09/08/2026
I’ve been thinking a lot about seasons lately.
This year, Caja tried a lot of things. We grew food through record heat. We opened a pay-what-you-can restaurant. We built out a commercial shared-use kitchen. We kept investing in the farm and Tool Library. We helped build a statewide Food is Medicine coalition. We tested, learned, adapted, and sometimes learned things the expensive way.
And now it’s time to cool down a little.
This fall, we’ll be moving out of our Brevard Road location (Field & Kitchen), and consolidating Caja’s operations at the farm, located at 75 Bryson Rd., in Mills River. The activity kitchen will continue there, but we’ll be closing the pay-what-you-can restaurant while we work with the community to figure out what a sustainable next version of Field & Kitchen could look like.
There’s some grief in that for me. I loved watching that little restaurant become a place where people could eat really good food, pay what they could, and be treated with dignity. I’m incredibly proud of what Christina and Rene built there.
But I’m also proud that we’re willing to listen to what the work is telling us.
Right now, Caja needs to tend its roots.
That means making thoughtful decisions about what we can hold while Food is Medicine financing catches up with the vision. It means getting our Tool Library humming this winter. It means figuring out what farming and our food hub should look like next year. And it means continuing the statewide work to build financing systems that allow organizations like ours to do this work sustainably instead of chasing the next grant.
Mostly, I’m feeling enormously grateful.
For Dennis and Jeremy growing food in brutal heat. For Christina holding together approximately 47 invisible administrative systems while discovering that she is really damn good at running a restaurant. For Rene bringing leadership, systems, hospitality, and grace to everything we threw at him. For Bennett who jumped right into our team this year and became a huge asset at our restaurant and beloved by all our visitors. We owe him so much love and gratitude. To our volunteers, funders, partners, farmers, customers, neighbors, and everyone who kept showing up.
Winter isn’t the end of the growing season.
Some things grow above ground. Some things grow where you can’t see them yet.
We’re putting our energy into the roots for a while.
Love, Sonya
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