CUESA Recognized by the Board of Supervisors
October 31, 2013
CUESA is honored to be recognized by District 3 Supervisor David Chiu and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for Restaurant Appreciation Month. In a ceremony on Tuesday, October 29, Supervisor Chiu presented the award to Executive Director Dave Stockdale and offered the following remarks.
Every year I agonize about which District 3 restaurant to award because I represent a district that I have been told has the highest number of restaurants per capita on the West Coast. We decided to take a different approach this year and honor an organization in District 3 that for the past two decades has been promoting sustainable food systems and supplying restaurants and residents across the Bay Area with high quality locally-produced foods.
I’d like to recognize Dave Stockdale who is the Executive Director of the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, otherwise known as CUESA. CUESA is a nonprofit organization that operates the world famous, three times a week, Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. Since 1993 the market has served as a critical link between our residents, visitors, and local farmers, and it offers the most diversity and best quality products available in Northern California.
The farmers’ market at Ferry Plaza serves over 200 of the Bay Area’s finest chefs, restaurants, and caterers that regularly shop at the market. It is one of my favorite farmers’ markets in the city, and my guess is many of us here in the Board of Supervisors chamber shop there whenever we have the chance.
Not only does CUESA operate the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market, it also has an extensive offering of programs and events to help educate folks about sustainable agriculture, including cooking demonstrations, farm tours, youth programs, a weekly newsletter, and more. For example, at their weekly Saturday farm-to-table cooking demonstrations, top Bay Area chefs and nationally-renowned cookbook authors demonstrate their recipes using seasonal and sustainable ingredients purchased that morning from the farmers’ market.
During my time as Supervisor, I’ve offered several pieces of legislation on urban agriculture, and we’re actually working on another one right now. So I am particularly appreciative of the work that Mr. Stockdale and his colleagues have done to contribute to the promotion of sustainable agriculture and our local food systems. So with that, I would like to recognize Dave Stockdale, I want to thank you on behalf of your organization. Please join me in thanking him and CUESA
