The Sunnyvale Sun

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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Shovels sit, ready to be used to plant the first tree, a plum tree, at Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale.

Full Circle Farm plants roots, gets various grants

By Cody Kraatz

About 450 excited neighbors, activists and families came as Full Circle Farm held a groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 27 at its future home next to Peterson Middle School. It planted a tree to mark the occasion, and celebrated taking in slightly more than $200,000 in grants and donations.

One donor was Kaiser Permanente, which gave $25,000 to pay for soil amendments through its Healthy Eating, Active Living Initiative.

"Kaiser Permanente's initial grant to Full Circle Farm will help them clean and enrich the plot, because healthy soil will grow healthy produce for healthy communities, and that's what Kaiser Permanente is all about," said Mary Ann Barnes, senior vice president of the Santa Clara Kaiser hospital.

Google catered the event to support locally grown food. The Santa Clara Unified School District will use the produce in cafeterias and the farm as a classroom, said district representatives attending the event.