Erin Tormey of Half Moon Bay founded the Coastside Farmers’ Market in Half Moon Bay in 2002. Healthy and sustainable and socially equitable food systems are Erin’s passion, so her vision went beyond providing locally produced food for the community and economic opportunity for the many small family farms in the county, to seeking out programs that support lower income residents such as the Senior and WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program and CalFresh and bringing them to her markets. She was a pilot partner in MarketMatch, now a state-wide program that doubles participants produce purchasing power, and created LocalMatch, a unique program offered to residents who do not qualify for any form of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs. She’s a founder of the HEAL Project, a Coastside-grown curriculum rooted in agriculture that is delivered to all students in the 2nd and 3rd grades on the Coastside. Designed teach students where their food comes from and why that matters, The HEAL Project also provides access to more than 2,500 students throughout San Mateo County to the 2.5 acre School Farm they established in Moss Beach. She is a founding member of the San Mateo County Food System Alliance, was appointed to CDFA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Review Committee for a 5 year term, and was named San Mateo County Farmer of the Year in 2017.
