Before dawn breaks over the hills surrounding Vacaville, a crew inside the local state prison is already up, cutting seeds out of bright yellow delicata squash and slicing tomatoes under bright industrial kitchen lights.
Incarcerated people who work in the kitchen at California State Prison Solano begin each day this way at 4 a.m., relying on up to 45 teammates to feed the facility’s population of about 2,700. And for several years, they have enjoyed locally-grown produce, which each month arrive to feed thousands of incarcerated people who otherwise have no access to California-grown food.
Amador Medina, left, and Angel Alvarez cut up squash in the vegetable room on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
The fresh vegetables and fruit laid out on the counters in the prison’s kitchen spark conversation among the four men handling them, about what dishes other men will create with the food. Angel Alvarez and Amador Medina finish pulling seeds out of the squash and carefully slice them, ready for use in the evening meal.
Having assembled their ingredients, the men begin preparing the meals for the day’s dinner to be served at 5 p.m. They toss dark green kale into a Portuguese sausage soup, season and bake the squash and set out fresh persimmons for dessert.
Nicolas Saldaña, center, and Cristoval Mundo, left, process kale, while supervisor cook Hasham Syed bags the kale, in the vegetable room at on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Lue Thao adds locally grown kale to caldo verde soup on Nov. 6 in a kitchen at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Lue Thao, left, and Saul Garcia prepare caldo verde soup in a kitchen at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville on Friday, November 6, 2026. The Harvest of the Month program brings locally grown farm produce to incarcerated people in California. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Luciano Martinez, left, spreads out delicata squash before seasoning it, while Saul Garcia prepares caldo verde soup in a kitchen at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville on Friday, November 6, 2026. The Harvest of the Month program brings locally grown farm produce to incarcerated people in California. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Nicolas Saldaña chops kale, which will be used in a caldo verde soup, on Nov. 6 in the vegetable room at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Hector Salazar slices tomatoes with a food processor in the vegetable room on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. The Harvest of the Month program brings locally grown farm produce to incarcerated people in California. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Peter Bracamonte left, Amador Medina, and Angel Alvarez cut up squash in the vegetable room on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Amador Medina, left, and Angel Alvarez cut up squash in the vegetable room at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville on Friday, November 6, 2026. The Harvest of the Month program brings locally grown farm produce to incarcerated people in California. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Show Caption
1 of 8
Nicolas Saldaña, center, and Cristoval Mundo, left, process kale, while supervisor cook Hasham Syed bags the kale, in the vegetable room at on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Expand
Such ingredients were once scarce to come by in state prisons. But as of 2026, every facility gets its monthly shipment of fresh produce grown by small and medium-sized California farmers, thanks to an ongoing program which has enjoyed widespread acclaim.
Harvest of the Month first launched at three prisons in November 2023, following several years of discussion and brainstorming by Oakland-based nonprofit Impact Justice and University of California’s Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI). It grew out of the nonprofit’s work studying the nutritional needs of incarcerated people, and both partners’ desire to help them access more nutritional food while creating new opportunities for farmers struggling to make ends meet.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is the largest purchaser of food via state contracts, spending more than $163 million a year to feed around 90,000 incarcerated people. Under a new mandate created by Assembly Bill 778, since 2025 at least 60% of the food purchased by the department must be California-grown or produced.
Seeing the opportunity, Nutrition Policy Institute worked alongside Impact Justice and ChangeLab Solutions to partner with the state and Spork Food Hub. They started small, with about one or two fresh produce items sent to three prisons starting in 2023. Within two years, they had successfully brought the program to all 30 adult prisons in California, and expanded shipments to three to four produce items per month.
From June 2023 through October 2026, Harvest of the Month delivered over 3.7 million pounds of fresh produce to California prisons facilities, with about $5.2 million spent on purchases from local farms, according to Impact Justice.
The program has had universal praise and continues to enjoy support from legislators who approved $36.4 million in 2025-26, and $31.4 million starting in 2026-27, not just for Harvest of the Month but for the overall purpose “to accommodate increased food costs and incorporate California-grown agricultural products into the daily menu for incarcerated individuals.”
Harvest of the Month today relies upon the Davis-based Spork Food Hub, which aggregates fresh produce from local farmers across California and delivers it to participating facilities each month. The produce is then added to or cooked in meals for incarcerated people.
Local food offers connection, comfort
That impact has been very real to Nicolas Saldaña and Cristoval Mundo, who each morning help prepare the produce for meals. They work each day in the main kitchen to ensure all men get fed by 6 a.m. Some eat what they receive in the dining hall, while others take the ingredients back to their residences to share recipes and prepare their own meals.
Cristoval Mundo, left, and Nicolas Saldaña stand outside of a dining hall on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
After about three years, Mundo said he’s seen how much the fresh produce means to residents. Food served inside prisons may be low in nutrients while being high in sodium, according to studies performed in prisons including by Impact Justice. Before Harvest of the Month began, he remembered seeing only poor-quality produce, like onions, when it appeared on a dish at all.
It excites residents to see colorful, quality produce on a tray, like fresh pineapple and kiwi, and to use them to add flavor. “Avocadoes are a hit. Everybody likes strawberries,” Mundo said.
Fresh produce also invites curiosity and questions, they said. Some residents had never eaten a kiwi before. Others had not eaten fresh squash in years. Saldaña laughed remembering how when persimmons first arrived thanks to Harvest of the Month, he did not know how to eat one “like an apple.”
The ingredients are also versatile and can be used in many different ways throughout a month. Many men share recipes and find many creative ways to use the same items using hot plates and microwaves, from burritos and salads to fruit-infused water.
Saldaña and Mundo said their favorite meal in three years was a kung pao chicken bowl one resident assembled, using broccoli, bok choy and other vegetables on hand. They anticipate when lemons and oranges are in season, and some residents may come up with their own fish and sauce dishes.
Residents can also share feedback with prison staff about which produce was popular, and which items don’t work well. “There’s a lot of opinions,” Mundo said.
The food being discussed, cooked and eaten together brings people closer, Mundo said, and stirs their memories.
“A lot of people remember what they used to make when they were at home. It builds camaraderie, nostalgia.”
Saldaña agreed, “A lot of people haven’t been home in a long time, and haven’t tasted this food in years.”
Cristoval Mundo walks outside of a dining hall at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Cristoval Mundo, left, and Nicolas Saldaña walk out of a dining hall at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Show Caption
1 of 2
Cristoval Mundo walks outside of a dining hall at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Expand
Program earns state support
Harvest of the Month has garnered ongoing support from state officials and elected leaders who ensure that the program continues to enjoy funding to provide locally-farmed produce to all California prisons
The state Department of Corrections budgets $4.45 per person for three meals per day, and food from local sources may cost about 35 cents per serving compared to the 12 to 15 cents per serving to purchase from commercial distributors. But the department has purchased at least $2.7 million worth of produce from California farmers through the program, in part to meet the mandate of Assembly Bill 778.
Impact Justice’s Food In Prison program manager Heile Gantan-Keo said in an interview that in designing the program, Impact and the NPI investigated the condition of food inside prisons and learned from the experiences of previously incarcerated people, along with people in facilities, to explore the benefits of more nutritious food.
The nonprofit’s 2025 report found 94% of incarcerated people surveyed said they did not receive enough food to feel full, with more than half reporting they were “rarely or never” served fresh fruits and vegetables and subsisted on foods high in salt, sugar and refined carbohydrates. They experienced significant health impacts, such as high rates of diet-related conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, as well as immune system deficiencies that contribute to the spread of infectious diseases.
The California Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment by press time about the quality of the food it provides to incarcerated people.
Nicolas Saldaña carries a box of kale into the vegetable room on Nov. 6 at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville. (Christopher Chung/The Press Democrat)
Gantan-Keo said Harvest of the Month grew out of the desire to improve access to fresh produce for incarcerated people, noting the report’s finding that limiting people to low-quality food, within a “damaging and degrading prison food experience” reflects ongoing injustice disproportionately affecting low-income communities of color, making prisons “out-of-sight food deserts.”
“I know deep in my heart and bones that food is so powerful on the inside when it comes to its utilization as a way to punish, a way to coerce, a way to be used as a form of currency,” Gantan-Keo said. “It can also be used to unify, to communicate, to celebrate.”
She said it took years to develop a program that was “sustainable and appealing” to the department, and it took nearly three years of conversations with the state — which she described as “neutral or change-adverse.”
The Department of Corrections did not comment when asked about this statement.
Spork Food Hub head Hope Sippola said the program has been a multi-pronged success across the state. Through it, she now works with about 120 farms, many located in Northern California and the Central Valley.
Speaking over the phone with The Press Democrat, Sippola reviewed her orders for the coming months. For example, in September she expected to receive and ship avocados, pears and small bell peppers to facilities around the state.
Sippola said she and her partner in 2020 started the food hub with about eight other farmers to start bringing food to schools during the pandemic. It ballooned into an enterprise: “I didn’t know it had such legs,” Sippola said.
She said the state’s ongoing support of the program is the only way it can work.
“We have the whole year planned out with [the Department of Corrections], and now we can go to our growers and say we need this much of this crop and it’ll be pre-sold at this price. Growers appreciate that, and it makes it so much easier on our end.”
While today NPI and Impact Justice are no longer involved with the program, according to NPI project scientist Wendi Gosliner, Harvest of the Month lives on because it has been successful. In 2025, legislators approved an additional $5 million to help fund the program, to ensure the department can meet its 60% goal for locally-grown food.
Gosliner said this is the ideal scenario going forward, to ensure ongoing funding and tracking of food systems within prisons. “It was intended to work six years, so we (could) make sure this was a program [Department of Corrections] could continue on without us.”
“Doing lots more of this to provide more fresh food to incarcerated people requires money from the state budget,” Gosliner told The Press Democrat. “The amount of money the state spends on health care … is tremendous. We’re creating chronic health conditions by not giving people healthy food, and then spending a lot of money on health care to address the illness we’ve created.”
A lifeline for farmers
Not only has the program had major impacts on the incarcerated people being fed, but it also has been irreplaceable for small and medium producers across the Golden State.
One of Spork’s partners, Cole Mavariegos-Anastassiou, helps run Brisa Ranch, an organic farm and food hub in Pescadero with about 20 farmer partners. He said the ranch advocates for farmers and manages buyers and contracts, including sorting and shipping Harvest of the Month produce.
In difficult economic times, when many farmers are finding it harder than ever to stay afloat, being able to contract through Harvest of the Month has been vital, he said.
“We’ve seen a great deal of consolidation in the marketplace,” Mavariegos-Anastassiou said. “We saw a general decline in opportunities for farmers, particularly young farmers in our area. Farming is more difficult in general for small farmers and having this new model has been really promising. It’s been a way to access a market that feeds a lot of people and keeps the dollars within our local communities.”
Madera farmer Sarah Weil helps run a 47-acre mandarin orange farm, Twin Tree Farm, along with a packing house. She said the consistency and volume of Harvest of the Month orders enable her to stay in production and retain her picking and packing crews — a challenge for many growers.
Weil and her father, who started the farm in 2005, decided eight years ago to launch their own packing house in order to generate more revenue. The first year, they sold about 9,000 boxes, and that number has steadily grown since.
However, she said Harvest of the Month has “made a huge difference” by providing a consistent revenue source that allows her to continue employing a packing crew of 20 and harvest crews of up to 70. “That’s amazing for us, because we have the capacity to supply the needs of the whole state,” Weil said.
She also spoke of her experience inside the Solano facility, and how touched she was to see residents’ response to her fruit on their trays.
“You don’t usually meet the people who eat your fruit,” Weil said.
“To see the light in people’s eyes as they talk about it, is extremely powerful. Walking in the prison, it’s all concrete and steel, and it’s a really difficult place to be. So to have this lifeline of connection with nature was really meaningful to me. Fresh food is vital for human dignity. Nutrition and good food is a huge part of having a healthy body and mind.”
Weil emphasized how important it is to have state support for the program. “Not only are you giving fresh food and vegetables to the residents of the prison … but you’re taking it and saying we will use this and support small farms in California that are struggling.
“I think this should be copied all over the country,” she added. “To take tax dollars and use them to support our local economy, our local food system and put the money back in the local ecosystem, that, to me, is brilliant.’’
Staff Writer Natalie Hanson reports on business and agriculture for The Press Democrat. She can be reached at natalie.hanson@pressdemocrat.com or at 619-665-5887.
Dining and Cooking