Founders: Chip and Lynne SundStrom
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy, Davis Enterprise
When you’re married to an elementary school librarian — especially one as passionate about children’s literature as Birch Lane’s Lynne Sundstrom — it turns out you end up reading a lot of children’s books.
And it was one of those books that Chip Sundstrom found himself thinking about during the long drive from Fresno to Davis one day four years ago.
A UC Davis graduate and longtime ag consultant, Chip had spent the day with a client, a fruit producer near Fresno, that had just signed a contract to supply produce to Walmart.
Evidence of the grower’s recent good fortune was everywhere that day, he said — from the new cars in the company parking lot to the new watches on employees’ wrists.
But Chip also learned that the workers out in the field were not in on the celebration. Turns out they hadn’t seen a raise in 23 years, he said.
“The people that actually do the labor were not enjoying the fruits of that labor,” Chip noted. “It bothered me all the way up (Highway) 99 on the way home.”
And it got him thinking about “Esperanza Rising,” the children’s book he’d read years before. Written by Pam Munoz Ryan, the book tells the story of a young girl and her family living in a migrant worker camp in California during the 1930s. It is a book that Lynne has been recommending to her young readers for many years.
“It’s a book every child in California should read,” she said.
“It opened my eyes to the very poor conditions of farmworkers and their families,” added Chip Sundstrom.
And as he drove home to Davis that day in 2008, he realized very little had changed for farmworkers since the 1930s.
“When I got home, I talked to Lynne and said, ‘What if we started a foundation to help them?’ ” he recalled.
They decided to name the foundation after the book, calling it Esperanza Rising, which in English means “hope rising.”
Focusing on the families of farmworkers in the Delano school district — just outside Bakersfield — where more than 80 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, the Esperanza Rising Foundation has given $40,000 in the past four years. It’s been mostly the Sundstroms’ own money, plus donations from family and friends.
The Delano school district superintendent, with the help of a vice principal, identifies families that meet the foundation’s criteria: at least one family member works in agriculture and the family income falls below the poverty line.
Recipients identified, the foundation cuts checks of $500 per family in early December, which the superintendent then delivers. Being so close to the holidays, Lynne noted, “it enables them to buy presents for the kids or a turkey dinner.”
But the donations also have paid the rent, bought clothes and even paid for the funeral for a baby, she said.
In return, the Sundstroms have received dozens of letters from families, and even a grocery store owner there, letting them know just how meaningful those donations have been, how they’ve raised the spirits of a whole community at times.
It’s a community of people, Chip said, who work for minimum wage, or piece work, often laboring in the hot sun. To be able to help them through the foundation has been incredibly meaningful, he said.
“It’s nice to think beyond your own little world,” he said, “to actually reach out and carry some of their burdens for them. It makes you feel like you’ve done something significant, something that has meaning.”
Now, the couple wants to better publicize the foundation in order to make it grow. After all, the more it grows, the more people they can help, including, they hope, ag families in the Davis area. The Short-Term Emergency Aid Committee already has agreed to begin screening families to find those who meet the foundation’s criteria.
And to help meet the local need, the Sundstroms have opened a winery in Davis — Sundstrom Hill Winery — which will provide funding for the Esperanza Rising Foundation.
The couple had some experience with winemaking — they’d been making it in their own back yard, Chip said, in his job as an ag consultant, had experience with the wine industry. So it really was just a matter of taking it to a larger stage. They purchase their wine grapes from Walker Vineyard in Placerville and receive a lot of help from longtime friends throughout the winemaking process.
It’s all done at their Davis location on Del Rio Place, which is open to the public on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month from 5 to 7 p.m. and the first Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Ten percent of every bottle sold goes to the Esperanza Rising Foundation.
On Saturday, Sept. 1, the Sundstroms will host a “back to school” event for Lynne’s colleagues in the Davis school district. All district employees will receive 15 percent off every bottle purchased and any non-district visitors will receive the same discount if they bring a donation of school supplies.
At all of their winery events, the Sundstroms feature live music, and the musical guests on Sept. 1 will have a distinctly school district connection: the band Brother Jimmie and the New Deal, featuring, among others, Superintendent Winfred Roberson on bass and vocals and Davis High School teacher Chris Lee on guitar, keyboard and vocals. The band will perform between noon and 4 p.m.
“It should be a great way for teachers and staff and the community to get the school year off to a great start,” Lynne said.
Not to mention spreading the word about Sundstrom Hill Winery and the Esperanza Rising Foundation.
Word is already getting around: Recently, Nugget Markets agreed to sell their zinfandel in three area stores and Seasons, a downtown Davis restaurant, is serving the wine as well.
It’s all been a lot of fun, the Sundstroms say, but also exhausting, especially since both of them work full time outside the winery.
“The plan for me was to be an ag consultant by day, a winemaker by night,” Chip said. “The reality is, you do both seven days a week. But it’s fun.”
Not terribly profitable for themselves, though.
“I don’t think I’ll be quitting my job anytime soon,” Lynne quipped.
The community of readers at Birch Lane will be happy to hear that.
board members:
Chip Sundstrom - Agricultural Consultant
Lynne Sundstrom - Teacher-Librarian
Rodney Beede - Attorney at Law and Public Defender
Virgil Smith - Certified Public Accountant
Mark Wong - Financial Advisor and Partner