\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get [students] to have access to food, but we want it to be healthy food, and so we have to help change their behaviors so they like healthy food and will eat it,\u201d Stott said. \u201cOur program combines those solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
A dream materializes![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/108-1024x683.jpg\")
Food Literacy Center CEO Amber Stott distributes honey to elementary students to top their oatmeal on Feb. 4, 2026 in Sacramento. (Photo by Andri Tambunan)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stott has worked in the nonprofit sector her whole career. She started Food Literacy Center<\/a> as a result of the Great Recession, and the upheaval it caused to everyday people and to nonprofits. She was also reading books on the American \u201cfood system,\u201d a concept that had not previously been on her radar.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was this fire that ignited in my belly that I couldn\u2019t put out,\u201d she said, \u201cand the only way to quell this was to go out and find out how I could be part of fixing this broken food system.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, childhood obesity rates were on the rise and diet-related diseases had become the leading cause of death in America. For the first time in more than two centuries, children were not projected to live<\/a> to be older than their parents. (Some experts say while younger generations may end up living longer, they will do so in poorer health). Stott consulted local nonprofits to see where gaps existed; she decided to focus on healthy eating among children. She started FLC as a pilot at a friend\u2019s after-school program in Oak Park.<\/p>\n The opportunity for the state-of-the-art facility traces back to around 2015 and the development of The Mill at Broadway, an urban infill project of loftstyle housing. The developer had to mitigate the impact of building on open space. Stott says restaurateur Josh Nelson, of Selland Family Restaurants, connected her with the developer, and FLC became part of a burgeoning partnership with SCUSD and City of Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe dream really started to materialize,\u201d Stott says.<\/p>\n FLC held the facility\u2019s official ribbon cutting in September 2022. The entire 2.5 acres and the facility are owned by the school district. The City has two easements, which include a community garden run by its Department of Parks and Recreation (plots are available to rent) and the student farm, which FLC operates.\u00a0<\/p>\n With the facility\u2019s commercial prep kitchen, FLC staff pack up utensils, equipment and produce to then provide free, hands-on cooking classes during after-school programs at local campuses. \u201cThe main thing that Food Literacy Center does is we pack up all these crates and wagons, and we load our cars and we drive away from here,\u201d Stott said.<\/p>\n Food Literacy Center is now in 23 schools in three districts, which include SCUSD, Robla School District and Washington Unified School District, with a goal to be in 40 campuses by 2027. The organization serves grades kindergarten through sixth, but is also in Luther Burbank High School and aims to eventually work with other middle schools and high schools.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are growing and expanding,\u201d Stott said. \u201cThe need obviously continues to rise, because we\u2019re targeting kids who are at highest risk for diet-related disease, and those kids are the kids who are hungry. So this is a combination food-access solution [and] health prevention, because the kids who don\u2019t have enough to eat tend to only have access to those very high-calorie, low-nutritional type foods.\u201d<\/p>\n H.R. 1, Trump\u2019s \u201cOne Big, Beautiful Bill,\u201d signed into law in July 2025, eliminated federal funding for SNAP nutrition education. As a result, in California, the CalFresh Healthy Living nutrition education program<\/a> will cease operations by this summer, after more than 30 years of programming.<\/p>\n The elimination of federal funds for nutrition education is just one part of the $186 billion cuts to SNAP over the next decade, which experts say could lead to more food insecurity and hunger. SNAP provides<\/a> families at or below 130% of the poverty line money to buy food with EBT cards. About 42 million people received SNAP benefits in 2023<\/a> (the most recent data available), children under 18 accounted for 39% of participants<\/a>.<\/p>\n In California, an estimated 732,000 residents may lose SNAP benefits due to new eligibility and time limit requirements, which go into effect in April and June, according to the California Association of Food Banks<\/a>.<\/p>\n The average income for families in Sacramento\u2019s Marina Vista and nearby Alder Grove communities is about $19,500 annually, according to Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Of Leataata Floyd\u2019s roughly 220 students<\/a>, 94% are considered \u201csocioeconomically disadvantaged.\u201d All of the campuses served by Food Literacy Center are Title 1 schools.<\/p>\n FLC has found that food access is greatly needed in today\u2019s economic climate. They used to do occasional food distributions, usually before holiday breaks when kids wouldn\u2019t be able to access school lunches. Now they regularly get calls from principals. One type of distribution they offer is an after-school kids farmers market, using food from food banks; the children get fake money to shop. These are popular events among the families FLC serves.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re just having the hardest time making ends meet, because as the price of everything goes up, their wages are not,\u201d Stott said. \u201cWe are seeing that folks just really need free food because they need what little budget they do have for other things.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, Food Literacy Center, which had assumed operations of the Oak Park Farmers Market in 2023, announced in a video the closure<\/a> of the once-popular market<\/a> started in 2010 that had run Saturdays from April to November. Stott said the financial reality of the market made it clear they had no choice but to shutter it, and to instead reach more families with their school cooking and nutrition program.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the video, Stott stated they spent $10,000 per market, but only reached an average of 40 EBT customers each week. That was a cost of $250 per EBT customer, she said, adding that the FLC program is more cost-effective, reaching 800 food-insecure kids per week, for a cost of about $16 per student, per week.<\/p>\n \u2018Favorite thing ever\u2019 On a February afternoon, 21 students in a fourth-fifth grade class from Leataatta Floyd gathered at Food Literacy Center for a cooking class, which they do weekly for one trimester. They go there during the school day to receive their health and science education.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their instructor, Sabrina White, proceeded to teach them about their produce of the day \u2014 daikon radish \u2014 which the children taste-tested, and most then promptly spit into the trash. They learned about how carbohydrates give people energy, and the differences between complex and simple forms.<\/p>\n Fifth-grader Elizabeth, 10, said attending the cooking class has led her to eat more fruits and vegetables. \u201cI really like oranges,\u201d she said. \u201cI eat oranges with every meal.\u201d<\/p>\n After a matching game with carbohydrates and practice reading a food label, it was time for the children\u2019s favorite part of the class: preparing and eating their meal. On this day, they made oatmeal \u2014 their first time using the workstations\u2019 stove tops \u2014 topped with honey, orange zest, cinnamon and apples they had chopped.<\/p>\n \u201cThey love, love cooking class,\u201d said their teacher, Allison Scranton, who is in her first year with the school. \u201cIt\u2019s their favorite thing ever. Today, they were melting down and I was like, \u2018You\u2019re going to use the stove for the first time, you do not want to miss this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The cooking class gets children to work together to prepare and share a meal, and they are constantly trying new foods. \u201cThere was a sunbutter and peaches recipe,\u201d Scranton said. \u201cOne kid was nervous to try it. He just took one bite, and he looked at me and was like, \u2018Where can I buy this? My mom needs to buy this.\u2019 Which is so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n To wrap up the class, the kids suggested other fruit they could put in oatmeal \u2014 strawberries, blueberries, dried bananas.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it\u2019s better when you put more fruit in it,\u201d Elizabeth said, as she ate the last bit of her oatmeal. \u201cIt really has a good flavor to it and it\u2019s very healthy. I would love to eat this in my everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n This shift in thinking is the result of partners working together and funders with vision to change the culture around schools and healthy eating. Stott said they are getting closer, even as the need continues to grow.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you start in a new school, all the kids are hesitant,\u201d Stott said. \u201cBut when you\u2019ve been in a school for three, four or five years, you get kindergarteners who grow up hearing stories about the Food Literacy program \u2026 and they\u2019re not even hesitant. They\u2019re just like, \u2018My sister does that, she\u2019s in fourth grade, and I can\u2019t wait to do it too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Diana Flores, executive director of SCUSD\u2019s Nutrition Services, Central Kitchen & Distribution Services, agrees that it takes a big mental shift to get children to eat healthy foods if they haven\u2019t been exposed to them before.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her district has focused on improving school meal programs, which are difficult to execute due to cost limitations, facility challenges, understaffing and lack of sufficient money for food, said Flores. With a background in the restaurant industry, she knew there were ways the district could do better.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSlowly, but surely, [we] started changing our menus at the high schools because we had more staff there and bigger kitchens and the right facilities, and we had a lot of success,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWe could never get there for our elementary students because the kitchens are smaller and there\u2019s not enough staff.\u201d<\/p>\n To meet its goals, SCUSD joined forces with FLC and Soil Born Farms<\/a> to advocate for the Central Kitchen, a ballot measure-funded facility opened in 2021 where scratch-made school meals are prepared using local sourcing. (Flores said about 65% of the menu currently is made from scratch food, but a more feasible long-term percentage is likely around 50%.)<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re super excited about where we\u2019re at,\u201d Flores said. \u201cBut a lot of it relies on our students actually changing their taste profiles and not wanting chicken nuggets and cheese pizza and corn dogs all the time, and wanting to eat more dinner-style, healthy options and scratch made.\u201d<\/p>\n The Central Kitchen tries to meet different cultures by producing scratchmade meals like chicken pot pies, chilli, refried beans, tacos and butter chicken. But what the district is not able to do is teach students nutritional education, which is why the partnership with Food Literacy Center is critical, said Flores, who wants food literacy to happen in all grades K-12 for lifelong learning habits.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen home economics and basic cooking left schools decades ago, I do think that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Flores said. \u201cWe have multiple generations of students graduating from school that have never learned to cook. If you don\u2019t know how to cook, you\u2019re not eating healthy at home. \u2026 And then we\u2019re seeing, now, poor health outcomes of this next generation \u2026 and it\u2019s all related to diet-related diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n Flores believes in what Food Literacy Center does because she has observed the difference the education makes, between children willing to try a healthy vegetable, for instance, and those who are fearful and do not know different types of produce.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would have a zucchini and a cucumber in our hands \u2014\u00a0and we\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, can you tell me what these are?\u2019 And they didn\u2019t even know they were different. But if you go to Food Literacy schools, they know that\u2019s [a] cucumber,\u201d Flores said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Soil Born Farms, along the American River in Rancho Cordova, has worked with FLC since Stott\u2019s early days running the organization. As part of this trifecta partnership, Soil Born runs a school gardens program where children learn how produce is grown and what is in season; SCUSD has the same items in its school salad bars through its Central Kitchen; and FLC teaches the children how to cook and prepare the healthy, seasonal produce for themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cFood Literacy Center has a beautiful facility and culinary programs that they\u2019re aspiring to put in 40 after-school programs,\u201d said Shawn Harrison, co-founder and co-director of Soil Born. \u201cThat\u2019s a real game changer. Combined with a network of active school gardens and a Central Kitchen that does scratch cooking and local sourcing, including from our own farm, we are now approaching a real systems change that\u2019s about getting good, healthy food into kids\u2019 bodies every day for some of our most under-resourced students in Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n Designed with children in mind The 1-acre farm behind the Food Literacy Center facility was a vacant lot for so long the weeds took over and farmers have had to fight to reclaim the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n The crew is doing occultation where weeds are covered with light-blocking tarps that kill off the weeds and eliminate the need for spraying pesticides, also producing healthier soil. The kids work on a small portion of the land, with the staff farm coordinator, Erin Morris, overseeing the whole space.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morris majored in international agricultural development but didn\u2019t use her degree post-college, instead doing small business development in San Francisco. The pandemic made her rethink her career, and she completed a farmer apprenticeship at the Center for Land-Based Learning in Woodland. In September 2024, she got the job at Food Literacy Center \u2014 and had her work cut out for her.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the interview, we walked out, we took a tour, and my first assessment was this is like 90% weeds out here,\u201d she said, with a laugh. In particular, the Johnson grass was a difficult weed to kill. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been pretty successful. A lot of it\u2019s gone, but OK, it\u2019s a farm \u2014 always gonna have a couple of weeds on it.\u201d<\/p>\n In early February, the farm was growing its cool season crops, including garlic, collards, kale, cabbage and cauliflower. Morris\u2019s crop plans for upcoming seasons will be based partly on community feedback from surrounding families. \u201cWe\u2019re growing stuff in anticipation of seeing how the community either likes or doesn\u2019t like what we\u2019re growing, and then being able to adjust from there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The children may not always like the produce, such as the radishes they grow, but seeing the connection between the field and what they eat makes it exciting. FLC designed the farm with children in mind, for instance with wider pathways than are found on a production farm.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI designed it with the thought of: There\u2019s nothing out here that a little kid could touch something and completely ruin it,\u201d Morris said. \u201cYou know, they\u2019re kids. They\u2019re gonna run around. They\u2019re gonna step on plants on accident. It\u2019s part of the fun of being outside and being able to experience that.\u201d<\/p>\n Once the cooking trimester is done this spring, the students will begin their farming trimester. When they visit the farm with the strawberry tree, they will find a path that travels right down the middle. That was intentional, appealing to a child\u2019s natural instinct to see a long straightaway \u2014 and sprint from one end to the other.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time we bring a class here, we let them run,\u201d Stott said. \u201cYou can\u2019t keep them from it, at least not very successfully. We build it into our program that they can run down and back, and every single kid wants to do it. \u2026 It\u2019s awesome to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n This story is part of a six-part series called \u201cSolving California,\u201d a project of the Solving Sacramento<\/a>journalism collaborative that explores models to improve California. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, CapRadio, Capitol Weekly, Hmong Daily News, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review and Sacramento Observer.Support stories like these here<\/a>, andsign up for our monthly newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Sena Christian One day, there was no tree. The following day, a fully grown strawberry tree sat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[91109,121,123,122,91110],"class_list":{"0":"post-195019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-food-literacy-in-sacramento","9":"tag-sacramento","10":"tag-sacramento-headlines","11":"tag-sacramento-news","12":"tag-the-food-literacy-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/93-1024x683.jpg\")
From left: Elementary students Nevaeh, Lyric and Danny cut apples into small pieces to add as one of their toppings to their oatmeal at Food Literacy Center on Feb. 4, 2026 in Sacramento. (Photo by Andri Tambunan)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Solving-Sacramento_Food-Literacy_AT_28-683x1024.jpg\")
Elementary student, Elizabeth (age 10), raises her hand to answer a question during a cooking class at Food Literacy Center on Feb. 4, 2026 in Sacramento. (Photo by Andri Tambunan)\u00a0<\/p>\n