COMMUNITY NEWS
Staff of Life Stocks Foods Made in Watsonville F oodie entrepreneurs at El Pájaro Community Development Corp. welcome Staff of Life Natural Foods Market, which opened in March in Watsonville, is now stocking their products — made in Watsonville by your friends and neighbors. El Pájaro CDC is a nonprofit offering culturally relevant services to underserved and underrepresented entrepreneurs in Santa Cruz Cruz and Monterey counties. The nonprofit helps local food startups launch in a commercial kitchen and develop their brands by providing no-cost information, training, resources, and business loans. Now, these small business owners are getting exposure at a long-established organic grocery and can sell their products at a larger scale. “We take pride in our history of working with and helping boost the growth of small producers in our community,” said Jason Bazarnick, co-owner of Staff of Life Natural Foods Market. “It allows us to
Staff of Life Staff (from left): Vicente Quintana (El Nopalito Produce, owner), Peggy Bascou, Martin Madriz (The Green Waffle, owner), Cesario Ruiz (manager of the kitchen incubator at El Pajaro CDC, and My Mom’s Mole, owner), Gary Bascou, Eriko Yokoyama (Hakouya Probiotics, owner), and Jason Bazarnick. further our mission of providing delicious natural and organic foods while supporting our local economy.” Some of the locally made products on the shelves are: • Hakouya Probiotics owned by
20 / July 15th 2021 / Aptos Times www.tpgonlinedaily.com
Eriko Yokoyama: Healthy, delicious products such as miso to add flavor to your life and probiotics to your gut. • El Nopalito Produce owned by Vicente Quintana: Fresh nopales that are locally grown, paddled, and processed — free of pesticides and other harmful chemicals. • The Green Waffle owned by Martin Madriz: An array of frozen waffles; loaded with wholesome ingredients, never adding sugar, artificial flavors, or preservatives — a healthy and delicious on-the-go breakfast option. • Teresa’s Gourmet Foods, owned by Catherine Masterson and Eve Krammer: Tasty salsas and simmer sauces made with all-fresh ingredients, no additives or preservatives – vegan and gluten-free salsas. • Quinoa from Agripacific Trading Co.: A variety of organic and gluten-free quinoa from Bolivia, an excellent source of protein, fiber, and many vitamins and minerals. In the bulk section of the store, you can take as much or as little as your heart desires. • Berries and produce from Sun Valley Farms, founded by Rogelio Ponce Sr.: Fresh and locally-grown, farmed and harvested on organic-certified land. • My Mom’s Mole owned by Cesario Ruiz : Award-winning mole packaged in powder form and refrigerated for versatility. Made with 25 spices and ingredients, it is vegetarian and veganfriendly — currently only available at the Santa Cruz store. Retail shelf space is a hot commodity, and with thin profit margins in the grocery sector, grocery giants charge a fee to makers of frozen food, seasonings and snack foods
to be featured on the shelves. The fee covers the cost to enter product data in the retailer’s inventory system and program its computers to recognize the product’s barcode. Retailers need a buffer as up to 90 percent of new product introductions fail, according to Victoria Vessella of Repsly, which generates data to make those decisions. Getting a new product in front of store buyers can be difficult, and cold calling people may be unproductive. One way to get exposure is to exhibit at trade shows but that can be expensive when you consider travel costs, accommodations and marketing materials. This is where El Pájaro Community Development Corp. came in, partnering with the team at Staff of Life Natural Foods Market. “Together we are helping our community’s small businesses thrive as they now have the exposure they need to serve a wider consumer base,” said Carmen Herrera-Masir, El Pájaro CDC director. “We acknowledge that the process of working with small producers requires additional work and effort as a commercial store, and for that, we appreciate the commitment of the Staff of Life team in this collaboration and praise their continuation of this tradition.” Asked what the Yellow Tier means for El Pajaro clients, Herrera-Masir said it “brings hope to all the entrepreneurs including the ones we serve. They are all optimistic and looking forward to full reopening of their businesses. All of them are working hard to achieve full recovery.” El Pajaro is also supporting startup companies that emerged during the pandemic. “As you know, a crisis also promotes creativity,” Herrera-Masir said. “Many people that lost their jobs are opting for entrepreneurship as a way to generate income for their families. Our organization staff and consultants have been working with these businesses every step of the way by helping them with coaching, education and access to financing that includes loans and grants. We never closed, we had to bring more staff.” For those not familiar with Staff of Life Natural Foods Market, it started in 1969 when Gary Bascou and Richard Josephson founded Staff of Life Bakery in Santa Cruz. “Staff of Life” page 27
