 

“This generous donation from New Leaf Community Markets will help ALAS feed the hard-working farm workers on the Coastside,” noted Pat Carbullido, operations manager at the Half Moon Bay, Calif.-based organization. “Our farm workers work every day, regardless of the elements outside, and are often taken for granted. This donation goes a long way in ensuring our farm workers are taken care of and represented in our community.” 

The social and economic impacts of the pandemic over the past 18 months have been particularly devastating for the farmworker community, which has faced food insecurity and a lack of basic necessities, without recourse to financial safety nets.

“Without the members of the agricultural community, fresh produce does not make its way to our tables to nourish our families,” observed Forrest Gonsiewski, VP of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based New Leaf. “We are deeply grateful to our sustainable farming partners and the nonprofit organizations that support these groups. We recognize that this community needs support now more than ever, and we are honored to be able to live up to our mission and support them.”

Along with the donation, the organizations are beneficiaries of New Leaf’s Round Up the Change campaign at all registers through the end of the year. Customers can round their totals up to the nearest dollar, with the groups receiving 100% of the money raised. New Leaf’s Half Moon Bay store will donate to ALAS, while the grocer’s four Santa Cruz County stores will give to Center for Farmworker Families.

An organic and natural grocer with five stores along the Central Coast, New Leaf has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Portland, Ore.-based New Seasons Market since November 2013, and the first grocer in California to achieve B Corporation certification. New Leaf donates 10% of its after-tax profits to hundreds of local organizations supporting hunger relief, education and protecting the environment.