Visit just about any downtown on a weekend and you will likely happen upon a farmers market. Or, you might grab lunch from a food truck outside a local brewpub or winery.

Very likely, there is a community-shared kitchen or food entrepreneur incubator initiative behind the scenes to support this growing foodie ecosystem.

As rural America gains younger residents, and grows more diverse and increasingly digitally connected, these dynamics are driving a renaissance in craft foods.

One food entrepreneur incubator, Hope & Main Kitchen, operates out of a school that sat vacant for over 10 years in the small Rhode Island town of Warren. Its business incubation program, with over 300 graduates to date, gives food and beverage entrepreneurs a way to test, scale and develop their products before investing in their own facilities. Its markets also give entrepreneurs a place to test their products on the public and buyers for stores, while providing the community with local goods.

Food has been central to culture, community and social connections for millennia. But food channels, social media food influencers and craft brews have paved the way for a renaissance of regional beverage and food industry startups across America.

In my work in agriculture economics, I see connections between this boom in food and agriculture innovation and the inflow of young residents who are helping revitalize rural America and reinvigorate its Main Streets.

Why entrepreneurs are embracing rural life

An analysis of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data found that more people have been moving to small towns and rural counties in recent years, and that the bulk of that population growth is driven by 25- to 44-year-olds.

This represents a stark contrast to the 2000s, when 90% of the growth for younger demographics was concentrated in the largest metro areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work options it created, along with rising housing prices, were catalysts for the change, but other interesting dynamics may also be at play.

One is social connectedness. Sociologists have long believed that the community fabric of rural America contributes to economic efficiency, productive business activity, growth of communities and population health.

Maps show that rural areas of the U.S. with higher social capital – those with strong networks and relationships among residents – are some of the strongest draws for younger households today.

Another important dynamic for both rural communities and their new young residents is entrepreneurship, including food entrepreneurship.

Rural food startups may be leveraging the social capital aligned with the legacy of agriculture in rural America, resulting in a renewed interest in craft and local foods. This includes a renaissance in foods made with local ingredients or linked to regional cultures and tastes.

According to data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. local sales of edible farm products increased 33% from 2017 to 2022, reaching $14.2 billion.

The new ‘AgriCulture’

A 2020 study I was involved in, led by agriculture economist Sarah Low, found a positive relationship between the availability of farm-based local and organic foods and complementary food startups. The study termed this new dynamic “AgriCulture.”

We found a tendency for these dynamics to occur in areas with higher natural amenities, such as hiking trails and streams, along with transportation and broadband infrastructure attractive to digital natives.

The same dynamic drawing young people to the outdoors offers digital natives a way to experience far-reaching regions of the country and, in some cases, move there.

A thriving food and beverage scene can be a pull for those who want to live in a vibrant community, or the new settlers and their diverse tastes may be what get food entrepreneurs started. Many urban necessities, such as shopping, can be done online, but eating and food shopping are local daily necessities.

Governments can help rural food havens thrive

When my colleagues and I talk to community leaders interested in attracting new industries and young families, or who seek to build community through revitalized downtowns and public spaces, the topic of food commonly arises.

We encourage them to think about ways they can help draw food entrepreneurs: Can they increase local growers’ and producers’ access to food markets? Would creating shared kitchens help support food trucks and small businesses? Does their area have a local advantage, such as a seashore, hiking trails or cultural heritage, that they can market in connection with local food?

Several federal, state and local economic development programs are framing strategies to bolster any momentum occurring at the crossroads of rural, social connections, resiliency, food and entrepreneurship.

For example, a recent study from a collaboration of shared kitchen experts found that there were over 600 shared-use food facilities across the U.S. in 2020, and over 20% were in rural areas. In a survey of owners, the report found that 50% of respondents identified assisting early-growth businesses as their primary goal.

The USDA Regional Food Business Centers, one of which I am fortunate to co-lead, have been bolstering the networking and technical assistance to support these types of rural food economy efforts.

Many rural counties are still facing shrinking workforces, commonly because of lagging legacy industries with declining employment, such as mining. However, recent data and studies suggest that in rural areas with strong social capital, community support and outdoor opportunities, younger populations are growing, and their food interests are helping boost rural economies.

Dawn Thilmany receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Development Administration, and Colorado state agencies focused on agriculture, economic development and food systems.

MENDOCINO CO., 5/21/25 — A plan to nearly double the amount of electricity drawn from naturally occurring heat deep below Mendocino and Sonoma counties could create thousands of new jobs in the region.

The Sonoma-Mendocino GeoZone project still faces a long list of legal, regulatory and financial hurdles before construction, but the developer is already thinking ahead to hiring.

Sonoma Clean Power CEO Geof Syphers said the not-for-profit power producer is committed to hiring local workers for at least 30% of the jobs it creates. Meeting that goal, he said, will depend on building partnerships with local education and workforce development programs, along with a long-term commitment from California to streamline geothermal energy.

“We’ve been building partnerships with schools and trades and landowners and public officials, permitting agencies,” Syphers said. “But what really needs to happen before the permitting phase begins is we have to change state laws.”

Clean energy makes up a small but growing slice of Mendocino County’s employment, accounting for just under 600 jobs in 2023, according to an analysis of federal data by the nonprofit Environmental Entrepreneurs, which advocates for state and local policies benefiting the environment and economic interests.

Mendocino County workforce and education officials are taking note, gradually ramping up programs to train students to weatherize buildings, install and maintain solar projects and take on other related construction roles.

Noel Woodhouse, an instructor who runs Mendocino College’s sustainable construction and energy technology program, said the program has already evolved since launching in 2011 and will continue to do so. He’s confident that his students’ skills in clean tech, solar and sustainable building would easily transfer to geothermal construction — especially since the non-credit certificate program could rapidly train a large number of students in a short time. 

“Our students come out of our program with experience in heavy equipment machinery and ready workers for that type of project,” Woodhouse said.

Clean energy jobs pull in a wide range of professional skills, from plumbing and electrical work to pouring concrete and operating equipment. 

“What I love is the people who work in oil and gas know exactly how to operate 100% of the equipment on a geothermal job site, and it’s the same wages,” Syphers said. 

Geothermal energy is harnessed by drilling deep below the earth’s surface to access naturally occurring heat. The steam flows to a turbine to drive a generator that in turn produces electricity — a process that can occur 24 hours a day. 

Mendocino County, along with neighboring Sonoma and Lake counties, sits on one of the country’s prime geothermal zones. The world’s largest complex of commercial geothermal power plants, known as The Geysers, is located in the Mayacamas Mountains near where the three counties connect. Owning the majority of the units there, Calpine Corporation generates about 725 megawatts of electricity using geothermal energy. Sonoma Clean Power’s GeoZone proposal aims to build another 600 megawatt geothermal power plant.

The labor needed to develop 600 megawatts of new geothermal energy capacity will require hundreds of white-collar workers and thousands of construction workers during the building phase, and the project will create about 1,000 permanent jobs, Syphers said.

“Today, about 400 people from Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino work at The Geysers,” Syphers said. “If we can roughly double that for permanent jobs, that’s very exciting to me.”

Connecting students to skills and employers

As director of employer partnerships for Mendocino College, Pamela Heston-Bechtol’s job is making connections between students and employers. She combs through job postings at least once or twice a week and distributes opportunities to respective departments.

“It’s giving our students as much exposure as possible to be able to see themselves in those jobs by inviting industry to our advisory committees and inviting our students to job shadowing,” Heston-Bechtol said.

The Mendocino County Office of Education also offers career technical education programs with various pathways for youth. Eric Crawford, the office’s director of career and college programs, and Natalie Spackman, a workforce development coordinator with North Bay Construction Corps, together work with high school seniors interested in construction trades to complete a 14-week program.

“At the end of the instruction, they get a tool belt, and then they go out for boot camp for two weeks, and they work with contractors for 80 hours on a live build site and find out what it’s really like to do the work,” Crawford said, noting that this helps students determine which type of work interests them most.

At the completion of camp, the contractors are invited to interview students and potentially offer them jobs.

The newest career technical education program set for Ukiah High School, called Roots of Success, will train high school students specifically for green energy fields. However, Spackman said that basic training in construction gives students skills that transfer to a variety of work, especially given the state’s regulations for the trades to go green.

“No matter where they go, contractors ultimately work for their customers — what’s in demand?” she said. “The skills that they’re learning, that’s going to translate.”

Leaders from both the high school and college workforce development programs agree that while there’s plenty of work for their students and a growing demand for clean energy workers, trades training is hindered by a severe shortage of teachers. 

Crawford said anyone with three years of experience in a specific field can get a designated subject teaching credential and become qualified by the state of California. Woodhouse said that Mendocino College’s minimum qualifications include an associate degree and experience in the field.

Other challenges, Woodhouse said, are those stacked against the students in a county with high rates of substance abuse and poverty. To address those, he highlighted support systems at the college that include a food pantry, mental health services and transportation, among others. 

A student perspective

Kevin Vasquez says participating in the Mendocino College program changed the course of his life.

When he was 11 years old, Vasquez received a message at school that his father wouldn’t be able to pick him up. He had been deported.

“I felt violated that they took my dad from me,” he said. “I started drinking alcohol, trying to escape.”

The quiet habit morphed into an addiction that left him aimless and jobless in his 20s. Yet he remembered his father, an immigrant from Mexico who had worked tirelessly in stone masonry to give him a better life. He knew he needed to make something of that life, but he needed help first.

He went through rehabilitation, where a counselor suggested he check out Mendocino College’s construction program. For Vasquez, that program sparked light in the darkness.

“It got me back out there, doing what I love, which is building with my hands,” said Vasquez, who now offers help to other students as a lab tech.  

For Vasquez, the prospect of GeoZone tapping into more renewable energy within the county brings an exciting opportunity to put his skills to use at a potential union job.

Mendocino County’s hiring contractors are small, and while they offer great one-on-one experiences, Woodhouse said, they’re not unionized.

Syphers shared that Mendocino County workers won’t need to be union members to work on the GeoZone project.

“You don’t have to be a union signatory to get hired through a union and then work on these projects,” he said. “That gives you an option to decide later if you want to become a signatory and be part of the union.”

The construction phase for GeoZone is projected to be six or seven years out, but Syphers said those years will be spent cultivating relationships with local schools, unions and smaller contractors.

Ultimately, he hopes the state will streamline permitting and make long-term commitments to invest in geothermal work. 

“That’s how we actually get unions to open apprenticeship centers in Mendocino County,” Syphers said. 

While the Biden administration helped streamline the geothermal process nationally, most of California’s geothermal opportunities are not on federal land, he pointed out. Sonoma Clean Power has worked with California Assemblymembers Diane Papan, D-San Mateo, and Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, to introduce assembly bills 526, 527 and 531, which all aim to advance geothermal energy development.

“Everyone universally agrees California is the best place in the United States to do this if the permitting changes,” he said, noting that the state requires a full environmental review that can take anywhere from two to eight years. “This region has enough geothermal potential to support areas beyond Sonoma and Mendocino. That’s really, really valuable for the state.”

This reporting is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network and Canary Media, South Dakota News Watch, Cardinal News, The Mendocino Voice and The Maine Monitor. Support from Ascendium Education Group made the project possible. 

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Athletes from more than two dozen area schools competed at the 20th annual Unified Gifted Games held on May 9 at Andy Hardin Stadium at Hollister High School.

According to Sam Sauer, a Gilroy Unified Adult Transition Program teacher, 25 schools attended the games. 

“I first participated back in 2010, ” Sauer said. “That was my first Gifted Games, and I have seen it grow significantly over the past 15 years or so.”

According to Sauer,  this year’s event included many different sports and activities, such as softball, the long jump, and the football throw, as well as inflatables. 

“We are having an amazing time, as always,” Sauer said. “We love this event and look forward to it every year.”

“I think this event is awesome,” said Hollister High Behavioral Support Supervisor Vanya Robles Davidson, adding that everyone was “having a terrific time.”

Cristina Vasquez’s son, Mateo Sotomayor, participated in the wheelchair race.

“We love it,” Vasquez said. “I hope we can do it more times in the year. My son was very excited and trained a lot.”

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FORT BRAGG, CA., 5/12/25 – After being informed by the President Donald Trump administration that their National Endowment for the Arts grants were terminated earlier this month, two local nonprofits will still be able to implement the programs they planned – with the help of national foundations stepping up to fill the void.  

In January, the Larry Spring Museum and Art Explorers were told they would receive $10,000 grants from the NEA.  

Dedicated to the science experiments and outsider art of Larry Spring and artists working in the fields of art and science, the Larry Spring Museum was set to receive a grant to expand its Redwood Time project, which examines the narrative of settlement and resource development on the Northern California Coast. The grant will fund an artist in residency with artist Ursula Brookbank and an artist workshop with Anne Beck. 

Art Explorers, an art gallery and studio for adult artists with disabilities, was awarded a grant to launch Film School, which will offer filmmaking workshops to its artists culminating in a film about Fort Bragg.  

The grants were part of the NEA’s Challenge America program, which funds art projects in underserved communities, including rural areas like Fort Bragg, and populations such as individuals with disabilities.  

It takes on average 25 to 40 hours to write a NEA grant. Thousands of nonprofits across the country apply and less than 300 organizations are selected.  

Art Explorers board member Adele Horne called the grant “a really big deal” due to its competitive nature.  

However, the excitement of the grant awards was short-lived.  

In March, the museums received emails from the NEA that funding may be delayed due to staff having to review executive orders signed by Trump that could possibly impact the grants.  

On May 2, the Larry Spring Museum and Art Explorers received emails stating that “the NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities.” 

Both grants were determined to fall out of scope of Trump’s priorities, which include art projects that “empower houses of worship” and “make America healthy again.”  

That’s when two national arts organizations stepped up to the plate.  

On Wednesday, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation announced that they would jointly award $800,000 to 80 nonprofits across the country that found their programs in jeopardy due to NEA grant uncertainty.  

The Larry Spring Museum and Art Explorers were among the chosen organizations. Each would receive $10,000 to implement the programs they proposed to the NEA.  

“We’re thrilled,” said Maria Trombetta executive director of Art Explorers. “We are deeply grateful to these foundations for providing this generous support at such a critical moment for so many organizations.” 

The response was similar for the Larry Spring Museum’s Executive Director Anne Maureen McKeating. “We are deeply grateful that the Frankenthaler and Warhol foundations have elected to ensure that visual art projects that lost their funding—many of which serve remote communities like ours—can move forward without further interruption.”

There was no time like the present, according to Elizabeth Smith, executive director of the Frankenthaler Foundation. She hopes that other organizations will step up to fund organizations that are seeing funding dwindle away by the power of the president’s pen. 

“In times of crisis—whether in response to natural disaster, global pandemic, or financial disruption—foundations do their best work when they come together to assert shared values,” she said.  

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“James Wright,” Danita Quinn (Pit River, Wintu, Yana) called out to a group of demonstrators as she held up a poster with a yearbook photo of a little boy’s face. In 1986, when Wright was only 17, he disappeared without a trace. Today, the Pit River community continues to keep James’ memory alive, referring to him as “Little Man.” 

Recently, when his mother Florence contacted the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office to inquire about his investigation, Quinn told Shasta Scout, officers said there was no longer a case. The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

“He’s a cold case, if anyone wants to hold him.” Quinn said, as she distributed Wright’s portrait and others amongst a group of about 50 demonstrators behind Redding City Hall on May 5, a day designated for bringing awareness to missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP).

In conjunction with the national MMIP movement, local Indigenous people took action this week to call attention to a systemic crisis on dual fronts. Data shows both that Native people are disproportionately affected by homicidal and sexual violence, and that law enforcement often mishandles or neglects investigations involving Native victims. 

During Tuesday’s MMIP event, several of those present at Redding City Hall were direct family members of the missing or murdered featured on posters, many of whom were locals to Shasta and the surrounding counties before they disappeared.

Quinn was the organizer of a five mile prayer walk from Redding City Hall to the Redding Rancheria. She was joined in her efforts by Jack Potter of the Rancheria’s Tribal Council and Morning Star Gali (Pit River, Ajuwami Band) who is the founder of Indigenous Justice. After reaching their destination Tribal members engaged in a sacred fire ceremony and traditional dance and congregated over dinner. 

Tuesday’s MMIP walk in Redding was one of three events held locally this week. On May 4, community members also organized a candlelight vigil for the missing at the Sundial Bridge. And on the morning of May 5, before the Redding walk, a similar event was held in Burney. The area now known as Shasta County includes the ancestral lands of the Pit River Tribe, the Nor-El-Muk Wintu Nation, the Wintu Tribe of Northern California, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and the Redding Rancheria.

The MMIP Legacy in Shasta County

“Jessica Alva was a friend of ours who was killed in 2019,” Gali told Shasta Scout. According to Alva’s autopsy report, her death was suicide by hanging. Her community maintains that she was strangled by her physically abusive partner. Gali also named other local missing indigenous women including Melody Turner, Heather Cameron-Haller, and Angela McConnell.

Explaining that local law enforcement can be slow to act, Gali said it often falls on the members of a local tribe to search for answers on their own. 

“In the case of our loved one Nick Patterson, when he went missing… Shasta County unfortunately provided lots of roadblocks and really impeded the search efforts,” she said. “It really came down to the families and the local tribal community that had to coordinate search efforts to look for Nick in the snow.” 

Patterson’s remains were only recently recovered, 5 years after he was last seen alive. 

“It doesn’t seem that there was a willingness to do more in terms of a young Native American man that went missing under very suspicious circumstances”, Gali continued. “But when non-Native American people have gone missing, especially here in Redding, we’ve seen those resources activated in a way that our community just doesn’t experience.”

In a May 7 statement from the Sheriff’s Office, Public Information Officer Timothy Mapes pushed back on that perspective, telling Shasta Scout that the Department treats all missing persons reports “with the utmost seriousness” and conducts missing persons investigations “without bias or discrimination”.

“Every report is evaluated and acted upon with the same urgency and commitment to public safety,” Mapes emphasized.

Despite the fact that California is home to the largest Native population in the United States, it wasn’t until 2018 that James Ramos, the first Native lawmaker, was elected to the California State Assembly. Ramos, who’s now the chair of the California Legislative Native American Caucus, was the author of AB 1863. That bill implemented Feather Alerts, a specific tool through which Indigenous communities can alert the public when a Native person goes missing. 

Until recently, law enforcement were given broad leeway in determining if a missing Indigenous person met the criteria of a Feather Alert. This meant that local law enforcement and California Highway Patrol Officers had the power to deny a family’s request for a Feather Alert for any reason, including the officer’s assessment of their social or behavioral history. A 2024 amendment to the Feather Alert process now explicitly ensures that Tribal members with mental health or addiction issues will be included in Feather Alerts.  

Gali is concerned that bias amongst North State law enforcement is also exacerbating the MMIP crisis. Shasta Scout’s reporting on the initial disappearance of Patterson (Pit River, Atwamsini Band) documented his family’s fears that the Shasta County Sheriff was not taking the investigation into his disappearance seriously. According to his aunt, officers suggested that Patterson could have voluntarily taken off on his own, despite the fact that his loved ones felt it was unlike him to go totally incommunicado. 

Five years later, Patterson will soon finally be laid to rest, but Gali feels that “there’s definitely many more questions than answers.” 

Historical Context

It’s now been more than a hundred years since a concerted effort by the State of California to forcibly exterminate Indigenous populations. Still, generations of Native people have continued to experience harm at the hands of law enforcement.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta says that the Department of Justice is committed to prioritizing the families of Native people who disappear or are murdered.

“Trust is earned, and we’re doing our best to earn it by showing our respect, by listening, by learning, by being the best advocate and ally that we can be,” Bonta said on a podcast in 2023, “by standing up for the rights and dignities of all people, including certainly our Indigenous people.” 

On May 7, the California Assembly Democrats addressed the crisis and proposed solutions on May 7. A recording of the livestream is available here.

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A Cinco de Mayo Festival featured a slate of mariachi bands and drew a big crowd to Las Micheladas Bar & Grill on May 4.

According to Las Micheladas owner David Ramirez, more than 500 people attended the event during the festival’s first year.

“We celebrate this collaboration between the Downtown Association, Las Micheladas, and La Catrina,” Ramirez said.

The plan, Ramirez told BenitoLink, is to have the festival every year

Six bands played at the festival, including  Mariachi Mexico de Gilroy, Nuevo Instinto from Hollister, and Gente de la H from Hollister.

“We have mainliners from Hollister, Salinas and Grupo Desesperado from Watsonville.” Ramirez said.  

He said that there is good local talent and for Sunday’s festival they picked out the best of the best. 

“We celebrate the life and opportunity of our culture. Our transition and how we’ve made it here in the U.S.A.,” Ramirez said. “We are bringing it home and really sharing it with our fellow community members over here.”

He said they had never seen something like Sunday’s festival before. “We are so proud of the community for coming out here and enjoying such a good weekend.”  

One of the attendees, Joe Bonnie Hernandez, said he wanted “Hollister to get to know more Mexicans.” 

He said his favorite band is Mariachis Mariachi de Gilroy.

Daniel Espinosa, who also attended the festival, told BenitoLink he had fun and enjoyed watching the bands. “When you’re with family and you embrace your culture, why would you not have a good time?” 

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President Donald Trump recently took aim at the federal Department of Education, casting doubt over the future of various forms of financial support to local districts across the country and San Joaquin Valley. 

In a “skinny budget” proposal released May 2, the president recommends slashing the federal department by more than 20% – cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from programs that aid English learners and migrant students. 

California is home to more than one million multilingual learners, according to state data. In the central San Joaquin Valley, where roughly one in five students are English learners, federal dollars account for a notable portion of funding in school districts. 

In counties like Fresno and Merced, education leaders are keeping a close eye on how changes in the federal government will affect local schools. 

Trump’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year recommends completely abolishing a funding stream for migrant education and English learners, known as Title 3. 

“To end overreach from Washington and restore the rightful role of State oversight in education, the Budget proposes to eliminate the misnamed English Language Acquisition program which actually deemphasizes English primacy by funding NGOs and States to encourage bilingualism,” the budget reads in a one-paragraph explanation of the funding cut. 

“The historically low reading scores for all students mean States and communities need to unite—not divide—classrooms using evidence-based literacy instruction materials to improve outcomes for all students,” the budget reads.

The attacks on the federal agency come after the president issued an executive order in late March mandating the full closure of the Department of Education. 

The order also required that any program receiving federal funds must stop any progression on “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs. 

Following the executive order, the Department of Education issued a statement expressing its intention to continue to “empower states to take charge and advocate for and implement what is best for students, families, and educators in their communities.”

The full closure of the department and implementation of the budget will take an act of Congress. It’s unclear when legislators will decide the department’s future.

What are these funds for?

Title 3 provides districts with dollars to provide professional development for EL teachers, principals, school administrators and create EL parent and community engagement opportunities.

The funding also provides resources to help recently-arrived immigrant and migrant students reach state academic and achievement standards.

In Fresno County, where one of the state’s largest – and some of its most rural – districts reside, federal funds are “critical,” according to the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools.  

“[Title 3] is particularly important to us in the Central Valley because they’re designed to ensure all our students can achieve English proficiency and high academic achievement,” said Superintendent Michele Cantwell-Copher.

On average, Copher said the county receives between $4.5 million to $5 million of Title 3 funding annually. Each district then receives funding based on the number of English learners and immigrant students enrolled in schools. 

Fresno Unified – the third-largest district in the state– receives the highest allocation in the county, with more than $1.8 million granted for the last academic year. 

“Without [this funding] we would be concerned about program objectives, instructional opportunities being diminished,” Copher said. “There would be curriculum materials, software and assessment opportunities that would be negatively impacted. We need that funding to meet the unique needs of our under-resourced students.”

The county office is keeping a close eye on how federal funding may shift in the near future, Copher said. 

“We have been very persistent about communicating to the leaders of the state on how critical this funding is [for our students], but right now there’s no reason for districts to worry,” Copher said.

Some rural districts say federal funding is ‘very small.’

Small, rural districts in Fresno County are also not yet alarmed about the federal funding cuts. Mendota Unified in west Fresno has a student body of 4,000 – with nearly half designated as English learners and almost all coming from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. 

The district receives up to $400,000 in Title 3 funding annually. The district uses the funds to support their English learning programs, after-school tutoring and summer school courses.

“It’s a very small amount of money, considering our overall budget is $80 million,” said Jose Ochoa, the district’s director of state and federal programs. 

According to Ochoa, the district receives more than half of its overall funding from the state Local Control Funding Formula, which finances districts through a combination of local property taxes and state funding based on student demographics. Federal grants make up about $5 million of Mendota Unified’s annual budget.

In Merced County, the Merced Union High School District is also not concerned about major financial changes. The district – serving 11,000 students – receives more than $12 million in federal funding, making a fraction of its nearly $250 million annual budget. 

According to district spokesperson Viviana Fuentes, EL programs at MUHSD are primarily funded through its general fund and the Local Control Funding Formula. 

Meanwhile, the federal Title 3 funds allotted to the district are used primarily for its community liaison staff – which serve as communication links between home and school for parents and guardians. The district would continue to have those positions without federal funding, Fuentes said.

In the case of more federal funding cuts, Ochoa of Mendota Unified said the district is able to operate and serve its students with LCFF funds. The district is anticipating a small roll back of about $300,000 in its federal funding next year, Ochoa said. 

“Obviously we’d miss it, but I don’t believe our kids will be impacted negatively to the point where we can’t continue to offer our current programs,” Ochoa said. “But anytime we can have federal funding, we’re taking it.”

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MENDOCINO CO., 5/5/25 – Mendocino County firefighters are preparing for a difficult fire season this summer. 

The latest seasonal outlook report from the National Interagency Fire Center Predictive Services released Thursday predicts an early fire season, with significant fire potential for June, July, and August, further complicating difficulties created by federal budget cuts. 

Brett Lutz, fire meteorologist for the Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center, said the seasonal outlook combines two factors: predicted warmer-than-normal temperatures and fuel characteristics. The latter includes fuel loading, or the amount of grass, brush, and trees on the land, and the moisture contained in those live and dead fuels. 

While consistent rain and snow over the past few years have lifted much of Northern California out of drought conditions, they have also supported high growth rates for fuels like grass and brush. When these fuels dry out, they become an important factor in large fire growth.

“You’re likely to see some fuel curing in the herbaceous fuels, the grass and to some degree brush as well,” Lutz said.

Especially in inland areas, this curing is happening earlier than usual, which signifies an early start to fire season. 

The seasonal outlook report also noted a heightened risk of “flash drought,” which occurs when there are intense heat waves capable of drying out fuels to dangerous levels over a short period of time. As an example, Lutz pointed to the record-breaking heat wave in early July of last year, which created conditions that allowed the Park Fire to expand to the fourth-largest in California history, burning through nearly 430,000 acres in Butte and Tehama counties in 2024. 

Wind, though harder to predict months in advance, plays a considerable role in the spread of wildfires, as seen recently with the disastrous wildfires in the Los Angeles area. According to Lutz, July and August face a higher likelihood of northerly dry wind events, which, when coupled with dry fuels, create red flag conditions. 

Outside of these key months, May is predicted to remain sporadic in its weather, with cool and moist periods mixed with warming and drying periods. The warming and drying trend should become strong in the summer in the inland Bay Area, Lutz said. 

“The grass is definitely turning a little sooner than expected,” said Shane Lamkin, battalion chief for the Cal Fire Mendocino Unit. “It usually starts around this time of year anyway, but we’re already seeing those greens turning yellow — especially in the valley, and particularly the Ukiah Valley.” 

This observation is backed by data, noted Kevin Osborne, a fire analyst with the U.S. Forest Service. “It’s just happening earlier, which means then curing happens earlier and once the brush fuels are available, then you have that alignment between the valley floor and the foothills with all the grass and then the mid elevation with all the chamise and manzanita,” he said. “Once those both are available, the opportunities for large fire really increase because you can transition the same fire from the lower elevations to the upper elevations or mid elevations.” 

Local winds also become a bigger factor as summer heats up, Osborne said, especially those that blow down the lee slopes of the coastal ranges during hot inland days. 

“Those thermal trough winds that blow down the slope into the valley – those are going to be driven by long periods of hot dry weather, and we’re expecting a really warm and dry summer,” Osborne said. “We’re always warm and dry, right? But extended warm dry periods tend to really help develop the trough and make those winds pretty strong.” 

In addition to these predictions, cuts at the federal level affecting the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service will play a significant role in how fires are fought. Federal agencies like these employ the majority of wildland firefighters across the nation, including thousands in California. 

In the past few months, many employees were laid off or took buyouts. Though the cuts have largely affected non-firefighting employees, many red-carded employees — qualified firefighters who are able to leave their day jobs to assist firefighting efforts — have been affected. This can hamper fire response, especially during large fire years, when firefighting resources are already stretched thin. 

“It’s definitely possible that people with qualifications that support firefighting on those larger fires could be missing because of that,” Osborne said. However, he emphasized the cuts have not targeted frontline firefighters. 

 “Staffing challenges that forests have faced in the past they’re going to continue to face because it’s just difficult to find employees to work hard in rough terrain and remote locations,” he said. “But currently the federal government has specifically avoided targeting fire.”

The majority of Mendocino County is state and private land, and Cal Fire is preparing earlier than ever for the coming fire season, Lamkin said.

“On the state side we’ve been getting ready as early as January this year to hire back our seasonal workforce. I’d say several months earlier than we normally have,” Lamkin said. “All of our engines are staffed up to their full capacity and we’re taking the measures that we need to be ready for an early fire season.”

Lamkin also stressed the work property owners can do in the coming weeks to assist with fire prevention.

“Right now, we encourage residents to take advantage of the time to clear any kind of vegetation that’s unwanted on their property, or anything that would pose a risk to their homes. But we encourage them to do it in a safe manner. And to do so, you can apply for a burn permit by going to burnpermit.fire.ca.gov.” 

More information on how to prepare a home for fire danger can be found at readyforwildfire.org. For active incidents throughout the state and information about them, including evacuations, go to fire.ca.gov. Mendocino County emergency information can be found at mendoready.org. 

Caio Driver is a freelance writer and a firefighter.

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WILLITS, CA., 5/1/25 — Every weekday around 11:45 a.m., a large group of seniors gather at the Willits Senior Center on Baechtel Road for a hot meal prepared by the center’s trained kitchen staff. 

The scent of lasagna, fresh salad and chocolate chip cookies fills the dining room as guests enjoy their lunch, leaving satisfied and happy. On some days, the seniors enjoy recipes like chicken teriyaki stir-fry, while on others they have a celebratory meal like turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce.  

In addition to enjoying a fresh, homemade lunch, seniors at the center have the opportunity to socialize with friends, participate in activities such as bingo and music classes, and experience a sense of community. The center also offers transportation services for seniors who need rides to medical appointments, grocery stores and other essential errands around town. 

Despite the support the center provides for the elderly community, it faces ongoing funding threats. As of July 2026, the center will lose $34,100 in funding from Mendocino County, according to documents provided to The Mendocino Voice by the Willits Senior Center and the county. The department that has initiated the funding cuts is the Mendocino County Department of Social Services. 

The center has been a supportive network for seniors since it was founded in 1974. In the late 1970s, the center was operating out of a slowly deteriorating facility, prompting local businessman and philanthropist Robert Harrah and his wife Jayne to donate land and fund the construction of a new building. The project was completed in 1987 and is the current building on Baechtel Road. 

Richard Baker, the executive director of the center, spoke passionately about his time working with seniors and how he’s seen older folks get so much joy from the food and outreach provided by the facility. 

Baker, originally from Salt Lake City, relocated to the Willits area in 1995, shortly after his father passed away there. Around 2010, he began working at the senior center as a driver, assisting seniors with tasks ranging from taking them to important appointments to delivering newspapers to their front doors. He also occasionally picked up supplies for them from grocery or gardening stores. 

In 2017, Baker was promoted to executive director of the senior center, taking on responsibilities that included organizing employees and volunteers, as well as managing funding strategies to keep the facility up and running. Above all, Baker ensures the center provides everything it can for the seniors of Willits. 

“The bottom line is, we do wellness checks, go to people’s houses and check on them,” Baker explained in an interview. “When a senior in Willits has a problem, they call us. Whether it’s something we are getting funding for … we do it.”  

Baker said the Meals on Wheels program, which provides meals to homebound and disabled seniors in Willits who cannot cook for themselves, has been a key support for many people who would otherwise go without food. 

“I was delivering a meal to a woman in a trailer park off Walker Road. She was sitting alone, and when I gave her the meal, she started crying,” Baker emphasized. “She said, ‘If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had a meal today. I don’t have any friends or family.’ I took a moment to sit down with her and explained that even though I’m the one delivering the meal, there are many people behind the scenes who make it possible.” 

According to the documents from Mendocino County, $34,100 will be cut from an outreach contract previously funded by the county’s Department of Social Services. 

According to Baker, the center also experienced a funding cut of $15,999 this year from the department’s CalFresh unit. In total, the Willits Senior Center is facing $50,099 in funding losses in less than two years — cuts that Baker said will significantly impact outreach services. Outreach departments are responsible for identifying seniors and caregivers in need of assistance and resources from the center. 

“Currently, we have a two-person outreach department, but at a minimum, it would be reduced to a one-person contract … we’ll need to reconfigure our outreach department and determine what we can and cannot afford to do moving forward,” Baker added. “Right now, we can’t sustain an extra $30,000 to $40,000 in expenses every year. You can’t hire an employee without having the funds to pay them.” 

Fortunately, the senior center has other funding from sources like its on-site thrift store, which brings in about $300,000 annually. It also receives significant funding through grants, such as those from the Mendocino Transit Authority. 

But for the senior center’s outreach department, $50,099 is a significant amount of money, and Baker is still considering different ways the center can reach its budget goals next year without losing employees. 

“By January 2026, I’ll start reaching out to the city of Willits and the [county] Board of Supervisors to see if any additional funding will be available,” Baker said. “We’ll make adjustments at that point, but people are still going to need help, and they’re not going to stop calling us just because the funding disappeared. The senior center is a trusted resource, and we want to be able to direct people to someone who can help them instead of just telling them they’re out of luck.” 

To sustain its finances and increase donations, Baker said the senior center is creating a fundraising platform called the Redwood Society, a program where elders could dedicate their estates or other assets to secure the center’s future. 

“We’re shifting our strategy and trying to become more independent, moving away from reliance on government funding. One of the key steps we’re taking is setting up the Redwood Society,” Baker stated. “We plan to reach out to the community and ask people to consider including the senior center in their wills, trusts, or estate planning — whether it’s a percentage of their estate or their entire estate if they have no relatives and want to support us in that way.” 

Through the creation of the Redwood Society and other plans to build an endowment that will provide funds to the center annually, Baker hopes the senior center can rely less on outside funding sources. However, these plans will take time to implement. He explained that Willits Senior Inc., the nonprofit behind the Willits Senior Center, has already created an endowment for the center.  

Baker said Willits Senior Inc. has a $1 million endowment, which provides $30,000 to $35,000 each year in operating revenue. 

“If we can grow that to $3 million, we’ll generate $100,000 annually, which would eliminate the need for county funding,” he said. “This will help us reduce our dependence on outside funding sources. It’s going to take time, but it’s part of our current plan.” 

Baker said creating the Redwood Society will not only allow seniors to contribute to a cherished community resource but also give them a chance to leave their mark in a unique way. He hopes to acquire a large piece of redwood to display in the center’s lobby, where members of the Redwood Society can sign their names. 

“We’ll make it nice and place it in the lobby. As people donate, we’ll add their names to it,” Baker said. “These ideas are all important, especially the endowment. Many seniors who have benefited from the center and understand how important we are will want to contribute.”  

To contribute to the center, either financially or by volunteering, visit their website. To donate by check, mail it to 1501 Baechtel Road, Willits, CA. 

People can also donate items to the thrift store or consider becoming a board member. The senior center will be sending updates on the creation of the Redwood Society.

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