Form 990 for tax year 2022

Totals

Total revenue

$6,483,354

Total expenses

$4,137,098

Contributions and grants received

$4,178,835

Grants paid

$0

Program service revenue

$2,382,246

Investment income

$117

Other revenue

-$77,844

Total assets, end of year

$6,294,915

Total liabilities, end of year

$550,344

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$5,744,571

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$2,837,606

Management and general expenses

$1,167,444

Fundraising expenses

$132,048

Program service expenses (Part III)

$2,837,606

Program services were 68.6% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2022

• Farmers Markets Educational Venues AIM's certified farmers markets provide critical learning environments where AIM, farmers, and food makers engage the community and educate about the health, social, environmental, and economic benefits of eating locally and sustainably produced food. AIM's internal research indicates that over 40,000 shoppers and eaters a week depend on AIM markets, or an estimated 2 million annual visitors.In 2022, AIM managed over 350+ farmers market events to offer local foods and and community building across three Bay Area Counties. Farmers, ranchers, fishers, food purveyors, and artisans travel from 44 California counties to have direct access to the public at AIM's markets located in the cities of Hayward, Newark, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Rafael. We maintain integrity by verifying that all farmers participating in AIM farmers markets are complying with specific Certified Farmers Market Program Regulations and with AIM's Rules and Regulations; we want to be sure that our farmers are selling only products that they grow. We developed a new Livestock Marketing Integrity Program to promote transparency and accountability for ranchers in our markets.

  Expenses $1,576,046

• Diggin' Education ProgramsAIM offers three farm-based education programs: Diggin' in the Classroom, Diggin' at the Market, and Diggin' on the Farm. Our goal is to empower youth to make healthy food choices that will positively impact their long-term health. Knowledge of where food and fiber come from, how crops are grown, why farmers choose to farm and what is in season, is a powerful tool for teaching good nutrition. In 2022, we served 3,236 students, parents, and teachers through our Diggin Education programs: at the market, in the classroom, on the farm, and at community events.

  Expenses $94,375

• Rollin' Root Mobile MarketIn 2022, AIM strengthened its star food access program, The Rollin' Roo,, a mobile market that increases access to farm-fresh food and nutrition education for older adults and other underserved groups regardless of transportation or economic barriers by launching a new route across San Francisco. This was our fourth year of service, and we focused on serving older adults at low-income senior housing sites and communities with limited to no fresh food access. In total, we served approximately 6,000 participants, and an average of 500 people per week. Additionally, we recruited and trained 15 community ambassadors to join each Rollin' Root stop to answer questions, share recipes, and provide cooking tips to shoppers. Our nutrition educators produced 15 nutrition education videos and in-person lessons to teach participants about seasonality and eating healthy on a budget.

  Expenses $1,167,185

• Community Food AccessAIM farmers markets provide an equitable outlet for local communities to access healthy, nutritious foods grown on nearby farms. At AIM's farmers markets, we distributed nearly $750,000 in EBT benefits to shoppers of low-income to purchase local foods, and provided a Market Match of $500,000 for the purchase of free local fruits and vegetables. 89% of our participants attend the market on a weekly basis. Likewise, AIM partners with the County WIC and Area Agency on Aging offices; WIC families and Seniors buy fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmers market by swiping their WIC card with select participating farmers, or by redeeming WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program vouchers offered seasonally to eligible recipients. Seniors also receive "Bonus Bucks" to incentivize their purchasing of local fruits and vegetables.We continued the Bounty Box in response to COVID-19, a multi-farm box program supporting nutrition access for communities across Marin, San Francisco, and Oakland. In 2021, we fulfilled 9,707 boxes, including 5,368 that were offered for free to nutrition insecure communities in the Canal neighborhood, Marin City, and Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco. We partnered with 41 farms to curate seasonable produce boxes with 196 total varieties of fruits and vegetables.AIM plays an active role in the Marin Food Policy Council, Marin Healthy Eating and Active Living Collaborative, California Alliance of Farmers Markets, California Food and Farm Resilience Coalition, and California Food and Farming Network to support initiatives that promote food access programming, solutions to climate change, and programs that offer financial resources for small and midsize farmers.

• Zero Waste and Climate ActionAIM has a core commitment to contributing to climate crisis solutions, and our "Green Team" staff members have already worked to: expand AIM food recovery programs (surplus food donated to community groups at the end of the market day); bring composting and recycling systems to more of our markets; and help farmers access reusable totes instead of cardboard for transporting produce. AIM's farmers markets use greener practices to promote composting of food scraps, better waste management practices to avoid products going to landfills, reduction in single-use plastics, and the continued use of community partnerships to recover surplus foods at the end of market dyas that can be redistributed to hungry families. We have diverted over 75,000 pounds of excess foods from the farmers markets in 2021 that were redistributed to over 2,500 people with over 6,300 pounds of methane offset.Our farmers market sites have a three-bin waste system for compost, recycling, and landfill. We educate customers and vendors about reducing waste and switching to certified fiber-based compostable products onsite at markets, via our community newsletter, and social media channels. In 2021, we piloted a life-size interactive educational display at our Point Reyes Farmers Market to teach shoppers to properly sort their waste, in collaboration with West Marin Climate Action.We also developed and implemented an Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Policy at AIM to guide our purchasing activities. In accordance with our policy, we replaced AIM's gas generators used for operating the farmers market with electric battery packs. This reduces the pollutants our staff, customers, and vendors breathe at our markets. We are a Marin County Certified Green Business.In 2020-2021, we partnered with StopWaste.org to obtain funding to support 22 farmers to replace their cardboard boxes with reusable transport containers. At the end of 2020, we diverted over 5,100 cardboard boxes from the waste stream with 6,637 pounds of waste averted. This year, we are helping farmers obtain 627 free reusable transport palettes to sustainably bring produce to market.

• Racial Equity and Food JusticeIn 2021, we created and adopted an organization-wide Path to Racial Equity to collectively learn and publicly acknowledge how racism impacts our work and publicly share how we can advance racial equity in our food and farming system. As part of our work to make markets more inclusive and accessible, we launched our Racial Equity Fund that supports Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Farmers, Food Producers, and Artisans getting their start at the farmers market. BIPOC farmers, food producers, and artisans are currently underrepresented at the farmers market. The farmers market does not fully reflect the diversity of our food producer and farming communities, in part because the start-up costs of joining the market can create a critical barrier-to-entry. We raised $20,000 in funding to support new (BIPOC) producers and other socially disadvantaged producers to access markets by awarding racial equity market scholarships. In addition, through our recruitment efforts, we had 60 new producers who publicly identify as BIPOC admitted to AIM's markets.

• Farmers Market Promotion Program - Growing SuccessIn 2021, we implemented the second year of our 3-year Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grant from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service. Our FMPP project is designed to create career pathways and expand experiential learning at our certified farmers markets. In 2021, we planned and delivered 6 webinars, including trainings on how to apply to AIM's Markets (in Spanish), Agricultural Law Changes for 2021, Are Value-Added Products Right For Me?, Best Hiring Practices for positions at the market, in the kitchen, and on the farm, How to apply for the Pandemic Response Grant, and How to create your Market Works Account. In total, these trainings reached 58 participants, emphasizing small-scale and socially disadvantaged farmers and small businesses. We also facilitated a network of community partners to work intensively with 30 farmers and small businesses who participate in our markets, providing them with important capacity-building technical assistance.

• Creating the Center for Food and AgricultureIn 2021, AIM continued to make progress in the development of the Center for Food and Agriculture to make healthy, locally, and regionally grown food more accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and economic capacities and educate eaters and farmers about sustainable practices in farming and food production. AIM is launching a campaign to build The Center for Food and Agriculture - a place for the Marin Farmers Market to become a zero-waste farmers market and educational space dedicated to healthier food culture. The Center will foster deeper connections between our community and their favorite farmers market, and advance our fight for better food, a cleaner climate, and economic justice as part of renewed food systems. Ultimately, this project will offer a social return on investment through improvements in diet and public health, community food security, climate action, and economic development in the communities we serve now and in the future. As of December 2021, we raised over $5.4 million and were about 34% of the way towards our fundraising goal for the Center for Food and Agriculture.

As filed on the 2022 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2022

Filed

15 November 2023

IRS schema version

2022v5.0

Source object

202333199349329153

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