Local Boys & Girls Clubs Enjoy Outings To Ranch & Raley's

Sacramento, CA—The California Rangeland Trust, a non-profit dedicated to preserving ranches and open space, recently treated a youth group from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Sonoma County to tours of a Raley's supermarket and the Oak Ridge Angus ranch in Calistoga.

“Californians tend to be disconnected to what ranchers do, since 95 percent live in urban areas,” said Nita Vail, Rangeland Trust CEO. “Bringing youth to their neighborhood Raley’s and to a local ranch allows them to understand where their food comes from and the importance of being good stewards of the land.”

The “Where Your Food Grows & Grazes” ranch tour program provides hands-on experience in nutrition, conservation and healthy lifestyles. Sponsored by Raley’s, the students started at a local market to learn about the supermarket’s produce, meat and egg departments, plus seeing how food is relocated to their local grocery store, organizers said.

The youth then toured Oak Ridge Angus Ranch, to learn about sustainable habitat, livestock management and the importance of conserving rangeland through collaborative activities. Such activities help young students visualize the way rangelands are a healthy habitat for clean water, plants, wildlife and how ranchers positively affect California communities, according to Rangeland Trust officials.

“Raley’s partnership with the Rangeland Trust allows us to show youth how their food is grown and at the same time, emphasize the importance of conserving agricultural lands," said Becca Whitman, Raley’s community relations manager of Food for Families. "It’s a great combination of nutrition education, sustainability education, and workforce development.”

“We are so grateful to California Rangeland Trust and Raley’s for putting such an amazing program together,” says Cheryl LaFranchi, owner of Oak Ridge Angus ranch. “It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our ranching operations and bring the connection of how our food grows and grazes that much closer. The program was a perfect opportunity to show the importance of what we do for future generations.”

California Rangeland Trust is a non-profit organization founded by a group of cattlemen and cattlewomen in 1998 to conserve open space, natural habitat and stewardship provided by California’s ranches. The Rangeland Trust has permanently protected more than 320,000 acres of privately-owned rangeland. Read more here.

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--Images courtesy of California Rangeland Trust