Date: July 17, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Author: Community Alliance with Family Farmers

Contact: Community Alliance with Family Farmers

P.O. Box 363 Davis, CA 95617-0363

(530) 756-8518

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“CAFF’s Newest Local Food Guide Showcases the Bounty of the Santa Clara Valley”

By: CAFF

The first edition of The Buy Fresh Buy Local Food Guide for the Santa Clara Valley is released and includes information on where to find and enjoy the region's best local food. The full-length guide features local farms, farmers markets, CSAs, wineries, restaurants, grocery stores and more in Santa Clara and San Benito counties.

For farmers and small artisanal food businesses, the Guide presents a unique outreach opportunity to consumers. Molly James from Frog Hollow Farms shares, “Like any other small business, one of our biggest challenges is getting the word out about our products. As a local farm CSA program, it's especially important for us to do so because signing up for a CSA requires folks to rethink they way they eat and the way the shop. Efforts like this local food guide help to educate consumers about why eating local is so important and helps find the best fit for them. For us as the local farm, it means more folks knowing not only what we offer, but [also] why it's such a great choice.”

In addition to the 75 member business listings, readers can enjoy an editorial from long-time Santa Clara Valley farmer Andy Mariani (pg. 5), a piece about the importance of shopping at your local farmers market (pg. 8), an article about CAFF's Farm to School work in the region, and a "Get to Know" article featuring Cloud 9 Olive Oil (pg. 18).

The guide also includes other helpful tools for the Santa Clara Valley’s locavores; readers can find a list of farmers markets around the region, with EBT and WIC friendly markets denoted alongside (pg. 9). For those new to the Buy Fresh Buy Local movement, the Top Ten Reasons to Buy Local (pg. 32) and Santa Clara Valley Seasonality Chart (pg. 11) are great places to start.

Please visit http://caff.org/programs/local-food-systems/local-food-guide/ to download a free digital copy of the Buy Fresh Buy Local guide for the Santa Clara Valley and to find BFBL guides for seven other California regions.

To celebrate the release of the guide, CAFF’s Santa Clara Valley Region will host its first annual farm to table dinner: “The Taste of Santa Clara Valley” on Sunday, September 14, 2014 at Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill. The catered dinner will highlight the bounty of our Santa Clara Valley Farmers, with proceeds benefiting CAFF’s food systems programs.

For tickets or information regarding the event, please contact Rosemary Quinn, Farm to Market Coordinator, at .

About CAFF: Founded in 1978, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers has been recognized nationally and internationally for its pioneering Biological Agriculture, Farm to School, Buy Fresh Buy Local, Public Policy and Technical Assistance programs. CAFF has played key roles in enacting the nation’s toughest laws regulating pesticide use, promoting the development of organic farming, bringing fresh, local produce into school cafeterias and classrooms, and establishing programs to distribute locally grown produce to community grocery stores, hospitals, restaurants and farmers markets.

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