Food at the Gathering
We are thrilled to share a special menu for this year’s Gathering that celebrates small-scale producers, chefs, and food business owners from across our region. Vegan and gluten-free options will be available.
Thank you to these incredible local families and businesses for nourishing us!
Breakfast and Coffee
Super Cocina
Breakfast Burritos — Vegetarian options available | “Our restaurant was established in 1988 with one main goal in mind, to bring you the most authentic cooking from the Mexican heartland. We change our menu daily in order to bring you more than 180 different culinary delights from different regions of Mexico, all made with the freshest ingredients. Our different dishes are unique and unrivaled anywhere else in San Diego, and our warm atmosphere and friendly staff will make you feel like you are eating with family.”
Learn more about Super Cocina → | Read the spotlight on Super Cocina in Food Vision 2030
The Delicate Squash
Additional savory breakfast items — Vegan & Gluten-free | “The Delicate Squash is a culmination of my passion to connect over locally grown food and my own healing journey.” Shannon English, the wonderful person behind The Delicate Squash, is a poet, a home cook (with an affinity for squash), and loves to explore movement in the outdoors. Her favorite ways to connect with others are through good food, making, and things that grow.
Remember to bring a reusable cup for your drink!
Café X: By Any Beans Necessary
Coffee & Drinks | Café X: By Any Beans Necessary will be providing coffee in the morning through lunch. Remember to bring a reusable cup for your drink!
Café X is a Black-owned, mother-daughter owned, cooperative coffee shop built to support generational wealth building in the Black community and other marginalized communities. Co-founders and mother-daughter duo Cynthia Ajani and Khea Pollard say, “Our goal is to use coffee as a tool to bring together people of all backgrounds to solve complex issues in our communities. We were inspired by the transformative life and legacy of Malcolm X, knowing that the Black community in particular needed to self-determine and build assets to pass down for generations.”
Cute Cakes
Pastries | “A family affair, Cute Cakes has been known for years around the Hidden Valley. Jill and David Reilly started this small but sweet operation in a tiny space surrounded by other small businesses in a nondescript shopping center on East Valley Parkway. To say they outgrew the place is an understatement.”
Cute Cakes has now been in the Escondido community for over 15 years. This well-loved hometown bakery will be providing an assortment of pastries to go with our savory items.
Lunch
Chef Eric Ybarra, California Center for the Arts
Lunch — Vegan & gluten-free options available | Thanks to Executive Chef Eric and his team at the California Center for the Arts for working with us to create a delicious menu, using ingredients sourced from our partners and local producers, listed below!
Foodshed Small Farm Distro
Local Produce | Foodshed is 100% farmer-owned and operated, and works directly with farmers, eaters, and entrepreneurs to cultivate an equitable food system in San Diego while addressing the challenges posed by the climate crisis. Founded in March 2020, Foodshed increases access to healthy food, addresses food insecurity in low-income communities, and empowers small farms to produce quality harvests.
To bring healthy, nutritious, and affordable produce to local families, Foodshed connects its network of small and urban regenerative farms directly to communities that need it most.
The Fishermens Market of North County
Local Seafood | Started in April 2024, the Fishermen's Market of North County is open every Sunday morning at the Oceanside Harbor parking lot just north of Joe's Crab Shack. The Fishermen’s Market offers a wide range of local seafood products and invites customers to purchase seafood straight from their community’s fishing families. The Market’s team and vendors include our region’s commercial fishermen who are dedicated to providing exceptional local seafood products.
Pan y Paz Baker’s Collective
Bread & Desserts | The Pan y Paz Baker’s Collective, organized by nonprofit Via International, is represented by a collective of women-owned, home-based baker businesses. During Covid, when homemade sourdough bread had reached a heightened demand, this collective came together with a shared vision of reigniting a bakery at the Bread & Salt building by establishing a worker-owned baker’s co-op that is aligned with the cultural identity of Barrio Logan.
Snacks and Pick-me-ups
Ocean Beach People’s Co-Op
Fruit & Veggie Spread | OB People’s Co-op is currently the only member-owned grocery store in San Diego. Founded in 1971, People’s is guided by co-operative principles and care deeply about the community. Their entire Produce Department is 100% Certified Organic, and sourced from hundreds of local farmers and producers whenever possible. People’s carries natural foods, bulk and wellness products that are organic, sustainably sourced, fair trade, non-GMO, cruelty-free, minimally processed and environmentally safe.
Coffee, tea, water
Coffee, tea, and water will be provided by the California Center for the Arts throughout the afternoon.
Remember to bring a reusable cup for your drink!
Post-event Mixer 🕺🏽
Baraka and Bilal
Sambusas | Starting in 2013, the women entrepreneurs of United Women of East Africa formed self-sustaining groups to promote their community’s economic and social growth in San Diego County. The entrepreneurs who formed Baraka and Bilal offer unique, hand-crafted, delicious foods that can be prepared by request for any events seeking unique East African cuisine.
Gelato Love
Gelato | “Gelato Love combines founder Paola Richard’s passion for the environment, people, and the delicious food traditions of her native Italy. Paola saw a need in her community for a healthier choice of traditional Italian gelato, hand crafted with the best local ingredients.”
In the past, Gelato Love has collaborated with organizations like ProduceGood to use recovered produce that would otherwise go unpicked or be sent to landfill, to create a line of fundraising citrus sorbets and custards. We can’t wait to beat the Escondido heat with this delicious treat!
Pure Project
Local Craft Beer | Pure Project is a small batch, ingredient-centric craft brewery with a mission to build community and a reverence for beer as an agricultural product. We’re grateful to have Pure Project as an in-kind sponsor this year, donating samples of this fall’s seasonal craft brews!
“In our eyes, beer is an agricultural product and so, brewing with the seasons—using local and organic ingredients whenever possible—just makes sense, from a community perspective, as well as sustainability perspective. The origins of brewing were communal and beer was a reflection of the local terroir. We strive to maintain that communal intention: collaborating to create meaningful jobs for our team, farmers, and partners; hosting events and raising awareness; and existing as global citizens who do good work and give back.”