Mission and Story

MIssion

Tera Farm is a California nonprofit on a mission to support small farmers while helping consumers build connections with the food they eat.  We work on two fronts to achieve this mission:

FOR THE CONSUMER : Tera Farm

Under the Tera Farm brand, we connect consumers to their local farms with

  • Access to fresh produce from local farms:  We run the Tera Farm Farm box service where consumers order fully customizable farm boxes of fresh local organic vegetables and fruit, with no delivery fees or subscriptions. Produce is packed on local farms and delivered to neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area and Monterey County. Tera Farm’s volunteers manage pick up locations, known as neighborhood sites.
    Tera Farm has been operating this proven program since 2020, it manages the online store, marketing, operations, and customer service, ensuring 100% of the proceeds go directly to the farmers.

  • Farm visits:  We offer opportunities to visit local farms to learn the joys and challenges of growing organic food in our area. Customers of the farm box service receive invitations to farm visits. Tera Farm also organizes custom field trips to different farms for schools and other groups. 

  • Ongoing education via newsletters and blogs:   We share information through weekly newsletters and blog posts about life on our local farms, seasonal recipes, and tips for how to eat  local. Join our mailing list now!

FOR THE SMALL FARMER   : LA CULTIVA

We empower farmers through our La Cultiva initiative by addressing three key areas:

  • Land Access: We help farmers identify land leasing and land purchase opportunities and guide them to ensure land security and stability.

  • Capital Access: We guide farmers to various funding sources, enabling them to strengthen and expand their businesses, including transitioning to regenerative practices and adding Value-Add products.

  • Market Access: Through our successful Tera Farm Farm Box service, we provide farmers an opportunity to sell fresh produce directly to local neighborhoods. Tera Farm has been operating this proven program since 2020, it manages the online store, marketing, operations, and customer service, ensuring 100% of the proceeds go directly to the farmers.

About the name TERA FARM

Tera (pronounced with a soft ‘T’ ) in Hindi means 'Your' - so it is Your Farm. The name Tera Farm for the nonprofit comes from a vision where each one of us is vested in our own farm, something we can call our own, and know where our food comes from.  We want you to connect with the small farmers in our area,  and make this effort,  ‘Your Farm’ .

Tera Farm does not refer to an actual piece of farm land and it does not grow, harvest, pack or deliver any of the produce through its Farm box service - that is done by the farmers supported by Tera Farm. 

The story behind Tera Farm 

Tera Farm started because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

When the pandemic disrupted everyone’s way of life, it further increased the challenges faced by the small family farms in our area.  Family members that supported the farms with their off-farm income were no longer able to offer the usual financial support on the farm, since they had lost their jobs in failing retail stores and restaurants.  In addition, farm inspections and procedures necessary to sell produce were delayed, causing loss of sales as fields ready to be harvested went to waste.  Buying patterns of wholesalers shifted as the food system changed with schools/restaurants/offices closing down, slowing down the farm-to-wholesale sale process.

Tera Farm was started with the idea of helping small-scale farmers sell directly to consumers in the Bay Area, and give them an additional sales channel besides wholesale. Sheena Vaidyanathan, who was a public school teacher at the time, with a background in technology had been working on her own farming project in the San Juan Bautista area and was connected to many of the small farmers.  She was inspired by the nonprofit Kitchen Table Advisors that supports small farmers in the area, and the resilience and entrepreneurship of the farmers she was learning from each day. She decided to help the farmers at the start of the pandemic making use of her technology, education and entrepreneurial backgrounds.  Sheena was helped by her friends, Neemun, Vaishali, Nita and Seema - an incredible group of women -  moms, techies, organic and local food enthusiasts. They set up a volunteer run program to facilitate the delivery of fresh organic produce straight from the farm to homes in the Bay Area. At first, it was a simple text message to their group of friends, then as interest grew, it evolved into an online order form, and then finally to an e-commerce site that is now part of the nonprofit  

The founding group of volunteers were the first site hosts for the Farmbox service.  We now have a passionate group of volunteers who believe in helping local farmers so we can have access to fresh organic food, and host neighborhood sites - pick up locations of farm boxes in their neighborhoods .  100% of the money spent on the store goes directly to the farmers, since it is run by volunteers - Tera Farm does not use any of the shopping dollars for operational costs.

Over the years, Tera Farm's mission has expanded beyond the Tera Farm Farm Box service to encompass farm visits and educational initiatives, further deepening the connection between consumers and their local food sources. The addition of the La Cultiva initiative, founded by David Mancera, reinforces our commitment to providing comprehensive support to small farmers.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Contact us at

info@terafarm.org

Our mailing address is:

Tera farm

171 Main St # 298

Los Altos, CA 94022-2912