Yolo Food Bank Sutter Health provides a seed grant for Cultivo program. Photo courtesy of Yolo Food Bank

YOLO COUNTY, CA (MPG) – Cultivo’s 2025 work season kicked off last week in Winters, where Yolo County Supervisor Lucas Frerichs joined Yolo Food Bank staff to help distribute fresh, culturally appropriate food to more than 70 agricultural worker households with 2,100-plus pounds of food. The event marked the beginning of another agricultural season for Yolo County’s farmworker families.

Supervisor Frerichs, who represents Winters, has been a champion of the program since its inception. Following Sutter Health’s bold $200,000 two-year seed investment in 2024 that launched Cultivo, Frerichs contributed $20,000 of his district’s community benefit fund resources to help the program grow, an investment that continues to inspire others to step forward.

Yolo Food Bank agriculture workers in line for food distribution at event in Winters. Photo courtesy of Yolo Food Bank

Launched in 2024, Cultivo was created in response to findings from Yolo Food Bank’s Yolo County Food Access Survey Report, which found that 53% of agricultural worker households in the county experience food insecurity. With approximately 7,000 farmworkers in Yolo County, this underscores an ongoing inequity: those working to feed our communities often face the greatest barriers to feeding their own families. Cultivo, meaning “crop” in Spanish, is rooted in distributing culturally relevant food and connecting this community to resources.

“I’m proud to support Cultivo and witness the impact it’s having right here in Winters and across the county,” said Frerichs. “I hope others across Yolo County, individuals, businesses, and organizations, will join the effort to support our essential agricultural workforce.”

Yolo Food Bank Supervisor Lucas Frerichs volunteers at Cultivo event in Winters. Photo courtesy of Yolo Food Bank

Last year, Yolo Food Bank’s Cultivo program served more than 1,000 households with 36,000-plus pounds of food across 13 distributions at their places of work and residence. The success of Cultivo has been made possible in large part through our close collaboration with Yolo County’s YoloWorks! Agricultural Labor Program, whose partnership has been instrumental in helping the Food Bank connect directly with farmworker communities.

This year, the program is scaling up to serve more than 2,500 agricultural households in need. The organization has implemented recurring food distributions through October at four housing complexes and two agricultural sites. Additional one-time distributions are also being planned to increase reach during the off-harvest months.

Yolo Food Bank Supervisor Lucas Frerichs sponsors a Cultivo event in Winters. Photo courtesy of Yolo Food Bank

“Cultivo’s approach is simple yet powerful: bring fresh, healthy, culturally familiar foods directly to farmworkers where they live and work, eliminating transportation barriers, building trust, and respecting cultural needs that are too often overlooked in traditional food assistance models,” said Karen Baker, executive director of Yolo Food Bank. “Supervisor Frerichs and Sutter Health both embody what it means to be responsive to our community’s needs. Their shared commitment is a powerful example of what happens when local leadership and philanthropy work hand-in-hand.”

As food insecurity continues to disproportionately impact rural and agricultural communities, Cultivo offers a hopeful, community-powered solution that is growing stronger every season.

For more information about Cultivo or to learn how you can support the program, visit www.yolofoodbank.org.