Sustainable Food and Green Business in San Francisco’s Mission District

This trip is now closed.

On this half-day tour to San Francisco’s lively Mission District, you will get an opportunity to better understand how food moves from farmer to retailer, and how two mission-based companies in the Bay Area are working in the sustainable foods sector. This tour will offer a sneak peek into the operations of both a working distribution company and bakery/café, giving you a sense of how food really “moves” and how businesses can support local farmers and healthy eating.

Veritable Vegetable (VV) is the oldest organic produce distribution company in the country.  Established in 1974, VV provides full service distribution of the highest quality organic fresh fruits and vegetables to independent retailers, restaurants, schools, corporate campuses and wholesalers. Veritable Vegetable views itself as both a business and an instrument for social, economic, and environmental change. Mission Pie is a corner café, bakery, and neighborhood gathering place in the Mission District, located at the intersection of two busy streets and several vibrant, interwoven communities.  Through creative choices in all aspects of the business, their energy-efficient kitchen to their delicious Fair Trade/organic tea and coffee to the reclaimed and recycled materials with which the café is constructed, Mission Pie is guided by a commitment to environmental, social and economic justice.

On this tour, you will visit the VV warehouse and learn about the local farms VV supports, its trucks, customers, environmental efforts, and operations. Using an example of a classic Mission Pie ingredient (such as a strawberry), you will follow that ingredient through the pickup/delivery to our warehouse/storage/packing/shipping to Mission Pie. We will then head to nearby Mission Pie to re-acquaint with the strawberry as it becomes pie, and learn how it fits into the framework of this small business whose values are as serious a commitment as its financial bottom line. You will get an overview of the baking operations, the business’ commitments to local farms, job development, and the customer’s experience and growing understanding of the food system. The tour will end with a taste of pie! Return to Oakland or enjoy an afternoon in the city!

Participating Organizations

• Veritable Vegetable is the nation’s oldest distributor of certified organic produce.
• Mission Pie is a green-certified bakery and neighborhood café that makes decisions according to environmental, social and economic values.

This trip is now closed. Please check back for future Food Justice Tours to San Francisco.

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Bay Area Food Justice Tours (Nov. 4 – 5, 2011) are brought to you by CFSC in partnership with Food Sovereignty Tours, a project of Food First/the Institute for Food and Development Policy.

For more information, contact Tanya at tkerssen@foodfirst.org or by phone at (510) 654-4400, ext. 223