The pandemic has exposed cracks within the local food system which have festered for years as inequality grew in Silicon Valley.
In 2021, Santa Clara County responded by approving the Food Systems Work Plan Report: a technique to construct a stronger food economy within the region, address food insecurity, and improve agricultural opportunities for local farmers, amongst other goals.
In December 2023, the county hired Cayce Hill as its first food systems manager to oversee the growing volume of labor. Before coming to the county, Hill was executive director of Veggielution – an East San Jose nonprofit that operates an urban farm at Emma Prusch Farm Park.
Q: What does a food systems manager do?
A: My primary role is to deal with gaps, discover opportunities, and improve coordination across the statewide food system. More specifically, it’s about providing leadership and implementing the goals of the Santa Clara County Work Plan. This work plan is the North Star of the county, it’s my North Star. At the moment there may be a number of listening and a number of learning, eager about how I’ll implement the goals of the work plan.
Q: What is a food system?
A: We can consider food systems as every thing involved within the production, aggregation, distribution, retailing, and ultimately at the top of its life – hopefully straight back into production – food. It is determined by how we grow our food, how and where we collect it, who grows the food, who cooks it, where we buy it and what we do with all of the food produced that we unfortunately find yourself not eating. Many people consider the food system as “farm to table.” It involves a farm and if we're lucky we all know the farmer who grew it, we buy it and cook it or eat it in a restaurant. When we expect beyond that, we also think in regards to the food that’s passed on to others locally through a charitable food response.
I hope that in my role I’ll really find a way to take a much wider take a look at food systems that isn't nearly who grew it, cooked it or served it, but reasonably whether those people can afford to live here. Can they breathe clean air here, can they find quality jobs here that support their family and a dignified life here? There are many examples of how these issues are literally being addressed in and by our county, which is why I’m more than happy to be here. It's very complex. Raising awareness of what a food system is and the role all of us play in our food system might be the largest and largest challenge I actually have on this recent role.
Q: How do you interact with local businesses and nonprofits?
A: Local nonprofits and native businesses are vital partners of Santa Clara County. I feel mostly because they’ve such a deep understanding and are so near the needs of the community and know rather more directly what the community is striving for and what the community needs. Santa Clara County partners with nonprofits and native businesses every step of the best way. I’d say that without the partnerships of local nonprofits and businesses, there isn’t a doubt we couldn’t be as effective.
A very good example is our Good Food Purchasing Program. Three county hospitals – St. Louise, O'Connor and Valley Medical – have all enrolled within the Good Food Purchasing Program, supported by our public health and procurement team. Essentially, it gives us as a big institution the chance to essentially align our purchases with values that actually matter, like local economies, environmental sustainability, animal welfare and nutrition, and a valued workforce. This article in regards to the local economy is specifically about connecting with local farmers, local vendors and native producers to bring these products on to hospital patients.
Q: What are the largest challenges in your recent role?
A: We take into consideration food systems too often, and that’s rightly a giant a part of food systems work, but we expect of it primarily as a direct emergency or charitable response with food, to get it to as many individuals as possible as quickly as possible place. That will at all times be the main focus, but I feel the challenge and opportunity before us is to essentially take into consideration what will not be working in our food system and is causing a number of people to feel insecure.
Hunger is a system of poverty. As we take into consideration food systems now, I feel our challenge, and I feel we’ll rise to it, is to totally understand how food systems relate to housing affordability, our environmental sustainability, and the best way we buy goods inside the circle. That connectivity, I feel, hasn't been discussed in a protracted time, and that, frankly, has really contributed to the vulnerability of our food system. Not just in our district, but throughout the country. Those disproportionately affected by the pandemic suffered from the vulnerability of our food system. In my opinion, the largest challenge is to higher connect this work and to seek out the interface between this work and other areas of impact.
CAYCE HILL PROFILE
Company: Santa Clara County
Role: Food Systems Manager
Age: 49
Place of birth: Austin, TX
Current City: San Jose
Education: Bachelor of Science from Trinity University and Master of Public Administration from NYU Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service
FIVE FACTS ABOUT CAYCE HILL
- I actually have a rescue duck at home named Olive.
- This is my first job in local government.
- I attended culinary school in Japan.
- I've never met a vegetable I didn't like, except cooked carrots.
- I'm really good at memorizing song lyrics and hanging Christmas tree lights.
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