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Local Event
We are excited to invite you to Harvesting Hope: a Farm-to-Fork Fundraiser for the Center for Farmworker Families on Saturday, October 5, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Mariquita Farm in Watsonville.
Join us for an impactful evening on the farm, where we’ll come together to support the vital work of the Center for Farmworker Families. Savor an organic, plant-based 4-course meal, enjoy local non-alcoholic beverages, take a farm tour, and hear from engaging speakers. Don’t miss this special event!
Our speakers for the evening will include Dr. Ann López, Executive Director of the Center for Farmworker Families, and Adam Bolaños Scow, leader of the Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture.
Our chefs for the evening will be Chef Maria Gonzalez and Chef Emily Beggs. Please read more about our speakers and chefs below.
Your support directly funds education, advocacy, and essential supplies and services to improve the lives of farmworker families.
We look forward to seeing you on the farm!
Please carpool if possible, and dress in layers and wear comfortable shoes, as the farm terrain can be uneven.
New Leaf Community Markets
Companion Bakeshop
New Natives microgreens
Dr. Ann López is the Executive Director of Center for Farmworker Families. She is an emerita professor and taught courses in biology, environmental science, ecology and botany in the biology department at San José City College for many years. She has a Ph.D. from UCSC in Environmental Studies where she studied the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the farms of west central Mexico. Her book entitled The Farmworkers’ Journey summarizes the results, arguments and conclusions of her research and was published by UC Press. She has been recognized for her work by The U.S. Congress and many organizations. She was chosen as a Woman of the Year for 2013 and 2014 by the National Association of Professional Women. In March 2018, she was chosen for a 16th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Community Award in Watsonville and as Woman of the Year by Mark Stone's 29th District for 2019.
Adam Bolaños Scow is an Environmental Advocate and Musician based in Watsonville. Adam has worked for over 15 years in the Monterey Bay region and was a key leader in the campaigns to ban fracking in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties. Adam has supported successful community-based efforts to defeat water privatization in the region as well. He is a co-founder of the Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture, which is working to transition more Pajaro Valley farmland away from toxic pesticides towards organic. Adam serves as a Board Trustee for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
As a professional violinist, Adam performs both classical and Mexican music and is a cofounder of RosaAzul and Mariachi Libertad. Adam teaches for the El sistema youth orchestra programs in Watsonville and enjoys coaching youth mariachi in the region.
Chef Maria Gonzalez, a native of Watsonville, CA, cultivated her passion for culinary arts at a young age under the guidance of her mother and grandmother. Her dedication to the craft led her to pursue formal training, culminating in her graduation from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu program as a certified chef in 2012. An astute entrepreneur, Maria has successfully ventured into multiple business endeavors. In 2019, she established Cali Dawg, a renowned vegan food enterprise celebrated for its award-winning vegan hot dogs. Complementing her culinary pursuits, Maria is the visionary behind Flower Amor, a plant-based soap business committed to using only natural ingredients. Serving as the Operations Manager of Green Thumb Farms, a local agricultural gem in San Juan Bautista, Maria plays a pivotal role in the farm's operations. Collaborating with her partner Rudy, the founder of Green Thumb Farms, they both actively engage in food justice education for youth and spearhead the distribution of fresh produce to thousands of individuals monthly through farmers markets and a CSA program.
An anthropologist by training, Chef Emily Beggs studied culinary arts with home cooks in the Yucatan peninsula, forager-shepherds in the Chilean Andes, and as an apprentice at Three Stone Hearth in Berkeley. She has a keen appreciation of botany developed through decades of family camping trips, and weaves a lifelong fascination with both herbalism and California natural history into her recipes, which she shares alongside stories of Californian farmers and farmlands in Edible Monterey Bay Magazine. Emily holds a masters degree in Ecological and Environmental Anthropology from Stanford University, is a certified food safety manager, and has training in agroecology and permaculture design, which she uses to guide Kin & Kitchen's sourcing policies and resource use in the kitchen.