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Food Equity
At Reno Food Systems we believe food is a basic human right. We are invested in building a strong local food system with an empowered community to create equal access to healthy, nutritious food.
Our goal is to shift the mechanisms that have led to “Food Apartheid” by prioritizing tending the land in a regenerative & socially just ways then distributing produce to communities most impacted, predominantly to low income women, children & seniors and/or BIPOC community members.
Free, farm fresh produce grown at Park Farm is cleaned, packaged, and delivered to community partners who share our food justice goals.
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This approach allows us to foster and strengthen relationships by meeting people where they are at — empowering our neighbors to build a healthy and resilient community that meets the needs of all.
In 2023 alone, we donated ~ 6,000 pounds of farm fresh food & 600 seedlings to our community partners showcased below:
2023 & 2024 Food 4 All
Distribution Community Partners
2023 & 2024 Farm, Fresh Food 4 All
FREE Seedling Recipients Partners
2023 & 2024 Food 4 All
Community Garden Partners
Reno Food Systems is passionate about helping create community food sovereignty by donating locally adapted, seasonally appropriate annual and perennial seedlings to educational and community growing spaces that support people experiencing food insecurity.
2023 & 2024 Farm, Fresh Food 4 All
FREE Seedling Recipients Partners
2023 & 2024 Food 4 All
Community Garden Partners
Thanks to ARPA funds through the City of Reno, Reno Food Systems' has the pleasure and privilege of coordinating TWO Community Gardens for the first time.
One of the gardens is at Park Farm and is a collaboration with Tom & Iris Stille of River School Farms. We have a weekly, senior friendly volunteer opportunity each Wednesday from 7 to 8am as well as host a gardening workshop every second Sunday of each month until October. Kindly RSVP by clicking the link here.
Produce grown in the RFS community garden is shared amongst the seniors who come to any of our events and distributed to low income senior housing in the Reno area.
The other garden is at Paradise Park and is a collaboration between between Reno Food Systems, Center for Healthy Aging, and The City of Reno.
Our hope is that the Paradise Park Community Garden (PPCG) can be a welcoming, safe space that provides opportunities for those wanting to be outside, tend a garden, learn new skills, and grow their own food, which in turn, strengthens our local food system and the environment.
PPCG is a pesticide free garden and grow a variety of perennials, herbs, vegetables,
and cut flowers. There are 12, 4x8' in the ground plots folks can rent for only $5 as well as 9, 4x8' plots that are 36" high and senior and ADA friendly. In 2025 there will also be larger plots the team building opportunities for community partners.
We donate produce grown in the garden to our community partners such as Reno Housing Authority, Volunteers of America, The Eddy House, Women and Children's Center and many others working to strengthen food security in Reno.
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PPCG's volunteer day is every Tuesday from 7am to 12pm @ 2475 Elementary Dr. Kindly RSVP here.
Toni is the garden coordinator and can be reached at communitygarden @ renofoodsystems.org
Mutual Aid or Community Care is a holistic and people centered approach to addressing the
food insecurity that severely impacts our most vulnerable community members.
One of the barriers to joining the mutual aid food movement is not knowing how to cook in quantity so we created a mutual aid cookbook and offer a weekly mutual aid group for cooks of all skill levels.
Despite the plethora of recipes online, there are very few for large quantities so we created this collection of basic techniques, recipes, and general advice on how to cook in quantity:
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We also run a weekly mutual aid cooking crew where anyone is welcome to join: just come on down and join the fun of cooking, chopping, packaging and dropping off nutritious, delicious food!
Thursdays, 10AM-2PM
Reno Buddhist Center
225 West Taylor Street, Reno, NV 89509
In 2023 alone, the Together We Thrive Crew cooked and delivered a whopping 4,000 prepared meals to community pantries.
In collaboration with Northern Nevada Public Health (previously the Washoe County Health Department), during our growing season from July to November, Reno Food Systems provides Park Farm Produce to corner stores to bring fresh food into Food Apartheid neighborhoods who do not have nearby grocery stores, and whose residents rely on corner convenience stores which usually only stock highly processed foods.
We are currently working on our 2024 list of convenience stores that are interested in participating with us and NNPH.
Watch this space!
Thanks to ARPA funding through the City of Reno, from 2024 to 2026, we are collaborating with all sorts of entities to provide increased food access, nutrition education and community garden access to seniors in our community.
We have created a four prong approach to implement a thoughtful and diverse set of offerings to our senior community:
1) providing locally grown, fresh produce distribution to senior housing facilities.
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2) collaborating on delicious and nutritious cooking workshops with community partners like Community Health Alliance and UNR’s Cooperative Extension
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3) raising awareness and connectivity in regards to the Senior Farmers Market Coupons ... and lastly we are
4) stewarding two senior community gardens starting in the growing season of 2024.
Please join our community’s local food networking site here called GrowingNV to learn more about our local food community. All of our senior-based events can be found in detail.
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You can also check out the city’s webpage for an up to date list of senior friendly services: https://www.reno.gov/community/seniors or call the City’s Senior Engagement Coordinator, Izabella at 775-351-4771 or email our Serving Our Seniors Community Outreach Director, Jolene.
Serving Our Seniors
Community Partners
Please consider donating to us to support
our current programming
Donations are vital to ensure Reno Food Systems is able to continue our important work. Please click here for information on how you can support us!
Reno Food Systems is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. EIN:81-1021982.
All donations are tax deductible.