Helping support the community we live and work in is extremely important to our company. Below are some of the most recent local organizations we have partnered with to help make a positive impact on our community.
Ceres Community Project
Founded in 2007, Ceres Community Project supports primarily low-income people struggling because of a serious health challenge with free and home-delivered nourishing organic and locally produced meals, nutrition education and the caring support of the community.
All the meals Ceres provides are prepared by teens between the ages of 14 and 19 who volunteer at Ceres’ ¾ acre food production garden and three commercial kitchen sites in Marin and Sonoma County. This program not only enables the next generation of Sonoma County to learn about growing, cooking and eating healthy whole foods, but also to learn about the powerful connection between diet and health and discover their power to make a difference.
Our Santa Rosa location, Grab N’ Grow, first became a partner with Ceres in 2015 when we learned about their food production garden planted right down the road from our soil yard. We have committed to annual soil, compost, and mulch donations to show our support for Ceres and the positive impact they have on our local community in need through healthy food production. To learn more about how you can get involved with Ceres, please click here.
Point Blue Conservation Science’s STRAW Program
Founded in 1992, Point Blue Conservation Science’s STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed) Program allows students in grades K-12 to participate in and asses the benefits of restoration projects on human communities, birds, bugs, fish and the soil. During their work in the field, students team up with experts to learn scientific skills that directly correlate to their in-school science curriculum.
Point Blue’s STRAW Program proactively addresses the negative impacts of climate chance, habitat loss and degradation on streams and wetlands in our Bay Area communities. By restoring these habitats, our environment will be more resilient in the face of increasing sea levels, drought, storms, and flooding.
Our Cotati location, Stony Point Rock Quarry, first became partners with Point Blue’s STRAW program in 2014 to help restore a drainage area on our land that flows into Washoe Creek. Through our partnership with Point Blue, we were able to start restoring this watershed area through three key actions: removing massive amounts of invasive, non-native blackberry plants with California Conservation Crops, installing fences with Trout Unlimited to protect sensitive species, and planting over 112 native species plants with classes from Penngrove Elementary, Stony Point Academy, and Thomas Page Elementary.
We are honored to partner with STRAW and provide a learning experience for young students working in the outdoors to preserve our local streams. To learn more about the amazing work that Point Blue does in our local community, please click here.
Sonoma County Career Technical Education Fund
Career Technical Education, also referred to as CTE, is a multi-year sequence of courses that integrates core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge to provide students with a pathway to post-secondary education and careers. CTE programs in Sonoma County deliver an enriched educational experience that develops students’ technical and soft skills training necessary to meet 21st Century workplace demand.
Soiland Company is a proud supporter of CTE programs in Sonoma County because we experience first-hand how valuable technical careers are for our local economy. To help continue the prosperity of CTE programs in Sonoma County, we have been a substantial financial donor to Sonoma County CTE Foundation since 2013. To learn more about the Sonoma County CTE Foundation and how you can also make a difference, please visit their website by clicking here.
Sonoma County Center for Climate Protection
The Center for Climate Protection’s mission is to inspire, align, and mobilize action in response to the climate crisis. By working with local businesses, government, youth and the broader community they are able to advance practical, science-based solutions for significant greenhouse gas emission reduction. Most recently, the Center for Climate Protection advocated for and incubated the development of Sonoma Clean Power, which began serving customers in January 2014. In its first year, it has exceeded all expectations of customers served, GHGs reduced, and money saved by consumers.
Soiland Company actively supports CCP’s comprehensive approach to combating climate change on a local and global level. In 2014, we joined several local business leaders and became sustaining financial donors to the Center for Climate Protection to ensure our community continues to keep climate change at the forefront of our local policies.
Sonoma County Community Garden Network
The Community Garden Network of Sonoma County works to connect and support the 90 community gardens in our local area. They are dedicated to providing access to resources, gardening training, technical assistance, fund development support, leadership training, and other services to community gardens throughout the county.
We strongly believe that community gardens are vital tools for teaching residents in our community about the connection between quality food and personal health. That’s why we made it a mission to partner with CGN in 2015 to restore a long forgotten community garden at a public housing complex in the Apple Valley neighborhood of Santa Rosa. Our partnership included a donation of approximately 30 yards of Organic Garden Mix to help build up 14 planter bed, and approximately 10 yards of Organic Arbor Mulch to create walkable pathways between the beds.
The residents, both adults and children, were able to learn about organic food production, monitor the gardens progress, and cultivate a bounty of healthy food each week. To learn more about how you can participate in your local community garden, please click here.
Sonoma County Regional Parks
Sonoma County Regional Parks encapsulates both the beauty and diversity of our natural landscape. With over 50 parks and trails, we strongly believe in supporting our regional parks organization so that our community can continue to have year-round access to all the natural wonder Sonoma County has to offer.
In 2015 we proudly joined with several local businesses and donated over 300 tons of our recycled aggregate base rock to help open a second entrance at the Taylor Mountain Regional Park. The new entrances includes picnic tables, parking for horse trailers, and a 1.2-mile trail loop with a .2-mile connector to the upper park.
To learn more about the amazing parks and trails in our community, please click here to visit the Sonoma County Regional Parks website.
Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue
Wildlife education and rescue is important to our company because we believe that all life can peacefully coexist if the appropriate resources and protections are in place. Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation are essential components of coexisting in harmony with our local ecosystem.
Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. They rescue about 1,500 animals a year and strive to give each animal the quality care it deserves. Through their fearless efforts, sick, injured and orphaned wildlife receive medical care and a place to recover before being returned to their natural habitat.
Soiland Company has partnered with Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue numerous times over the years, but most recently we donated approximately 30 tons of our recycled road base to help lay the foundation of a new educational barnyard, featuring predator proofing techniques to help farmers and ranchers peacefully coexist with their wildlife neighbors. To learn more about Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue’s amazing work in our local community, please click here to visit their website.
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