What FoodWhat?! does

FoodWhat?! is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN #81-2590280) founded in 2007 and headquartered at 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California, with operational farm sites at the UCSC Farm & Garden and Discovery at Live Earth Farm in Watsonville. The organization runs a multi-stage youth empowerment and food justice program serving approximately 90 at-risk youth annually from Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, delivered through four seasonal components: Spring Internship (~70+ youth), Summer Job Training (~20+ youth), Fall Project (~15+ youth), and Junior Staff (~5 youth). Programs are free to participants and combine paid job training with organic farming, culinary arts, food justice education, and socioemotional support; youth also take home weekly produce boxes for their families.

The underlying methodology is farm-based youth empowerment pedagogy using agroecological practices on a half-acre organic farm as the experiential learning vehicle. Technology footprint is non-digital — no AI/ML, software products, or proprietary platforms — and the organization's primary infrastructure is physical (farm sites, gardens, a school-based farm stand at the Pajaro Valley USD Wellness Center). Supporting products include the Youth Resilience Fund (direct cash assistance to participant families), an Evidence Base Toolkit developed with UCOP Global Food Initiative, an annual report archive (2009-2025), and an annual Benefit Celebration Dinner.

Revenue is generated through individual donations, foundation and government grants, and designated funds such as the Youth Resilience Fund; youth programs are provided free of charge. Recruitment is supply-constrained, with 200-250 annual applicants for 90 positions via a school-based outreach model across 11 partner schools. In 2025 the organization acquired its first owned property ('Homebase'), marking a transition from leased partner sites toward permanent organizational infrastructure.

Name

FoodWhat?!

Legal name

FoodWhat?!

Website

https://foodwhat.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

FoodWhat?! is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2007 that delivers organic farming, culinary, and food justice programming to approximately 90 at-risk youth annually from Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley in Santa Cruz County, California, through paid job training across four seasonal program stages.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Youth Development Services

NAICS

Educational Services (61), Technical and Trade Schools (61151)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Youth & Young Adult Workforce Programs (Out-of-School Youth) (EDAAAOAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Outdoor Education & Adventure Programs (School-Run) (EDAJAJAJ), Nutrition, Special Diets & Wellness Cooking (EDAOAKAJ)

Keywords

• Youth empowerment programs
• Food justice education
• Organic farming training
• Culinary arts education
• Job training programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Santa Cruz Cabrália

HQ country

Brazil

HQ region

Latin America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: Tax-deductible donations from individuals supporting youth empowerment and food justice programs. Contact for donations directed to Director of Resources and Relationships.
2. Foundation and Government Grants: Grant funding from foundations and government sources to support youth job training and food justice programming.
3. Youth Resilience Fund: Designated fund to provide supplementary income directly to youth participants and their families, with the goal of $1,000 post-tax per participant.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

FoodWhat?! runs free, paid youth job training programs that combine organic farming, culinary arts, and food justice education for teens from Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley. The progressive multi-year program includes Spring Internship, Summer Job Training, Fall Project, and Junior Staff, with participants gaining farming and culinary skills, leadership development, and weekly produce boxes for their families. The organization is funded through donations and grants as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Product overview

FoodWhat?! is a youth empowerment and food justice organization offering a multi-year progressive leadership program for youth from Watsonville and Santa Cruz County. The organization operates a half-acre organic farm at the UCSC Farm & Garden and a partner farm site in Watsonville (Discovery at Live Earth Farm). Programs include the Spring Internship (70+ youth), Summer Job Training (20+ youth), Fall Project (15+ youth), and a Junior Staff leadership program (5 youth). Core programming centers on organic farming, culinary arts, and food justice, with supplementary programs including the Youth Resilience Fund for direct family financial support, the Photo-of-the-Month communication initiative, and an annual benefit dinner event.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Spring Internship Foundation-building program for approximately 70+ youth participants annually, covering organic farming, culinary arts, healthy food access, and skill-building workshops on cultural connections to food, food as medicine, community leadership, anti-racism, social justice, mental health, and nutrition.
• Summer Job Training Program Extensive four-days-per-week paid job training program for 20+ youth that includes harvesting, cooking, and eating nourishing food while launching equitable community food access projects. Youth harvest produce boxes for their families, run an affordable farm stand at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Wellness Center, and maintain school gardens.
• Fall Project Leadership development program for 15+ youth who put foundational skills into practice by operating farm sites, managing produce boxes, running the farm stand, leading school garden maintenance, and managing FoodWhat flower and pie businesses. Youth Event Planners also organize the Harvest Festival.
• Junior Staff Program Second-year leadership program for 5 youth who completed one year of FoodWhat programming and join FW staff in peer-to-peer leadership positions. Junior Staff are trained in Spring, co-lead in Summer, and continue in Fall in supportive roles.
• Youth Resilience Fund Supplementary income fund that provides direct financial support to FoodWhat youth participants and their families. The 2024/2025 goal was to raise $95,890 ($1,115 per participant) for 86 youth participants to support household stability during economic turbulence.

Quantifiable outcome

• 90 positions filled annually from 200-250 applicants, demonstrating high demand and selective admissions.
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Senator Bill Monning (17th Senate District)minorOthers · 5 June 2019State legislator who recognized FoodWhat as 2019 17th Senate District Nonprofit of the Year, providing official recognition and advocacy support.
• Santa Cruz Community Farmers' MarketsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Partnership since 2012 employing local youth in food systems positions and supporting their personal and professional development. Awarded 2018 Partnership Award.
• Pajaro Valley Community Health TrustminorOthers · 1 January 2017Awarded FoodWhat the 2017 Phil Rather Leadership Award recognizing exemplary leadership in promoting health and quality of life for Pajaro Valley residents.
• UCSC Farm & Garden (Center for Agroecology)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology provides access to a half-acre organic farm site for youth programming. Youth engage in farming activities on this site as part of the core curriculum.
• Discovery at Live Earth FarmcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner farm site in Watsonville that allows youth from the Watsonville area to participate in FoodWhat programming closer to home. Used for Fall Project and other programs.
• Pajaro Valley Unified School DistrictcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSchool district partnership includes a farm stand at the district's Wellness Center, school garden maintenance programs, and recruitment through district schools.
• Rooted In Community NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational grassroots network of youth empowerment programs focused on food, justice, and local economic development. FoodWhat Executive Director serves on the council that nourishes this network.
• UCSC Center for Agroecology FarmminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFarm and Land Stewardship Manager Kellee Matsushita-Tseng previously worked as instructor and assistant farm garden manager at UCSC Center for Agroecology Farm, creating professional connections.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Soul Fire Farm: New York-based farm that runs youth programs (SOUL FIRE in the GARDEN) and BIPOC farmer training rooted in food justice and land-based healing. Direct peer because it combines paid youth programming, organic farming practices, and an explicit food justice and equity framing very similar to FoodWhat's mission.
• Common Roots Farm: Santa Cruz, California-based farm providing accessible garden and farm education programs, including to youth with disabilities. Direct peer because it operates in the same Santa Cruz County geography and shares the accessible, experiential farm-based education model; FoodWhat staff member Lily Lucero previously worked there.
• Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA): Salinas, California-based nonprofit that provides farm-based education and business incubation for limited-resource farmers, including youth and Spanish-speaking cohorts. Direct peer because it combines paid agricultural training with socio-economic mobility outcomes for underserved communities in California's agricultural corridor.
• Real Food Farm: Baltimore-based urban farm operated by Civic Works that combines food production with youth apprenticeship and job training programs. Direct peer because it uses hands-on farming to teach job skills and food justice to local youth, paralleling FoodWhat's apprenticeship and Junior Staff model.
• Center for Land-Based Learning: California-based nonprofit operating farm-based education, youth leadership, and farmer training programs across the Sacramento and Central Valleys. Direct peer because it shares FoodWhat's core model of using organic agriculture as a vehicle for youth empowerment and job-readiness, with similar seasonal cohort structures and school-based recruitment.
• Project GROWS: Virginia-based nonprofit operating youth farming, food access, and farm-to-school programs in the Shenandoah Valley. Direct peer because it combines paid youth agricultural apprenticeships, produce distribution to families, and school partnerships in a comparable rural/youth food justice model.
• Edible Schoolyard Project: Berkeley, California-based nonprofit founded by Alice Waters that integrates organic gardening and culinary education into school settings for youth development. Direct peer because it shares FoodWhat's farm-to-classroom educational methodology and food justice framing, though it focuses more on in-school curriculum integration than paid job training.
• Big Green: National nonprofit that builds learning gardens in schools and trains educators to use them as outdoor classrooms. Direct peer because it serves similar school-based youth audiences and combines food access with experiential learning, though it operates at a significantly larger national scale than FoodWhat.
• Green Youth Farm (Chicago Botanic Garden): Chicago Botanic Garden's youth development program that employs teens on urban farms to grow and distribute produce while developing job and leadership skills. Direct peer because of its nearly identical structure: paid summer youth farming cohorts, produce distribution to families, and integration of food justice curriculum.

Broad incumbents

• The Food Trust: Philadelphia-based national nonprofit focused broadly on food access, nutrition education, and healthy food retail in underserved communities. Broad incumbent because it overlaps with FoodWhat on food justice and youth nutrition, but operates as a much larger policy and systems-change organization rather than a direct farm-based youth employer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/foodwhatfarm
• Instagraminstagram.com/foodwhatfam/?hl=en
• Xx.com/foodwhatfarm

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about FoodWhat?!