Santa Rosa, Calif.—The Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation board added five new members to address the group’s commitment to the social responsibility element of sustainability.

As part of the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ effort to have all of the county’s vineyards certified as sustainable by 2019, the group relaunched its foundation to improve existing assistance programs that serve local agricultural workers. According to a statement by the winegrowers’ group, the foundation is working with various community-based organizations and government agencies to identify existing resources, leverage available support and create new programs to assist local agricultural employees and their families in the areas of healthcare, affordable housing, childcare and education.

The new Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation Board Members are: Duff Bevill, owner of Bevill Vineyard Management, Terry Lindley, chief marketing officer of American AgCredit, Hugh Reimers, president of Jackson Family Wines, Ron Rubin, owner of The Rubin Family of Wines, and Lisa Wittke Schaffner, executive director of the John Jordan Foundation. 

Since announcing its plan to address the social aspect of sustainability, the foundation has hosted “feedback sessions” with a number of farm workers to determine where there is the greatest need. So far, childcare and affordable housing have been identified as the two most critical issues. “These feedback sessions may seem like a simple idea but it has never been done before in the community and we are finding that our agricultural employees really appreciate being asked about the challenges they face and how we can help by working together,” said the winegrowers’ president Karissa Kruse.