About
Mission
North Coast Food Web (NCFW) is an Astoria, Oregon based nonprofit working to cultivate a resilient and equitable food system by supporting producers and improving access to local food.
Vision
The North Coast Food Web envisions a community that is home to a diverse and thriving group of farmers, fishers, foragers and value added food producers. Fresh, local food is accessible for all of us, regardless of who we are, our financial means and our cultural backgrounds. Local food is a pillar of our regional economy and culture, and is a visible contributor to our ecological and economic resilience.
Much of the early work was building relationships within the community including ones with volunteers, schools, families, Oregon Food Bank and its local subsidiary, Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank, OSU Extension, local governments, and other non-profit groups. These collaborations helped us educate and engage children, families, and communities by building the skills to grow food, increase access to local agriculture, develop cooking and nutrition skills and encourage citizen involvement in the development of a healthy food system. NCFW did a variety of types of programs for years, often focused on education. We also helped start the River People Farmers Market, in order to ensure that folks using SNAP benefits were able to access fresh, local produce.
We also began working directly with farmers and starting food businesses. We opened our first business incubation program in 2019 at our location on 18th street, providing commercial kitchen access to new businesses. When Covid 19 hit, we pivoted to a year round online farmers market, which is one of our core programs today. We have a steadily growing commitment to food access, reflected in our multi-part Food Access Initiative.
Justice
We define justice as a system in which equity is the norm. We work in pursuit of justice by acknowledging and dismantling existing racial and class barriers to equitable food access and food production in our community. We value people over profits, and center our work on the needs of vulnerable populations, including low-income consumers and food producers, people of color, and immigrants and refugees.
Community
We understand our community is part of an intricate food system, made up of social, economic, political and ecological systems. We are embedded and invested in our local community, and celebrate the web of connection that growing, making, and sharing food provides. We support farmers and food businesses that strengthen our community’s well being. We create opportunities for all community members to access and engage with this local food. We understand that in doing so, we also strengthen our resilience and ability to thrive.
Nourishment
We believe that access to good food is a basic human right. We provide nourishment:
• To individuals through access to good food
• To our local food system through supporting local food businesses to grow and thrive
• To our community through dynamic local partnerships
• To surroundings through a commitment to land stewardship and resiliency
Responsiveness
We are active listeners and respond to the real needs expressed by our community. We practice transparency about who we are, what we do, and what motivates us. When we make mistakes, we are both clear and responsive in our corrections.
Jesse Jones
Executive Director
Jesse grew up in a mill town an hour from Astoria, where she would visit with her family to load shrimp shells onto a flatbed truck to sow into a large vegetable garden at home. Finding and eating local food and meeting the makers and growers has been a lifelong joy, as is eating and cooking. Before joining the Food Web, water was a thread in her work which included coordinating salmon habitat restoration in state and private forests, planning streamside conservation with farmers and ranchers and managing community science projects on Oregon beaches. When not working she is most likely planning a meal with friends, hiking, foraging for wild foods, writing, and making and listening to music.
Lila Barrett
Deputy Director
Lila has been at NCFW for over three years and has seen the organization through many eras. Starting in 2021 as the Market Manager, Lila learned the ins and outs of running a small farmers market in Astoria before transitioning into the role of Operations Manager to better serve emergent organizational needs. Now, Lila is settled into the role of Deputy Director - managing operations, financial administration, communications, and staff management. Lila has helped NCFW develop new systems to accommodate fast growth of staff and programs, and has a passion for effective systems and teams. Lila believes in the strength of our local community of farmers & food makers, the power of our incredible staff, and the opportunity for us to make lasting change in our local food system together.
Shelby Meyers
Director of Impact
With a background in landscape architecture and as prior manager of Astoria Sunday Market, Shelby Meyers brings local experience in small business development, project management, and ecological planning to her role of Director of Impact. She's thrilled that her experience can combine to support the resiliency of vibrant food systems on the North Coast. She also loves to weave tapestries with fishing line, grow herbs, flowers, and veggies in her hobbit garden, and eat homemade meals from all of the great cooks in her life.
Andy Catalano
Program Manager
Andy started his professional life in food on an organic farm in Italy in 2005, so food has always been an expression of place. Having cultivated close relationships with local producers, combined with nearly 20 years in kitchens from Italy to New York to Portland to Astoria, Andy understands the complicated structural challenges of rebuilding a local food system. These days he is eager to offer support to local producers, and glad to be able to spend his work time near a kitchen, but not always in a kitchen! Off work, Andy cherishes time with his wonderful family and slow meandering hobbies like gardening and woodworking.
Twila Pierson
Market & Food Access Manager
Twila Pierson joined the North Coast Food Web team in 2022, bringing a wealth of expertise in food systems to her role as Market and Food Access Manager. Twila feeds people, it’s just what she does. Passionate about facilitating community access to local food, Twila collaborates closely with local producers at every stage of their businesses, to enhance local food accessibility. Her enthusiasm for this mission is matched by her love for all things culinary. Twila is a self proclaimed sauce aficionado. Her friends say her magic trick is that she can create a meal out of whatever is on hand, when there is “nothing in the kitchen to eat”. When she’s not working, she enjoys exploring the outdoors, foraging for delicious ingredients, and going on adventures with her dog, Gretel.
Andrea González
Communications & Admin Assistant
Andrea is the newest staff member at NCFW joining us as our Communications & Admin Assistant. Her connection to the food systems is deeply rooted, as her grandparents were corn, bean, and jicama farmers in Mexico. Andrea is passionate about farmworker rights and brings several years of experience leading work with the local Spanish speaking community. She has also been a part of the Oregon Food Bank’s Policy Leadership Council and was part of our Advisory Board before joining the team. She loves spending time with her family and in her spare time enjoys reading, foraging, and rockhounding.
Cristian Martinez
Market & Outreach Manager
In his new role as a Market Manager for our North Coast Online Farmer’s Market program, Cristian aims to create a welcoming environment for the local Spanish-Speaking community, by breaking down the language barriers that currently exist in our local food systems. Through his Public Health degree from Oregon State University and previous internship experience - providing general nutritional education services to Tillamook families on behalf of the Oregon State University Extension Service office - he has developed a growing passion for supporting his local community that has since resonated closely with him. Also, if you didn’t already know, Cristian LOVES food and will gladly eat your fries while you’re not looking. He also loves tacos and is always looking for the best deal on tacos in town!
Community Collaborations
We are part of a dynamic, multi-state network of organizations, businesses and agencies, all aligned with the goal of sharing resources and best practices, and collective problem solving. These partnerships help keep our work fresh and solidly grounded in real needs of both producers and consumers in the food system. We have current active collaboration with:
Friends of Family Farmers
Astoria Sunday Market
Black Food Sovereignty Coalition
Heritage Museum
Astoria Food Co-op
Food Roots
CCA
Oregon Food Bank
Oregon Community Food Systems Network
Astoria Food Hub
Clatskanie Food Hub
Funding Partners
As a nonprofit organization committed to keeping our programs accessible, we rely on our funding partners. Thanks to:
USDA Local Food Promotion Program
USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program
USDA Rural Business Development
Capital Assistance for Local Farmers (CALF) Award via Friends of Family Farmers
Healy Foundation
Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
City of Astoria
Clatsop County
City of Cannon Beach
City of Gearhart
The Collins Foundation
Roundhouse Foundation
Oregon Food Bank
ColPac CCO
USDA
We incorporated the deeper meaning of some of that work into our organizational Strategy Screens, which help guide our decision-making (everything from hiring and HR policies and practices, to new programs decisions). We also moved quickly into action once we had those grounding values.
What follows is a status report for our community of what we have in place and how we are acting on our equity and justice values:
1) Values
Our revised organizational values in our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan are as follows:
North Coast Food Web believes that cultivating a resilient and just food system is long-term, complex work. We celebrate our capacity to grow and adapt to the evolving environmental and economic crises of our community and our world. Our work is grounded in and guided by our values, which are outlined below.
Justice
We define justice as a system in which equity is the norm. We work in pursuit of justice by acknowledging and dismantling existing racial and class barriers to equitable food access and food production in our community. We value people over profits, and center our work on the needs of vulnerable populations, including low-income consumers and food producers, people of color, and immigrants and refugees.
Community
We understand our community is part of an intricate food system, made up of social, economic, political and ecological systems. We are embedded and invested in our local community, and celebrate the web of connection that growing, making, and sharing food provides. We support farmers and food businesses that strengthen our community’s well being. We create opportunities for all community members to access and engage with this local food. We understand that in doing so, we also strengthen our resilience and ability to thrive.
Nourishment
We believe that access to good food is a basic human right. We provide nourishment:
• To individuals through access to good food
• To our local food system through supporting local food businesses to grow and thrive
• To our community through dynamic local partnerships
• To surroundings through a commitment to land stewardship and resiliency
Responsiveness
We are active listeners and respond to the real needs expressed by our community. We practice transparency about who we are, what we do, and what motivates us. When we make mistakes, we are both clear and responsive in our corrections.
2) FOOD ACCESS
In 2023, we undertook a multi-part project focused on food access, including deepening our Spanish language capacity as a full staff and translating our materials into Spanish; a free food box initiative funded by Oregon Food Bank; and low-income resident outreach. We also continue to accept SNAP, FDNP and Double Up Food Bucks, allowing people who receive government assistance to use our market and access fresh and healthy food. This work continues in 2024.
3) Internal Practices
We have taken significant steps as an organization to embody equity and justice within our staff. Raising wages to be livable and fair, adding benefits, and explicitly valuing different life experiences in hiring processes are some of the more visible aspects of these changes. Less apparent are changes to organizational culture, in alignment with dismantling white supremacy and internalized capitalism.
We are still learning, and we welcome community reflections on how well we are doing on this journey. Please feel free to reach out if you have questions, concerns or offers of perspective or support that you feel NCFW (and by extension all the people we touch) would benefit from.
In solidarity and community,
Yana
