As the pandemic shut down restaurants this spring, California farmers and ranchers saw their markets drop by half, leaving many with fields full of crops but no buyers. And as millions of people lost their jobs, the state’s food banks needed to triple their food supply.Fortunately for California, the state had a long-standing initiative tailor-made to help with these twin crises. The Farm to Family program, run by the California Association of Food Banks and the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture, pays farmers to send surplus produce to food banks.“All the farmers in California that we...
