Three Leaves is Fundraising for Our New Kitchen!
Dear Community:
Three years ago, I purchased Three Leaves Foods, in order to continue to evolve the mission of Sonoma County’s only Community Supported Kitchen, offering high quality, nutritionally dense foods prepared with love. This felt like a perfect next step from having worked at the local hospital in Sebastopol and The Ceres Community Project before that. Food is my passion and it gives me joy to feed people who may not have the time or skill to cook from scratch.
With my amazing team, we do the planning, shopping, food preparation, and mountains of dishes, so you and your loved ones can gather around the table to enjoy a meal and each other. We partner with local farmers to select organic produce at its peak of freshness and provide a variety of options to meet diverse dietary needs. When we started, we were a staff of just 4. Now, we’ve doubled our staff and we estimate that we feed about 200 people a week! We take this work very seriously and care about doing the best job we can, offering the freshest and highest quality ingredients. As we’ve steadily grown over the years, we knew we’d eventually need our own commercial kitchen. When we found something just 1.7 miles away, we seized the opportunity. Three Leaves will have its new home at 925 Corporate Center Parkway, Suite D, off Sebastopol Road. We’re excited about this location and its possibilities. One of our original intentions that we look forward to enacting includes classes so anyone can learn to cook. We value education greatly and wish to empower those who would seek to learn about food and health. We believe in community and this would give us ways to bring people together. Additionally, we wish to be able to fulfill the requests we receive for catering.
Looking back at when we signed the contract to develop our new commercial kitchen, many people told us it would take twice as long and cost twice as much as expected. They were right! Let’s just say the learning curve has been steep. Many of you are aware of the many obstacles and unknown costs we have faced, and we have been thankful for your kind words and support throughout this process. You already know that the design is complete, the permits are done, construction is underway.
As we move into the new year, we are anxious to complete this project and make this move happen ASAP. A year of paying rent in two places has been difficult. We’ve installed the required hood ventilation system and the walk-in refrigerator, and we’ve paid for many other materials, labor, and required fees. Many of you check in every week, and many have asked how you can support our efforts. One way you can help is by continuing to purchase our foods, and by continuing to spread the word about Three Leaves to you friends and family. Our business depends on you to grow.
While we are moving forward, we are about one third short of our funding goal and we are reaching out to you, our community, for help to bring us to our new home. We need to raise $80,000 in order to finish our project.
With your investment, you can help us make this dream a reality. Here are some of the fundraising ideas we have come up with:
Anyone who participates in contributing to our fundraising campaign will also receive an invitation to a very special VIP event. As we start the new year, we are aware that we need to push our project to completion. Capital is the essential ingredient for this particular recipe so we hope that you consider making an investment in Sonoma County’s only Community Supported Kitchen. We thank you so much for your support to achieve our dream and can’t wait to serve you in our new location, hopefully very soon!
Warmly,
Rob, Celosia, and the Three Leaves Team
