Capital Region Cares Capital Region Cares 2018-2019

F “The Fresher [Sacramento] appren- tices are pioneers,” says Rabbi David Azen, who founded the nonprofit. “We are providing scaffolding to support them, and ide- ally, this is their business, and they can take it as far as they possibly can.” Fresher Sacramento currently employs nine students from Hiram W. Johnson High School and American Legion High School who work, on av- erage, six hours a week, and receive a stipend of $100. Rebecca Bakken, di- rector of operations, has schooled the apprentices on nutrition, marketing, branding, merchandising, community outreach, financial plan- ning and salesmanship, and provided them with real-world applications. Rakeem Murdock is one such ap- prentice. In 2016, when Murdock was a senior in high school, his principal recommended that he work for Fresh- er Sacramento. Now at Sacramento City College with a major in market- ing, Murdock says that the marketing training he’s received at Fresher Sacra- mento has helped him succeed in his classes. Each meal comes in a reusable container branded by Fresher Sacra- mento’s apprentices and sells for $5 — cash, credit card or EBT food stamps. Menu items include vegetarian chilaq- uile casserole, chicken tortilla soup, chicken fajitas, red beans and rice and tri-tip. The meals are available ev- ery Tuesday in south Sacramento and Thursdays outside the Oak Park Com- munity Center. “The thing that I have noticed from going to the distribution sites and in- teracting with our customers is that they want to eat what they have always been eating — the unhealthy stuff — Popeyes and McDonald’s,” Ramirez says. “But, at the same time, they want to have nutrition in their meals.” Fresher Sacramento has also provided opportunities to its appren- tices beyond the kitchen. Murdock is an aspiring actor and starred in Fresher Sacramento’s first commercial, which aired on KCRA. “It is my first acting po- sition and just to get my first acting gig on a commercial — it was mind-blowing,” Mur- dock says. In the future, Fresher Sac- ramento hopes to expand its operations into more neigh- borhoods. “I don’t think that we are going to donate our way to the end of hunger,” says founder Azen, adding that community support for and under- standing of the food system is crucial. “We can have certain meals that sell for a higher price, and in a humbler ZIP code, they might sell for not as much. But folks can know that they are creat- ing value through their purchases and subsidizing our work in another loca- tion.” n rom behind a simple plastic folding table, the Fresher Sacramento team fulfills its mission of offering nutritious and locally sourced food to people in Oak Park and south Sacramento, while offering career training to at-risk high school students. “Our main focus is to serve whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables and complex carbs.” — Rebecca Bakken, director of operations, Fresher Sacramento “The meals are delicious, affordable and nutritious, and I like to tell people that intentionally, in that order,” Bak- ken says. “Our main focus is to serve whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables and complex carbs.” Luiz Ramirez, Fresher Sacramento’s executive chef, says his culinary mis- sion is to wed health and comfort foods by substituting leaner, more nutritious ingredients. After growing up in the Salinas Valley, where his parents were farmworkers, Ramirez understands the challenges of eating healthy while struggling to put food on the table. Corey Rodda is a freelance writer based in Sacramento. Her work has appeared in Comstock’s and Sacramento News & Review. comstocksmag.com | 2018-19 CAPITAL REGION CARES 57

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