Member Spotlight: Deema Tamimi
Deema Tamimi is the founder of the local nonprofit organization called Land & Ladle and a local resident here in Davis. She has worked in product management and marketing within the tech industry, and with these experiences and her passion for food sustainability, Deema has developed a multitude of wonderful projects in the Yolo and Sacramento community. From Giving Garden, Davis Eats, Caneberry, Land & Ladle, and more, Deema has created so many great programs that help our local food and agricultural systems.
We had a wonderful conversation about food sustainability, agricultural technological innovations, as well as an optimistic perspective on how COVID-19 is changing the world as we know it.
Deema’s strong passion for promoting food sustainability, reducing food waste, combating food insecurity, and bringing the community together was highlighted throughout our conversation, and it’s truly a delight to share her story with you all!
What is Land & Ladle?
Land & Ladle is a non-profit organization based in the Yolo and Sacramento area. We aim to bring people together to discuss sustainability in food systems through educational programs, community events, and developments, as well as through technological innovations, marketing, and storytelling. We focus on the communal, sustainable, equitable, and functional aspects of food to push for greater innovations to better our local food system.
What kind of events does Land & Ladle work on?
Land & Ladle helps with local food events that focus on bringing the community together. We also try to do fun things associated with communal food events where we gather people to eat food together. The last food gathering we had was a BBQ, and some of the proceeds from the event went to the Yolo Food Bank. We’ve also organized lightning talks and panels for experts to have discussions about the innovations in agricultural and food occurring in the Yolo and Sacramento counties. Land & Ladle’s blog is also where we try to highlight leaders in the Sacramento and Yolo region working on sustainable food or equitable food system work. Ultimately, we’re trying to highlight that there is really great work happening in sustainable and equitable food right here.
How has melding your experience in technology and passion for food helped in your development in Land & Ladle and your projects?
When I first started working in food, I came at it from a very tech-y angle. With Giving Garden, I wanted it to be an app where people could connect and share food and ideas about gardening and healthy cooking. We ended up realizing that trying to build a social an app with so much happening on Facebook and Nextdoor didn’t make sense, and I also discovered that a lot of the stuff that I was excited to work on was actually not tech-related. It was getting people together to talk about food waste and issues, and a lot of it was more grassroots organizing and education. You didn’t need to build an app for it; you just needed to get the right people in the room, having the right conversations. The only sort of technology needed was a website and social media. I think some of the hardest and most meaningful work is about bringing people together, helping people to see things in a new way, and trying to make the world better in the food system through grassroots efforts.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your work?
I think for me it’s when people come together around a shared vision and work so well together that they can deliver something real, that changes their community. Even if they don’t reach their end goal, they still deliver something that they can feel really proud of. The part that’s most exciting to me is the teamwork. I had to learn when I moved into community work that it’s actually quite a lot harder than in my tech career work because you have a lot more people to think about with a lot of different opinions and perspectives. You have to respect that and make sure that their voices are heard while still making steps toward a deliverable whether that’s a recommendation, plan or a report. People working well together, that’s the part I enjoy the most.
Do you have any business tips for those just getting started in your line of work?
My biggest advice for someone getting started is to focus and set boundaries.
It is really easy to be pulled in multiple directions. I recommend it to everyone who’s starting a company: be very focused, set boundaries on time because people will always come up to you with things they think are a great idea, and you’ll love those ideas and you’ll want to help, but if you do that, you’re taking time away from your own business. I personally have been really bad about this and need to take my own advice.
How has COVID-19 affected Land & Ladle’s operations?
Events are definitely something that we have to re-think if we’re participating in them or if we’re partnering with people. So there will definitely be a different way of approaching these events just because the world has changed and we can no longer pack people in a room.
I do think that, in terms of COVID-19 and local food systems, that this has exposed the fact that our food system, the supply chain, and accessibility to food are really quite fragile. This pandemic has allowed a spotlight to be put on food system and food equity. There have been some amazing and creative efforts to try to make sure that we’re getting food to those that need it. I’m hoping a lot more is going to be done to strengthen local food systems and also to figure out ways for restaurants and chefs to survive in this changing world.
How do you think COVID-19 is going to affect sustainability within the food industry?
I think packaging may be increasing [from increased use of plastic from takeout]. We did a bit of ordering in, here and there, to support local restaurants, but I felt a bit conflicted about all the packaging and its impact on the environment. I hope it will inspire innovative work around packaging further and that we will invest in research and companies trying to make better packaging.
There’s a company that does mycelium or fungi based packaging called Ecovative and they have a model where people can start these mycelium packaging factories in their own communities. I hope more locally based solutions like this take off because we need them. Even though my full-time work right now is in tech, a lot of my passion-project time is focused on resilient and communal food innovations that allow for a more sustainable food system.
How has working from home been during COVID-19? Have you learned anything during this process that you would like to share?
One of the most interesting changes I have noticed, is that it’s made everyone much more human in the workplace. Prior to all this, especially in the corporate world, there was always this feeling that you couldn’t show your real life. You had to be very guarded and professional. We’re having to deal with the fact that a child might jump on our call and say something funny or see people’s bedrooms or their roommates in the background during a meeting. So I think that this has made people be more human and embrace their colleagues as full people with lives and families outside of work. I find it refreshing.
Do you have any tips for those that might struggle to remain productive at home?
Take a break from the screen when you can. I go out on my deck and just sit there every once in a while just to get away from my computer. Even if you just schedule 15 minutes to sit out, it’s super important. I just sit, soak up the sun, and let my brain have a break. I’ve had some days where I haven’t done that and the constant Zoom-ing and screen time feels like mental overload.
What do you enjoy most about Davis Coworking?
For me, I love the feel of Davis Coworking from multiple perspectives. I like the way that it just feels bright and open. Stylistically, it’s not too stark, and it has a nice, warm feel, which goes really well with the other reason I like it: it’s very community-focused. Do did a really good job from the beginning to ensure that people saw it as a way to meet people and for people to potentially network and learn from one another, especially for freelancers.
When I started working at Davis Coworking, even though I wasn’t working with the people around me, it just felt good to be around people. We were all together trying to make it work in this new digital nomad world. Anytime she had gatherings, I met someone interesting and we had a really good conversation, even though a lot of those people weren’t working on anything that was the same line as my work. It’s a great community.
