The Ceres Community Project

“The Form 990 is reviewed and approved by the finance committee and distributed to the board of directors prior to filing.”

“The organization reviews all compensation of officers and employees annually and requests disclosure of any possible conflict of interest of board members, officers and employees in order to enforce compliance with this policy.”

“The compensation of the Executive Director was compared to a study of non-profit salaries for similar sized organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

“The compensation of other employees were compared to a study of non-profit salaries for similar sized organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the public upon request in writing or in person.”

“Ceres Community Project's mission is to improve health for people, communities and the planet through love, healing meals and empowering the next generation. We accomplish this work through the following program areas: - Meal Program - Providing medically tailored meals, groceries and produce "prescriptions" to primarily low-income people who are struggling with serious and chronic health conditions and their families. This program includes nutrition education. - Youth Development - Engaging 14-19 year old youth as volunteers and paid interns growing food and preparing meals for our clients. Youth learning and healthy eating, develop job and leadership skills, and experience their value and belonging as contributing members of the community. - Affiliate Partner Program - Ceres trains communities across the US and in Denmark to replicate our integrated model for community health, and supports Affiliate Partners with ongoing support. - System Change - Through active participation in a dozen local, state and federal coalitions with advance system and policy change to improve access to healthy food, integrate food as a covered benefit in health care, and support organic and regenerative food systems. 2022 Results: - Meal Program - In 2022, we provided 202,810 meals - more than ever before - for 1,310 clients and their family members. The average length of service was 21 weeks. o 83.2% of clients are living on less than 200% of the federal poverty level o 43.3% are people of color; 33% are Latinx; and 27.5% are Spanish speakers o 52% are living along without support o 51% have diabetes, heart disease or another chronic conditions; 27.5% have a cancer diagnosis o Food insecurity: 46.5% of our clients are moderately food insure and 20% are extremely food insecure; the latter are offered extra meals and 88% of them accepted extra meals and/or a grocery bag - Youth Program - In 2022, we engaged 291 youth in 12,802 hours of training and leadership development. o Programmatically: - Launched a Healthy Eating Educator paid internship program with 12 youth - Moved the Sebastopol Garden to a site that is 50% larger with a 20 year lease - EXPANDED STAFF SUPPORT FOR THE PROGRAM WITH A PROGRAM MANAGER and full-time Youth Coordinator o Demographics: 65% of program participants are female and the share who identify has non-binary while small is growing; 44.3% of youth are active for 1 year or longer; 152 are involved in our Leadership Pathway - 83 in the first stage, having earned their Green Aprons, and 69 at Teen Leaders. Two Youth serve as full voting members of Ceres' board of directors.”

“- Systems & Policy Change: During 2022, Ceres remained active in a dozen regional, state and national coalitions working to build a healthier, more just and more sustainable food system, as well as continuing our work to educate our stakeholders and community about important issues related to building a healthy, just and sustainable future. Key highlights include: o White House Conference: On the policy front, the most important "win" was the September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, and the associated release of a new National Strategy. Ceres was an active participant is several listening sessions, submitted comment to the White House, published two opinion editorials, compiled a booklet of client impact stories and photos, and supported engagement via both the Food is Medicine Coalition (FIMC) and Root Cause Coalition were we are active members. The new National Strategy points to the importance of integrating food interventions into Medicaid and Medicare and specifically names medically tailored meals. o HR 5370, the Medically Tailored Meal Pilot in Medicare Bill: Via FIMC, we participated in several meetings with congressional representatives and helped develop 50 cosponsors for this bill. There was some hope on Congressman McGovern's part that it would be passed in the end of year omnibus bill but that did not happen. We expect to continue advancing this important federal legislation in 2023. o CalAIM Community Supports Benefit: The new medically tailored meal benefit under California's MediCal health system went live in January 2022. Building health care contracting and claims billing capacity was a significant priority for 2022. Ceres created two new positions (Contracts Manager and Data Analyst) and invested in several new technology solutions to support this work. After very slow progress in the early months, we were able to create some breakthroughs with the health plan in September. We ended the year with $94,000 in billings and are forecasting more than $600,000 in billing for 2023. o California Health Care Foundation CalAIM CBO Consortium: Ceres CEO was one of eight nonprofit leaders invited to participate in a CBO consortium to provide feedback to Department of Health Care Services on the roll-out of CalAIM. This is a critically important opportunity to shape the implementation of CalAIM in a way that benefits California CBOs, communities and local sustainable agriculture. This resulted in a presentation directly to DHCS staff and an invitation for an ongoing dialogue. Meetings will continue in 2023. o Health Action Together: Since early 2021, Ceres CEO has served on the transition team and then interim board overseeing the transition of Health Action, a 14-year initiative, from being operated under the county and Board of Supervisors to standing as an independent nonprofit. This included securing funding, establishing a new name and branding, and hiring staff. In 2023 Health Action Together will conduct an in-depth community engagement process and establish a community-led governance structure. o We participated in twelve coalitions supporting emergency response, health care, nutrition and food system change efforts. Among these, Ceres' CEO served on the Advisory Board for the Food is Medicine Coalition, on the interim board for Health Action Together, and on the Leadership Team for Hearts of Sonoma County. - Federal: Food is Medicine Coalition, The Root Cause Coalition, and The Federal Nutrition Advisory Coalition - State: California Food is Medicine Coalition, California Food & Farming Network, and Meals on Wheels California - Local: Health Action Together, Hearts of Sonoma County, Marin Food Policy Council, Sonoma County COAD, Marin County VOAD, and Marin HEAL o Media coverage about our work reached 23.1 million people via 27 stories in print, radio and TV. The majority of stories were by local press and included: o Educational communications reaching 44,000 on our website, 7,000+”

“- Affiliate Partner Program: There are eight active Affiliate Partner programs. Highlights in 2022 include: o The Loving Meal in Denmark opened a second program site. o A new program housed at the YMCA of Chattanooga made progress towards opening their first pilot. o We began discussions with potential new programs in Kentucky and California. o Several affiliate are engaged in capital campaigns to build new, larger facilities to support expansion.”