CERES moves everything and the kitchen sink following S.A.Y. bankruptcy

Ceres, the non-profit meal service, was forced to vacate their Santa Rosa kitchen and consolidate in Sebastopol and Novato after Social Advocates for Youth filed for bankruptcy.

photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
Prepared meals from Ceres shuttered Dream Center kitchen sit in cold storage
at Ceres Kitchen in Sebastopol awaiting delivery.

The abrupt bankruptcy of Santa Rosa nonprofit Social Advocates for Youth - S.A.Y. - is having ripple effects that go beyond just the youth and foster services they once provided.

The fallout from S.A.Y.’s collapse isn’t over either; not least for the dozens of at-risk and foster youth who’ve lost the safety net of S.A.Y.’s services.

One of S.A.Y.’s longtime tenants in Santa Rosa has also had to scramble a short term solution to the bankruptcy, said Deborah Ramelli.

" Ceres Community Project has since 2016, leased a kitchen space that we designed and built out within the S.A.Y. Dream Center as a program site for our youth program and medically tailored meal program," Ramelli said, speaking at Ceres Sebastopol kitchen.

Part of Cerese's mission is preparing and delivering free or low-cost nutritious meals to those with serious medical issues.

Ramelli said Ceres learned on February 28th they would need to vacate the Dream Center kitchen within 36 hours or face being locked out due to S.A.Y.’s bankruptcy agreement.

"We rallied to do that with our staff and our volunteers and our community partners," Ramelli said. "We completed the move the next day in about eight hours."

While Ceres has been able to remove everything including the kitchen sink from the Dream Center according to Ramelli, she said the teen volunteer program there was their most “robust and engaged.”

"So this closure of the Dream Center has displaced 120 youth from our youth development program and the learning opportunities that come with that," Ramelli said. "And so we're working now on a plan for how do we address that. It's not as easy for teens to make the drive. It's not a long drive, but it makes a difference in traffic in the afternoon and with teens' busy schedules."

Ramelli said one thing hasn’t changed.

"Our commitment to our clients," Ramelli said. "Our deliveries have gone out without any delay or interruption to get meals to our clients who are low income and dealing with serious and chronic health conditions."

Ramelli said Ceres is looking to integrate some of the teen volunteers from their Dream Center kitchen into their Sebastopol kitchen and garden; and they are exploring the possibility of another site in Santa Rosa.

That's until CERES' long-planned new Center for Food, Youth & Community opens next year.