Garden to Table at Taylor Street Farms &

Coastal Consulting

Consultants:

5/25

Bryanna Young

Timothy Cody

Michael Crowley

Mert Selcuk
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Table of Contents

Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

The Problem ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

Our Rationale ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

Our Deliverables …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Cost Analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8

Delivery Schedule ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9

Success Metrics …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

Outcomes ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 11

Learnings ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. .12

Next Steps …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13

Staffing ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14

Appendix A: Communication ………………………………………………………………………………………..16

Appendix B: Team Resumes ……………………………………………………………………………………….. .17

Appendix C: Team Logo …………………………………………………………………………………………………22

Appendix D: Works Cited ………………………………………………………………………………………………23

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Executive Summary

Overview
Taylor Street Farm is a one-acre urban farm run by Garden to Table, a non-profit organization
located in downtown San Jose. Their mission is dedicated to educating the community about
where food comes from and how to grow your garden. Garden to table believes that the
disconnect from the food to the table is why public health is deteriorating and they seek to help
this issue by creating a network of food systems “that builds community and improves access to
healthy food.” At this moment, in order to reach their goals, they need to find students who are
interested in actively participating at the farm either as a volunteer or intern.

The Problem
Following the slow period and social gathering limitations caused by the pandemic, nonprofits
have struggled to keep operations running normally since adapting to changes. Many businesses
do not have the time or funds to find interns to help with entry level tasks. Additionally,
nonprofits have struggled finding consistent groups of volunteers to help with day to day
maintenance tasks and activities.

Solution
Coastal Consulting is a consulting group founded by Mert, Michael, Tim, and Bryanna, four
business students at Santa Clara University. The firm’s management team has a variety of
experiences with service work and marketing skills that would benefit the farm in reaching more
people in the community.

In order to find people who are interested, Taylor Street Farm will need to establish lasting
relationships with on and off campus organizations at Santa Clara university. This would allow
the nonprofit to establish a steady stream of volunteers from our community in the future.

Through partnership with Coastal Consulting, a volunteer day will be planned where volunteers
from the SCU community will help our NGO with labor-heavy operations that they have been
struggling to complete since the beginning of the pandemic. This will speed up the timeline for
their garden projects.

The internship program and volunteer days will be promoted through flyers, email campaigns,
and social media outreach. Additionally, a zoom event will be held hosted by Coastal Consulting
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The Problem

Urban residents in the United States purchase and consume processed foods because of their
accessibility and affordability. The disconnect between where the food comes from is a large
reason why public health is decreasing. People are not introducing enough fresh produce and
quality nutrients into their everyday diets.

According to the CDC, the obesity rate increased to 42.4% in 2017-2018, surpassing 40% for the
first time This is highly concerning because obesity can cause life threatening diseases.

In San Jose, 26.8% of the population qualifies as food insecure. In a city with rising housing
prices, many are unable to pay for everyday necessities like food. This problem has since
become even worse since the Covid pandemic as many lost their jobs and the number in need of
food assistance drastically increased.

To combat this problem, the founders of Garden to table installed raised beds in a vacant lot in
October 2013 to build Taylor Street Farm (TSF).

Local Solutions

TSF provides delicious and fresh produce to the community and

strives to connect people through local food. In normal
circumstances, volunteers could come to the farm and learn the
ins and outs of urban farming and take-home produce.

During COVID 19, the farm has pivoted its approach to better
adapt to current situations.
The farm is offering a 6-week class this spring called the
“ABC’s of Farming'' intended for children ages 4-10. These classes are held remotely and follow
a participation program that teaches children to become “stewards of the environment” and learn
the importance of eating locally sourced fruits and vegetables.

When the farm closed to volunteers, they planted vegetable gardens and distributed them to over
80 members of the community. The farm currently faces adversity in keeping volunteer numbers
up during the pandemic, which is part of how Coastal Consulting plans to help.
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Our Rationale

Purpose
Taylor Street Farm relies on the efforts of volunteers to maintain their community garden.
However, with social distancing introduced and health concerns on the rise, the pandemic
drastically reduced the quantity of supporters willing to come outside and get dirty.
Coastal Consulting aims to use its resources and experience to aid Taylor Street Farms in
increasing their number of volunteers. This proposal will outline how we can improve outreach
channels to provide a continuous stream of volunteers, while also educating the neighborhood.

Plan of Action
Coastal Consulting will complete the following three goals to help fulfill Taylor St. Farm’s
mission.
1. Organize one volunteer day in either May or early June.
2. Arrange for TSF to lead a Zoom for Santa Clara University students
3. Connect TSF with potential volunteers.
4.

Coastal Consulting Will Increase Support

While a three-point plan may be simple, it will be effective. By familiarizing the neighborhood
with TSF and building lasting local relationships, TSF will see more new faces than before. With
a larger group of volunteers, there will be more people to pass along the ideas of organic farm to
table eating, while taking better care of the farm.

Potential Limitations
Below are several obstacles that may harm our ability to effectively increase support for Taylor
Street Farms.
• Covid-19 health concerns from volunteers
• Strictly remote work
• Limited time frame in which to familiarize the community.
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Our Deliverables

We formulated our plan to help TSF by looking at the issues which TSF has been facing since
the beginning of the pandemic; a lack of volunteers due to public health concerns and the
resulting difficulty in increasing outreach.

1. Taylor Street Farms has been struggling with labor-heavy activities, so we hope to
coordinate 15 volunteers in May to help you re-mulch some of your plant beds and
restock bulk items such as wood chips.
2. To help better educate our community on the benefits of farm-to-table, we have decided
to organize, promote, and coordinate a Zoom event where people from your
organization can talk to SCU students about the benefits of farm-to-table. This will
give you a platform to address SCU students, which we hope will increase your
outreach.
3. To further help your organization with outreach around Santa Clara, we will distribute
your organization’s educational materials around the SCU campus and to off-campus
organizations. We hope to make TSF educational materials available in common
areas around campus such as Lucas and Benson Halls, and various off-campus
community centers.
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Cost Analysis

Much of the direct cost will be for the work we are providing here at Coastal Consulting
including, but not limited to consulting fees, marketing materials, as well as any costs associated
with the volunteer event. The return on investment will ideally come in the form of increased
volunteers and outreach. With increased outreach, a rise in donations can be expected and
potential partnerships with larger organizations.

Direct Costs

Quantity / Hours Cost per Item

Consulting Fees 40 $15 $600

Flyer Supplies and printing 150 6 cents $9

Indirect Costs

Gas na na na

Total $609

Pro-bono ($600)

Adjusted Total $9
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Delivery Schedule

During the span of our joint project with your organization, we hope to adhere to the following
schedule.

Week Day Task

2 4/5 - Mert reaches out to Trinity at TSF to assess potential problems we help can
solve

3 4/12 - Group continue to strategize and develop marketing plan

4 4/19 -Group completes proposal in preparation for preliminary meeting on Friday

4/25

5 4/26 -Group begins coordinating for volunteer event that will happen in late Week 6
or Week 7

6 5/3 -Group begins promoting Zoom Outreach Event

-Group begins distributing educational materials on and around campus
-Group finalizes details of Volunteer Day

7 5/10 -Group continues to promoting Zoom Outreach Event

-Group hosts volunteers at TSF during the week beginning May 10th

8 5/17 -Group distributes educational materials at off-campus communal locations

-Group helps TSF host educational outreach event during the week beginning
May 17th

9 5/24 -Group gets feedback from attendees to Zoom event

-Group gets feedback from TSF on Project Performance

10 5/31 -Group delivers community presentation to class and TSF representatives

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Success Metrics

Success Metrics
We will measure the success of each aspect of our project separately.

1. For the volunteer day event, we will measure our success based on the attendance of our
volunteers, and the outcome of their work at the farm. We hope to knock out one or two
labor heavy tasks with our group while at your farm, so our success will be measured in
the completion and quality of our work.

2. For our Zoom outreach event, we will measure our success based on attendance. We hope
to get a decently sized audience (hopefully 20 or 30 students), to come listen to a
presentation given by your organization on the benefits of farm-to-table. We will also
create a brief survey for attendees to take on the way out so we will have a source of
direct feedback on how educational the event was for the audience.

3. For our educational material distribution plan, we will measure our success based on how
quickly we can distribute your materials and how quickly they are exhausted. We plan to
distribute flyers in community spaces and academic buildings around campus. We will
check on our materials periodically to see if they need to be replenished.
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Outcomes

Volunteer Day:

We had 16 total volunteers come out to visit the farm and spend ~2.5 hours moving soil, pulling
weeds, laying wood chips, and doing the groundwork for TSF’s new children’s garden. This
helped satisfy TSF’s need for large numbers of physically able volunteers to perform labor
intensive operations. In addition, many of the volunteers who came to the volunteer day had a
positive experience are anticipated to return in the future to provide further assistance.

During the volunteer day, the main project of

the day was clearing out part of the center of
the farm from invasive weeds that had taken
over a bed to make space for a plant bed
specifically for kids. The purpose of this
children’s garden we made space for was to
provide the future generation of backyard
farmers and sustainable community members
to come learn about new plant variants!

Zoom Outreach Event:

The original success metrics that we set for our zoom event was to get 20 to 30 members of the
community to come to our presentation. After reaching out to many clubs and Santa Clara
student groups in and out of sustainability Trinity and Sean not only showcased the goals and
overall mission of Taylor Street Garden but rendered immense audience feedback in the form of
questions and post-presentation follow-up. The Zoom event proved to be a perfect opportunity
to get the word out to students about the internship and volunteer opportunities at the farm.
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Learnings

Coastal Consulting’s experience with Taylor Street Farm has proven to be quite informative. We
are grateful for the instruction and wisdom shared with us. Here are a few impactful lessons we
have learned.

First, we were fascinated by the nature of Egyptian Walking Onions. We had never heard of a
plant that grows so top-heavy that it falls over and replants itself. While we were once novices in
the gardening arena, Coastal Consulting has absorbed considerable nutrition and planting
factoids.

Second, the “Grow at Home” program appears to be an impressive model to follow. Since
Covid-19 forced people to stay at home, Taylor Street Farm responded by creating videos that
educate people with no gardening experience on how to plant and harvest their own crops. We
were highly impressed by the timeliness of the videos in response to the newfound situation of
the community. Also, it is an impressive philanthropic effort that Coastal Consulting aims to
imitate.

Third, throughout this project, we learned more and more about how to interact and
communicate with another professional organization. The high frequency of communication
mandated by this project forced us to be more organized and flexible. Additionally, we had to
become comfortable using different modes of communication such as email, Zoom, and in one
instance, text.

Fourth, we are grateful for the opportunity to be witnesses to the passion that every
representative of Taylor Street Farm embodies. Considering the farm is run by volunteers with
outside jobs and busy lives, the effort they pour into the garden is truly inspiring. Our main
contact, Trinity, has demonstrated the power of believing in what you do. Going forward,
Coastal Consulting looks forward to engaging in similar projects where passion shines through.
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Next Steps

Moving forward, it is recommended that the farm continue to focus on recruiting interns at local
college campuses like Santa Clara University and San Jose State University. Coastal Consulting
also recommends that Garden to Table encourage volunteers and interns to spread the word
about the farm and engage in the student groups they are already a part of even if their major
isn’t gardening or sustainability because Taylor Street Farm offers not only ways to give back to
the community, but opportunities for personal growth and wellbeing. By emphasizing the
different areas of experience the internship offers, TSF will be able to reach a diverse group of
individuals who will apply themselves in different ways to be a help at the farm. Finally, using
social media such as Instagram stories and Twitter to promote internships can be helpful to reach
college students.
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Staffing

Tim Cody
• Major: Finance
• Team Role: Design & Writing
• Responsibilities: Designing Team Logos and
Writing for Project Proposal
• Related Experiences: Leavey School of
Business Ambassador

Bryanna Young
• Major: Marketing
• Team Role: Writing & Research
• Responsibilities: Draft Writing and
Strategizing Marketing Plans
• Related Experiences: Content Creation for
MNTN Co. and Marketing Committee for
UPB
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Staffing

Mike Crowley
• Major: Finance
• Team Role: Data Analytics
• Responsibilities: Incorporating and
analyzing relative data in a visually
appealing way
• Related Experiences: Interning for Silicon
Valley Executive Center and Utilizing
programs like MSFT Excel and Tableau

Mert Selcuk
• Major: OMIS
• Team Role: Project Manager
• Responsibilities: Representing consulting
group, making sure deadlines are met,
writing for proposal
• Related Experiences: 10+ years of NGO and
volunteer work (TACAWA and Jubilee
Reach in WA)
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Appendix A: Communication
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Appendix A: Communication
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Appendix B: Staff Resumes

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Appendix B: Staff Resumes

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Appendix B: Staff Resumes

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Appendix B: Staff Resumes

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Appendix C: Team Logo

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Appendix D: Works Cited

Garden2Table. (2021). Retrieved 25 April 2021, from https://www.taylorstfarm.org/

Obesity is a Common, Serious, and Costly Disease. (2021). Retrieved 25 April 2021, from
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Simmonds, C. (2017). The Silicon Valley paradox: one in four people are at risk of hunger. Retrieved 25 April 2021,
from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/the-silicon-valley-paradox-one-in-four-people-are-at-risk-
of-hunger