Resources from IECF will help Soulful Soil Farms continue its efforts building gardens, cultivating farms, and uniting communities via teaching sustainable agriculture and land stewardship.

“The grant is allowing us to acquire essentials we need for the program, such as farm tools and trainings for myself and board members,” said Tina Marie Davis, founder and CEO of Soulful Soil Farms. “It’s been uplifting and allows us to grow even more.”

That bodes well for the intrepid nonprofit, which employs hands-on education and partnerships with key stakeholders to increase access to fresh food and promote overall wellness. Davis says the nonprofit likes to equip people with the tools to grow, regardless of the size of their space.

Several programs like S.A.G.E (Sustainable Agriculture and Garden Education) lean into inclusivity, particularly with youth. S.A.G.E teaches youth and other community members how to not only grow food, but to understand food systems.

To that end, participants learn everything from soil health and composting to water conservation and small-space gardening.

Davis said the program is ideal for partnerships, too, and can be brought to most sites, offering hands-on garden education. Soulful Soil Farms will install and set up a garden, customize educational programming, offer ongoing training and support, and align curriculum with sustainability and wellness.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit’s community gardens are safe spaces and allow individuals and families to grow their own fresh food and, in turn, build deeper connections.

Youth workshops and other curriculum-based classes are also offered.

It all began at home, however.

“I grew up on a farm in the city of Compton,” Davis said. “There were chickens, goats, horses—everything but cows.”

Most of her childhood was spent there, in fact, turning soil, planting seeds, and learning through trial and growth.

As an adult, Davis went into the medical industry, specifically medical care, but soon learned it “wasn’t my lane.”

“The first time a patient that I cared for passed away, I just couldn’t do it past that,” she said. “I transitioned to pharmacy work and acquired a farm tech license. I quickly learned that with Western medicine, their focus is on money, not the cure. After a couple of years in pharmacy, I got out of it because it just didn’t align with my spirit.”

Administration and claims work followed, and she eventually worked her way up to Director of Claims. But something shifted when her own ailments increased.

“I have high blood pressure, and cancer runs on my dad’s side of the family,” she said. “I’ve lost some family members to cancer. Suddenly, I realized, ‘Well, I’m in healthcare, but I’m not in healthcare.’

Davis felt drawn back to where it all began—growing up on a farm and being on the land.

“It was a full circle moment for me,” she said.

She went down the “rabbit hole” of healthy food choices, particularly juicing, and doing everything she could for herself to offset the high blood pressure and Lupus, which she had been diagnosed with in 2010.

“They [the medical industry] throw pills at you, and as long as the benefits outweigh the side effects, it’s approved for the population,” she said. “But those pills made me way sicker than just my regular ailments.

“At some point I just thought: why not grow my own food?” she added.

It was only a matter of time before Soulful Soil Farms launched.

“I’m very much about entrepreneurship and being self-sustaining,” Davis said. “So, as I learn, I teach, and I feel like the younger generation—the younger I can get to them, the better—I can really help cultivate the next generation of farmers.

“That’s one of our big goals,” she added. “Farm, feed, teach, repeat.”


This story originally appeared in the Press Enterprise, May, 2026.

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Jack Fitzsimmons and Walter Gendell, who established a donor advised fund at Inland Empire Community Foundation several years ago to help manage and focus their charitable giving, recently provided additional resources to Cathedral City Senior Center.

Their grant arrives at a critical time and will greatly benefit the challenges the food bank faces during major shifts in government bureaucracy.  

“Our little Food Bank was already busy,” said Geoff Corbin, CEO of Cathedral City Senior Center. “But when the SNAP/CalFresh delays were first announced, the numbers [of people coming in] jumped fast. We went from already-high weekly counts of about 450 to 555 individuals served, just from the news of the delays. And this is before the holiday surge even starts.” 

He added that the center will see a continuation of that trend.

“Walter and Jack were so moved by an email we sent to people, letting them know they could come to the food bank if they are impacted by the pause of SNAP benefits,” added Vic Ide, the center’s COO. “The email let people know that we had food, social services, and mental health resources if they needed help or somebody to talk to.

“Or even if they just needed to get out of the house,” he said. “We’ve got activities here that help with being isolated. And sure enough, after that message, we fed 555 on a Monday, which is over 100 more people than we normally see.” 

The giving couple didn’t belabor the decision to help. 

“When we heard that 37,000 Coachella Valley residents, mostly children, seniors and working families, were going to be impacted by the delay or suspension of SNAP benefits, we knew we had to do something to address this crisis,” Jack and Walter said. “The disruption to food assistance—leaving vulnerable families without support—is an acute moral inflection point for us personally, both as citizens and people of faith. Impoverished children and seniors and families living paycheck to paycheck going hungry in an area as wealthy as the Coachella Valley felt shameful and morally wrong. We realized reaching out to the Cathedral City Senior Center and making a direct contribution from our DAF at IECF to their food bank was the best way to get food into the hands of those that needed it most. It was truly the least we could do.” 

The Cathedral City Senior Center’s food bank, known as the Jim Scheibel and Tim Wood Food and Humanity Center, has become a beacon of hope and provision in the region. Scheibel and Wood have long been recognized for their commitment to creating food security in the desert. Their generosity brightly shines through. 

The center partners with FIND Food Bank, Von’s, Trader Joe’s, Grocery Outlet, Crumbl Cookie, Starbucks, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, Eddie V’s, and other local businesses to offer the widest kinds of selections of foods—from fresh and name brands to shelf-stable and other nutritious offerings.  

The food bank offers a “dignified shopping experience,” in fact, a kind of “shop-for-what-you-need” experience akin to that of traditional grocery stores. Locals have also embraced the monthly food drives, which arrive via the Dinners with Patsi fundraising events, which benefit local charities and restaurants. 

The center accepts food and monetary donations year-round. 

Corbin and Ide are hopeful about the months ahead but remain on alert. Even when SNAP benefits begin to flow again, uncertainty seems omnipresent. 

“That’s the big issue,” Corbin said. “What we’re dealing with here is huge increases [in need] due to the uncertainty of it all. And the uncertainty is what stays behind for a while.  

“We’ve been dealing with families torn apart by ICE raids,” he added. “We’re having to give our rapid-relief mini grants out so that some families can find ease.” 

He notes one example of a family of five children, ranging from 5 to 17 years of age, whose parents were recently taken out of a Coachella field by ICE agents with no notice.  

“A woman affiliated with the center, who has three of her own children, took those children in for the couple of weeks until they got to where their parents wound up,” Corbin said.  “And where they landed was in southern Mexico. But had lived here for 30 years. And I won’t tell you the harrowing story of the two weeks the parents spent imprisoned, poorly nourished, and mistreated.” 

That’s just one reason why Corbin and Ide both feel that Fitzsimmons’ and Gendell’s recent gift felt so “serendipitous.” 

As for the road ahead in 2026, Corbin is to the point: “We’re going as fast as we can, and we’re still barely scratching the surface of what the need is here in mid-Valley.”  

Learn more at cathedralcenter.org. 

This story originally appeared in the Desert Sun, December 2025.

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The desert’s regional food bank is getting a boost in support thanks to a recent grant from

Debbie Espinosa, President & CEO of FIND Food Bank, says those resources are greatly assisting them with broad and general uses. She also notes the nonprofit’s extraordinary reach in the region. 

“We go from the windmills on I-10 all the way to the California/Arizona border, and Blythe, then up to Anza, Joshua Tree, and 29 Palms, and then everything in between that,” she said. “We have a pretty expansive service area.” 

That helps, especially when it comes to the importance of equitability for the distribution food in the region. 

“We help fill, stock, and supply the local food pantries and food banks,” Espinosa said. “That’s our primary role. We are the regional food bank, and we ensure that the distributing agencies are place-based locations and in the smaller community areas, and that they are stocked and supplied.” 

To that end, FIND Food Bank is the only regional food bank serving eastern Riverside and southern San Bernardino Counties in southern California. In 2024, the nonprofit distributed 28 million pounds of food to 120,000 people on average every month at 175 distribution sites. 

Its varied community-based partners and programs include food pantries, soup kitchens, after-school and summer care, senior centers, faith-based organizations, and homeless shelters. 

Additionally, more than 25 mobile pantries venture out to fill in any food gaps. 

FIND Food Bank sprang to life in the early 1980s and remains one of the main cornerstones of the food security system in the region. Espinosa doesn’t take her role lightly.

“We feel the weight of that on our shoulders every day,” she said. “We want to make sure that we can take care of everybody—all the non-profit organizations that we support—as best we can.” 

A recent, and surely major, milestone is the nonprofit’s major expansion efforts, which created ample additional space to store food and distribute it more expeditiously.  

With its new 45,000-square-foot warehouse—its other facility was 38,000 square feet—Espinosa is thrilled that the nonprofit is close to 100,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space. 

There was another perk to the new outpost, however. 

“When we envisioned this new building, we realized that with a lot of the warehousing and logistics companies coming closer to the Coachella Valley—the I-10 is really starting to develop out through Beaumont, Cabazon, and the Desert Hot Springs area—we have the capability of doing a workforce development program on operations and logistics and inventory management systems,” she added. “We do that so people can learn and gain professional development skills as part of our training center. And they can help the community at the same time.” 

Upon completing the program, those individuals would have found knowledge and new skills to “build out resumes and apply to other jobs,” Espinosa said. “They would have a better shot to end food insecurity.”

Ending hunger comes in three different stages, she added. “There’s ending hunger for today, which is our food distribution programs. Then there’s the food distribution programs, and, of course, a myriad of food distribution programs within that category.” 

Outreach services help people become established greater independent by signing them up on CalFresh, and connecting and interconnecting them with other resources that many food-insecure people can experience, such as utility assistance, housing assistance, and Medi-Cal registration. 

“We help people navigate through all that,” Espinosa said. 

“Ending hunger for a lifetime” programs also come into play. Here, the nonprofit addresses the root causes of hunger and focuses on four of the contributing factors to why people are in the food line.  

“There’s a multitude of factors, but the four that we can make a significant difference in is workforce development, educational attainment, financial literacy, and community engagement,” Espinosa said.  

When asked what she appreciates most about being part of the area’s revered nonprofit, the CEO was candid. 

“What I love most is that there’s so much community kindness here,” she said. “I’ve lived all over the United States. I went to school in the Midwest. I was up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived over in the coastal areas of Southern California. There’s something really special about the people in this community, and I feel it in such a different way than the other areas that I’ve lived in. 

“People here are concerned, and there’s a love to make sure people are taken care of and not left behind,” she added. “Another reason I love it is because I’ve been given an opportunity to go out and interact with the community in such a strong way, and to help feed people who are in need.” 

Learn more about FIND Food Bank by visiting FINDfoodbank.org. 

This story originally appeared in the Desert Sun, August 2025.

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