Women of the Northwest

Jess Tantisook- North Coast Food Web

Episode 25

Send us a text

LINKS: North Coast Food Web, Small Business Development Center, Clatsop Economic Development Resources,Oregon Community Food Network SystemsLocal Food Marketplace, Clatsop Community Action
Youtube: https://youtu.be/Y8FCp4KObnQ

Jess Tantisook is the executive director of the North Coast Food Web, a nonprofit based in Astoria, Oregon.

She grew up in Tennessee and now lives in Ilwaco, Washington. 

Her degree was in Communications, but a class she took in college on Viticulture and Enology
led her to an interest in fresh produce. 

She volunteered on a farm in Washington and eventually moved there.

The Food Web provides education and help to local farmers- those wanting to 
begin farming, need information about agriculture as well as business sense.
They recently held a class called How to Run a Profitable Farmers Market Booth.

They have opened an online shopping experience, available through their website, where local farmers bring their produce, individuals can order online and pick up their items in Astoria.

The Food Web also takes SNAP benefits so that low income individuals can receive $40 worth of produce for $20. Through Tillamook Food Routes, they piloted a home food delivery service that went all the way from Nehalem to Ilwaco.  It was free for folks that identified as low income and then it was $10 for anyone else.

They have a commercial kitchen available which they rent out to anyone.

Subscribe to the Women of the Northwest podcast for inspiring stories and adventures.
Find me on my website: jan-johnson.com

 

Jess Tantitook

Tue, 4/19 9:31AM • 28:05

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

food, people, volunteers, businesses, run, farming, market, astoria, grew, folks, working, online, summer, fun, located, started, helping, move, called, nonprofit

SPEAKERS

Jan Johnson, Jess Tantisook

 

00:00

 

 

00:00

 

 

Jan Johnson  00:09

Well, welcome to Women to the Northwest. Today  I have Jess Tantisook. She works at the Northwest Food Web. And so we're gonna get to hear all about that. Welcome. 

 

Jess Tantisook  00:21

Nice to be here. 

 

Jan Johnson  00:22

Yeah. So let's see- you live across the river. I live in Ilwaco, How long have you lived there?

 

Jess Tantisook  00:32

I lived there since 2012.

 

Jan Johnson  00:35

Oh, so a little while. Where did you move from?

 

Jess Tantisook  00:37

I moved from Ohio most recently.

 

Jan Johnson  00:41

Oh, my. How did you decide to come here?

 

Jess Tantisook  00:43

I came out actually to work on an organic vegetable farm that is located in Long Beach with Lark Instance.

 

Jan Johnson  00:51

 how'd you find out about it? 

 

Jess Tantisook  00:52

I found it on the Atro website. So it's similar to Woofing the Worldwide Organization of Organic Farmers.

 

Jan Johnson  00:59

Yeah. Yeah. 

 

Jess Tantisook  01:00

And yeah, there was an internship opportunity. And I had a friend who was doing a different internship up on Whidbey Island. Yeah. And so I was like, Okay, let's look at Washington State.

 

Jan Johnson  01:14

and just see. Yeah, we had. We had a couple of Woofers. We had a woman who was from Washington, she was originally Ukrainian. And yeah, she stayed for about a week. And then I had another guy that came through, he helped me build my flower beds, and another gal came, and she helped put up the elk fence around the corn. 

 

Jess Tantisook  01:38

And that's great, too. 

 

Jan Johnson  01:40

So it was kind of neat. Yeah. Yeah. And it just some of them are. We had a neighbor who had one for all summer. He came from Germany. Yeah, he was there all summer. And

 

Jess Tantisook  01:50

that's more like what I did. It was the whole season. Yeah.

 

Jan Johnson  01:53

And he was just all in. Yeah, some of them are kind of like, this is like, on my way to somewhere else. I might do a few things just for a place to stay overnight. Or whatever. Yeah, but it's fun. My daughter, Emily. She Woofed. That's how I found out about, she Woofed in Ireland, and Germany and Norway. I think she was in Norway, too. She had a little bit of problem getting out of Ireland. Because 

 

Jess Tantisook  02:27

interesting. 

 

Jan Johnson  02:29

Because they're saying why are you you're taking away from jobs from other people if you're working for free. And 

 

Jess Tantisook  02:36

Oh, interesting.

 

Jess Tantisook  02:37

I had some friends that Woofed in Ireland to it a few farms and they had a great experience. Yeah,

 

Jan Johnson  02:41

yeah. Well, we actually. Ed and I went to Ireland and met this family or the guy that she stayed with. Oh, great guy. Yeah. Really great guy. He'd been doing it for years. And yeah. That was fun.

 

Jess Tantisook  02:53

Yeah. It's fun to learn from people that are doing things differently. Yeah. And then,

 

Jan Johnson  02:58

because you get to find out. You know, I think one of the gals really thought that this was going to be completely organic. And we're not. Yeah, totally. And so I don't think it was necessarily a good fit. Yeah. For her, but it's such a find out. Yeah. And you go on to another one. Go do that. Yeah. So you came out here and then you must have liked it because you stayed,

 

Jess Tantisook  03:26

well, actually, I didn't like it. I came out originally and worked for the summer and it was really hard. It was you know, the summer 

 

Jan Johnson  03:33

What were you working on? 

 

Jess Tantisook  03:35

I was working. It was a mixed mixed vegetable farm. 

 

Jan Johnson  03:39

Oh, okay. Yeah.

 

Jess Tantisook  03:40

 And you know, it's really different in the summer here than most places and it's 

 

Jan Johnson  03:47

like rainy.?

 

Jess Tantisook  03:48

It wasn't really rainy. It was just cold and quiet. And I was not sure what I got myself into. Yeah, and actually, I saved for the summer and then left and moved to Colorado for a year and then ended up back here. Oh, yeah.

 

Jan Johnson  04:03

Okay. Did you? Did you grow up doing farming food things? So what? What motivated you to do that?

 

Jess Tantisook  04:11

 No, I had a professor in college who he actually taught a Viticulture and Enology class and he just had a complete passion for food and it was contagious. And yeah, and so that was like the first time I really had like, oh, this this really like fun to make Yeah, to make dinner and hang out and just the community around food. And so I think I started to pay more attention to it then. And yeah, I was not really sure what I was going to do after undergrad and so yeah, a friend of mine just convinced me to farm for the summer and I was like, Well, why not?

 

Jan Johnson  04:45

Okay, why not? It's a perfect extension then. Did your friend come out with you too, or that you just came out by yourself?

 

Jess Tantisook  04:53

Um A friend of mine came out and worked on a different farm that was located up near Puget Sound

 

Jan Johnson  05:00

okay. All right. So you had somebody to compare notes with

 

Jess Tantisook  05:03

a little bit. Yeah, of course, you know, I was like, oh, yeah, it's totally close anywhere in Washington. It'll just be like, it will be able to like, go back and forth. Like, you know, jobs, but it was, like, no possible way to take public transit from there. And we're just stuck in the middle of nowhere.

 

Jan Johnson  05:21

Yeah, when we moved the, when I married Ed, I had three kids already. And when I moved out, my oldest was 16. And he came out here, we were living in Eugene, and he came out here and he just stood outside and just like, I'm not doing this. Yeah,

  

Jess Tantisook  

It's not what I signed up for.

 

Jan Johnson  

Yeah, I know. I don't know it is a long ways to get to any places. It is a half hour you know to get to Astoria from here.

 

Jess Tantisook  05:50

cool. I mean, conversely, now I love it. Like I am really happy living in Ilwaco I, you know, like I was telling you, great community, and I feel right at home. And yeah, I mean, I do miss warm weather. But otherwise

 

Jan Johnson  06:03

summers coming. July is coming. Because, yeah, spring is always wet. And June is usually wet. Yeah. But then we have July through maybe October. Yeah, that's not so bad. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, so did you. You grew up in Ohio.

 

Jess Tantisook  06:22

 I grew up in Tennessee in Tennessee. 

 

Jan Johnson  06:24

Okay. How do you end up in Ohio?

 

Jess Tantisook  06:25

I went to college. 

 

Jan Johnson  06:26

Oh, yeah. Yeah. What What was your major? 

 

Jess Tantisook  06:28

Strategic Communications?

 

Jan Johnson  06:31

Are you using you are using that? Oh,

 

Jess Tantisook  06:33

yeah. I would say when I graduated, I, it was such a broad degree that I didn't really see how it was useful. But now I definitely do. Yeah, I say parts of it. I still, you know, they're ingrained in their subconscious. Yeah.

 

Jan Johnson  06:47

Yeah. Was like getting a bachelor's in anything. You don't. It's, you're not necessarily using all that stuff. But yeah, yeah. It's not like a focus. I'm going to teach and so I'm gonna do this, or I'm gonna get a general like, yeah, yeah. Well, I should learn something with communications.

 

Jess Tantisook  07:05

I know. Everyone's like, Well, you should be a really great communicator, Jess, I'm really not.

 

Jan Johnson  07:10

I didn't learn everything. What was your family like growing up?

 

Jess Tantisook  07:18

Well, my dad emigrated to the States when he was 23. From Thailand, Thailand. And my mom was born in Mississippi and had grown up there and then had moved to Tennessee when she was in high school. And yeah, they met through a mutual friend. And I have a little brother who's two years younger than me. And yeah, we just grew up playing outside and playing sports. And yeah, yeah. Hanging out.

 

Jan Johnson  07:47

Because it doesn't rain as much there.

 

Jess Tantisook  07:50

Yeah, no, it doesn't rain as much. But Tennessee weather is known to be wild and variable also. Well, yeah.

 

Jan Johnson  07:54

And you might get some hurricanes. Some,

 

Jess Tantisook  07:58

we get tornadoes. And you know, we get the big, like thunderstorms and kind of flooding and stuff. Yeah.

 

Jan Johnson  08:05

Did you hear the way it was the last week when the thunder was roaring? Like,

 

Jess Tantisook  08:09

I don't think we I don't think it I mean, we get it occasionally, occasionally in Ilwaco. But I didn't hear it the other

 

Jan Johnson  08:11

day. No. I mean, it was so unusual. And it just went on and on. It was just like, oh, this is great.Yeah, it's really cool. I like that.

 

Jan Johnson  08:23

That's fun. All right. So now you are working in Astoria with the Food Web. Tell us about that.

 

Jess Tantisook  08:28

Yeah. So the Northcoast Food Web. It's a nonprofit based in Astoria. But we really are, you know, our region that we focus on is Clatsop. County and Pacific County. And occasionally, we'll even cross over into some of the other neighboring counties, because as you know, a food system does not care what county you're in, or what state you're in, you're in for that matter. And it's all connected. So yeah, so the North Coast Food Web's primary focus is helping beginning and small farmers get started and established and be able to successfully run businesses on the north coast. So yeah, so we work with probably between 40 and 50, local food producers.

 

Jan Johnson  09:12

And so I'm trying to picture people who are starting farming, are they? Why are they deciding to start farming? Or just I mean,

 

Jess Tantisook  09:23

I think it's really variable. It just depends, you know, some people are really just doing it as a hobby. And it's something to

 

Jan Johnson  09:32

you thought you're gonna earn a living with?

 

Jess Tantisook  09:34

Well, I mean, there's that also. But I think, you know, there's some folks that are intentionally doing it as their side hustle or just for fun, and that, you know, they don't intend to have it be their full time job. And then there's folks I think, that aspire for it to be something that they can earn their livelihood from, and that they want to grow into a larger business. And I think that you don't maybe even know that right. When you're starting. You might get into it and then see and so our hope is To help folks that are wanting to grow their businesses, be able to access the resources that they need to do that successfully. So whether that's, you know, how do I package a product? Or how do I follow food safety? 

 

Jan Johnson  10:13

How do I market? 

 

Jess Tantisook  10:14

Yeah. Where's the, you know, yeah. How do I find customers? Yeah, yeah. How do I price things? So you know, a lot of those questions, we work really like one on one to wherever a business is. So, you know, there's a lot of kind of general guides out there as to how to do something. But I think there's nothing really like having someone meet you right where you are. Right. And so that's really what we're doing is a lot of one on one support services. Yeah,

 

Jan Johnson  10:41

how many people are working with you? 

 

Jess Tantisook  10:43

Well, so we run a weekly market, a farmers market, and there is about a little over 40 businesses that are vendors that are a part of that. And then additionally, we probably work with another over the last year, we've probably worked with 10 or so kitchen renters for our commercial kitchen rental service that we offer. Yeah. And then like I said, we do these sort of support services, too. And you don't really have to be in our market or using the kitchen. If you just come to us and you're like, hey, I need help getting my handlers license. Right, then there's probably another dozen or so businesses that we just help.

 

Jan Johnson  11:20

I would imagine that you would have people who are already doing their farming kind of getting established helping each other out as well. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I give information.

 

Jess Tantisook  11:31

Yeah, that's the ideal way. And it's great to learn from other people's successes. And so yeah, we try to pair people together as much as we can too, without it being a burden. You know, I feel like sometimes. Yeah, especially like in a small community. It just be overwhelming if you're also running like a, you know, a free consulting business on the side of me helping other people get started. So yeah, we're trying to be somewhere in the middle. So that Yeah,

 

Jan Johnson  11:58

yeah. Yeah. Are you partnering with the college too with their business?

 

Jess Tantisook  12:05

We aren't also SBDC, which is a small business development center, I believe in CEDR are part of the college and we do partner with them to do different workshops. We just ran a workshop called How to Run a Profitable Farmers Market Booth. Yeah, so we ran a class in conjunction with them on that. But we don't have any classes that are offered through the registrar or anything like that. Yeah. I am on the Business Advisory Council for the business school at CCC.

 

Jan Johnson  12:37

Oh, excellent. That's good. What what do you think is the biggest successes you've seen?

 

Jess Tantisook  12:43

With with with? I mean, I don't know. I think it's just nice. I mean, it's been interesting the last two years, because I think our sense of reality has just changed so much. But I think it's just nice for farmers to be able to focus more on the farming side of their operations and, you know, not have to wear 17 hats, maybe only just like five or six. Yeah. And so I think it's great for us to see that, you know, they don't have to sit there all day while our markets running. Like basically, they upload their inventory to our online marketplace, they can say I have exactly, you know, this many bunches of kale and carrots and beets. And then they bring exactly that and drop it off. And then our volunteers package it all and get it out to customers. So we kind of remove some of the like time consuming steps for their operation. So they still, you know, have to come and drop stuff off. But they're not doing how to do anyway. totally right. But they're not having to do a lot of the marketing and kind of customer service pieces. And

 

Jan Johnson  13:44

then because your food web is handling. that 

 

Jess Tantisook  13:46

Yeah.

 

Jess Tantisook  13:46

So I think that that is successful, just because I think it frees up some bandwidth for the growers, and food producers just to be able to focus on the other things I need to do.

 

Jan Johnson  13:57

Right. So you went into it, how did it what did you think it was going to be like when you first went into it? Well, so the How did things change?

 

Jess Tantisook  14:05

Yeah, so I mean, when the food web first got started a decade ago, they started with an in person farmers market called River People Farmers Market, which had like, following like, of, you know, people loved it, it was all food focused. And the reason that that market was started was because our board wanted to have a place where local people could use their SNAP benefits at a farmers market. Okay. All right. And then that market ran all basically volunteer based for years and years and then I think people just got tired on both sides. You know, the vendors were tired and and I think the volunteers were just you know, it was a pretty heavy lift for them to be running that and then so for a few years that we kind of like scaled back and it was smaller. We still did some in person sales at our, our office which is located on 18th Street. And then when COVID hit you know that you know ever you know the immediate reaction with most organizations was to shut down all in person activity. Right. And I think that, 

 

Jan Johnson  15:06

so you pivoted 

 

Jess Tantisook  15:07

Yeah. So I mean, yeah, so we immediately were like, Okay, we're not gonna we're not gonna run this in person market. But I think also our staff felt really compelled to do something. And, and we're like, Okay, is there any way we can move this to online? And what will that look like? Because in person we probably only had? I don't know, we had like six vendors, maybe. So yeah. So over the last two and a half years, I mean, it has grown exponentially. And now I told you, we have 40 plus vendors that are selling through the market, we have, you know, over 500 Customers last year

 

Jan Johnson  15:37

 that's because of being online. Yeah. I

 

Jess Tantisook  15:39

mean, a lot of it is simple. A lot of it is yeah, I think the online platform is easier for folks. But I think it was also serving a real need, especially in the early stages of COVID of being a really low contact market for both vendors and customers, because vendors could essentially just, you know, come and drop their stuff at the door, and customers would just come up and honk, basically, and we'd bring out their orders and  Yeah, and I think it seems like now that people have gotten over the hurdle of buying local food online, I think it's probably here to stay. And it seems like people really like the option to do that. Did

 

Jan Johnson  16:13

you model that off as another program? Or did you also have to come up with?

 

Jess Tantisook  16:18

Both? Right, so North Coast Food Web, is part of a statewide organization called the Oregon Oregon Community Food Systems Network. Okay, I like trying to acronym is stuck in my brain, which is a really cool network of about, I don't know, 60 plus nonprofits in Oregon, okay, that are all working in community food systems. Yeah. And they really are great at talking to each other and sharing best practices. And so, you know, we did what we did kind of like, just like, hey, how can we do this today? Like, you know, what, we're just putting stuff in a spreadsheet, like, you know, how do we get orders and call on people and stuff. But then I think over the last two years, you know, every farmers market in the nation probably at least considered doing something online. And so yeah, from a statewide perspective, we talked to folks all the time, and we're like, okay, how do you streamline this and that, and so we've definitely gleaned and shared a lot of our, you know, things that have worked and haven't worked so. So

 

Jan Johnson  17:17

in your role? Are you the one that's organizing the website and doing all that? Or do you have somebody else? It's

 

Jess Tantisook  17:24

been a couple of hours this morning organizing our website, but that's pretty unusual. So we have a, 

 

Jan Johnson  17:30

that's a learning curve. 

 

Jess Tantisook  17:31

Yes. Yeah. So now we use a online platform called Local Food Marketplace. Okay, which a lot of online farmers markets use. And we have a Programs Manager, and a market coordinator who primarily run those things. Yeah. And I tried to stay with you a little bit out of the weeds of the program. I mean, barely. Sometimes I, you know, am in the middle of it, but

 

Jan Johnson  17:56

and so you said you had volunteers? How many volunteers do you have? Are they mostly regular people that, you know, yes, committed to do? And yeah,

 

Jess Tantisook  18:04

we have some really amazing, just very dedicated volunteers. And our programs would not succeed without them. So it's not really right now, the way we have our programs structured, it's really hard just to drop in and like, you know, be like, Oh, I have a couple of hours, like, what can I do? It's more like, you know, just like, training people on how and why the systems work the way they do. Right. And but we probably have, I don't know, a dozen weekly volunteers.

 

Jan Johnson  18:34

Oh, yeah. Okay. And so if a person wanted to volunteer, how could they find out?

 

Jess Tantisook  18:38

They can email us at info@northcoastfoodweb.org. You can go to our website, which is northcoastfoodweb.org. And there is yeah, there's a tab for volunteering. There's a volunteer application, you can fill it out. Yeah. Someone Oh, yeah. Get in touch. Yeah, we love having volunteers. Mostly, it's pretty fun. So yeah. Yeah, we usually just have them kind of like consistent, you know, like, for a couple months at a time, at least. So

 

Jan Johnson  19:07

that's neat. Okay, I'll put links in the show notes with that. That'd be good, too. What about? Do you partner with food banks, too? Are you just,

 

Jess Tantisook  19:17

um, we don't have any. I'm trying to make sure this is accurate. So right now, we don't have any ongoing partnerships with like, CCA, Community Action, or any of the other any of their other affiliated food banks. It would be great. I think in the future if we figure out a way to connect those. I think right now, you know, we're like working in two different areas. So I think whenever people hear our name, they are like, Oh, are you a food bank? Can I come and get free food? And I think that that's a really important service. We need like direct service like that. But our hope is we're you know, like one step up from that where it's definitely affordable to people that are living on low incomes, or our hope is that local food is. But it's still, you know, it's like using SNAP benefits or FTM paychecks and the Double Up Food Bucks program.

 

Jan Johnson  20:14

So would you is your hope that you're going to expand some of that to this?

 

Jess Tantisook  20:18

Yes, that is our goal. Yeah. So right now actually, we're in the middle of doing a capital campaign so that we can respond to the demand that we've seen for our programs and services. Part of that is bolstering all of the, you know, support services for food businesses, but then the flip side of that is really increasing our low income access programming. And I think that's, you know, like marketing and getting the word out to folks that yes, you can use your SNAP here, that we do a matching program on fruits and vegetables. So you can, you know, get $40 of produce for $20. And those types of things. So, you know, part of our capital campaign will go to those program expansions. And yeah, hopefully we'll be able to increase the usage rate in the next year or so.

 

Jan Johnson  21:05

And then did you do some delivery as well?

 

Jess Tantisook  21:07

Yeah. So we've ran a pilot delivery project that was a community collaboration with another nonprofit that's located in Tillamook called Food Routes. And we piloted a home food delivery service that went all the way from Nehalem to Ilwaco. And it was free for folks that identified as low income and then it was a $10 fee for for anyone else. And basically, you could order through our market and then we would drop food to your house.

 

Jan Johnson  21:36

Wow. Yeah, that's makes me want to be low income.

 

Jess Tantisook  21:41

Well, it's also great too, because if you're like, I don't want to drive the half hour story back, you know, eventually, it would be awesome to do a Brownsmead drop. You'd probably be happy to pay $10 to get with your neighbors. Right.

 

Jan Johnson  21:52

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that would be really, really, really fun.

 

Jan Johnson  21:59

What would you say is your superpower

 

Jess Tantisook  22:02

goodness? procrastinating, communicating. Um, I'm really good at making silly invitations and cards.

 

Jan Johnson  22:16

Okay. And there's nothing wrong about

 

Jess Tantisook  22:20

know if it's a very useful superpower, but it makes me happy

 

Jan Johnson  22:23

Well, it probably makes other people happy. Makes you some makes them smile. What about were there obstacles that got in your way with trying to do besides COVID? I guess because COVID is an obstacle for everybody. But when you know, once you got started and were trying to do things and whatever. What kind of obstacles did you face?

 

Jess Tantisook  22:54

Yeah, I mean, we're facing a lot of obstacles right now. So in, in this sort of moment of raising money for the next decade of the organization, one of the key things that we were hoping was to relocate our operations into the newly formed Astoria Food Hub, which is downtown in the old Sears building on Marine. Okay. And

 

Jan Johnson  23:17

oh, okay. Yes. In that's in the Sears. Yeah.

 

Jess Tantisook  23:19

And so it's a really exciting project. Yeah. It's also, you know, it's a community collaboration. There's a lot going on, it's really, there's a lot of moving parts. And it's tough to pull stuff like that off. Yeah. And so the project has had a number of delays. And also, just on the partnership front, I think there's been some kind of, you know, lack of communication and transparency. And so we were supposed to move in at the beginning of April. And we didn't, which was a big deal

 

Jan Johnson  23:52

 It was just a couple of weeks ago.

 

Jess Tantisook  23:53

I know. We were like this is perfect. Well, I mean, we were supposed to move in in October, which, you know, which we were all I mean, the way that the way that construction goes in general and the way that construction is going right now, you know, I think we were all pretty flexible to know that it was not going to be in the fall. But we were definitely hoping that it was going to be in April. But there were a number of changes to the project. And so because we are a nonprofit, and our board decided to do a very smart thing, which was to wait to move in until we can do a little bit more due diligence, that it's still a good fit with our mission and values. And so yeah, so our office right now is really small. And we are like sardines in there a little bit and we're still small. Yeah, we're still hoping that we get to expand but I guess, you know, as far as obstacles go, I would say I think we're all better when we can collaborate with other folks in the community. It also does not come without like a lot of hard work. And I think just realizing how difficult it is to do those things successfully. And I think we're getting there. And yeah, maybe by this fall, we'll be moved in. And then have a spiffy new office. 

 

Jan Johnson  25:03

A big open house. 

 

Jess Tantisook  25:05

Yeah. And yeah, it's got a beautiful, like tailor made commercial kitchen though. Well, yeah, we could use for whether it's classes or events. And yeah, there'll be lots of other food businesses in there. So I'm hopeful that that centrally located.

 

Jan Johnson  25:18

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's exciting. That will be really exciting. I think, too, when you're working with a bunch of other people that you throw an idea out there, and some people are gonna go, Oh, that's great. That's great. You know, and then then you come together, and you find out that you're not totally understanding each other's vision for things. And maybe there's a little, you know, push given Yeah, with how that actually looks. Yeah. finding out whether this really is what I want to do, or it's not. And yeah,

 

Jess Tantisook  25:49

yeah. So. So I think that we're working on that part, too. And just setting agreements about, you know, yeah. How do we run a collaborative space where there's lots of participating businesses and individuals and right,

 

Jan Johnson  26:00

yeah, and that's a that's a whole thing. In itself, trying to figure out that part. Yeah. Well, 

 

Jess Tantisook  26:07

I'm optimistic. I hope it works out. I think it's gonna be a great community asset. Once it's in place.

 

Jan Johnson  26:12

Well, and then people are finding out about what you do and who you are. And hopefully, this podcast will help you spread the word as well too. And that, you know, keep that local to what would you say brings you the most joy?

 

Jess Tantisook  26:30

Well, I told you, I have a four year old and she is really silly. And so she makes me really happy. So probably. I know that like, pure joy, it's probably that Yeah, yeah. 

 

Jan Johnson  26:43

What a great thing.

 

Jess Tantisook  26:43

Also food. I get really excited.

 

Jan Johnson  26:46

Which is why you are in the food business. That sounds really exciting.

 

Jan Johnson  26:52

That's great.

 

Jan Johnson  26:53

Okay, well, I'm gonna put some links down in the show notes cool for how people can get in touch with you. Most farm to get food or volunteer. or contribute.

 

Jan Johnson  27:36

 All right. Well, so

 

Jess Tantisook  27:39

our market is on hold at the very moment because we had been gearing up for this move, but it reopened on May 1. So okay, it's open to anyone. You can shop online. It's Northcoast foodweb.org.

 

Jess Tantisook  27:50

Okay, I will put that in there. Cool. Yeah. Thanks for joining me. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Okay.