11:43 a.m EDITOR'S NOTE: The original broadcast misidentified the Mendo Food Network. The error has been corrected
Nearly 50 years after his first attempt to launch a community cannery in Mendocino County, local entrepreneur Paul Katzeff is taking another shot—this time with a potential $2 million boost from the state of California.
In February, the California Department of Food and Agriculture announced new funding for farm-to-community food hub programs. The grants aim to support local food systems, improve access to fresh produce, promote climate resilience and provide fair-wage jobs. For Katzeff, the announcement sounded strikingly familiar.
“The RFP was almost designed as if somebody had read my proposal of 49 years ago,” Katzeff said.
Katzeff, who went on to found Thanksgiving Coffee, a Fort Bragg-based specialty coffee company that links farmers and coffee drinkers around the world, logged into the webinar about the grant program. What he heard rekindled his vision for a food hub that would support local growers and provide shelf-stable products for the community.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time,” Katzif said. “This is the moment.”
At a recent meeting with local farmers at the Thanksgiving Coffee offices off Highway 20, Katzeff laid out his vision: a producer cooperative made up of local farmers, a consumer cooperative of area residents, and a community cannery to link them.
“Food can become money if it’s not perishable,” Katzeff said. “Take 100 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of leeks, and 5 pounds of dill—you can make 300 pounds of potato leek soup. If a pint sells at $8, that’s $19,200. This pays the farmers, the food processors and covers operational costs.”
The idea, he said, is to build economic resilience by reducing waste, adding value to local produce, and providing year-round food security for the region.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers and ranchers receive just 15.9 cents of every dollar spent on food, with the majority of costs going toward marketing, processing and distribution. Katzeff’s model aims to flip that balance by bringing more of the food dollar back to local producers.
“I think the canner idea is an amazing thing for the community,” said Shea Burns, owner of the Nye Ranch, who supports the project. “We don’t have anything like it here. Being able to store produce and provide it locally over a longer period would really benefit farmers and the community.”
To be eligible for the state grant, the proposal must be backed by at least 10 food producers and five community organizations. So far, Katzeff is gaining momentum.
Amanda Friscia, executive director of the Mendo Food Network is also on board.
“I know farms that would like to participate,” Friscia said. “Sometimes we get pallet loads of food that we just can’t distribute in time. A cannery would let us preserve that food instead of letting it go to waste.”
Katzeff is now racing to finalize his proposal and collect the required letters of support ahead of the April 14 grant deadline. With renewed interest and a new generation of farmers behind him, he hopes this time the vision will take root.
