Sonoma County has several Mexican markets — a place where you can find a taqueria inside and your favorite items for cooking. Jose Castañeda, owner of Casteñeda’s Marketplace in Windsor, uses his market to also give back to the community through veteran breakfasts and themed appreciation days for teachers, law enforcement, high school graduates and more. He said he likes to give because he is always receiving — it is his way of returning the favor.
“We made a decision a long time ago that we were going to be … a socially-conscious business, right? That we were going to be vested in our community. We think of it as an investment in unity. The primary thing that we focus on the veterans, the schools and the local churches — those are like our three main giving or supporting activities that we do on a regular basis,” Castañeda said.
Ten years ago, someone approached him about attending a veterans breakfast and he had the idea to invite the group over for their next meeting, a tradition that’s continued every Saturday since. Some of them have been consistent in attending since the start. Castañeda said he wanted to support them and make them feel appreciated considering the PTSD and long waits at the VA clinics some of them endure.
“I made it a point that the veterans, if there was one thing that they were not going to be lacking, or that they weren’t going to be let down in, was this,” he said.
“I feel privileged that I am in a position to give back, and it sustains me that the veterans really appreciate what I do for them. For many of them, it’s the highlight of the week. A lot of them became friends here. Aside from the food, it is kind of like the plus. But they come here for the connection and the camaraderie,” Castañeda said.
To support the free weekly breakfast, Castañeda uses his separate catering business Paella Guy to fund it, since he would not be able to do it solely from his market’s profit.
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But his appreciation to the community does not stop there, Castañeda holds teacher appreciation days, law enforcement appreciation days, free breakfast burritos for high school graduates and more. During the pandemic, he gave out disinfectant and toilet paper. He’s held a Mother’s Day giveaway with pedicure and manicure certificates.
“I mean, we do a lot of things. Sometimes I wonder if it’s like maybe we do too much. I could, you know, spend a couple thousand bucks and buy a flyer in the paper, but I don’t think that that has the same effect on people (as) us taking an active role in the things that we do,” he said.
Recently, he emulated a food waste program from France. Castañeda was told by his daughter who goes to college in Paris that most restaurants are not allowed to throw away leftover food and they reuse it. For a discounted price, whatever is left is sold.
“So I said why not just do the same thing. On days that we know that we’re gonna have leftover items we post it on Facebook, you know, .49 cent tacos or a combo plate for $1.99,” he said.
“We avoid sending stuff to the trash. Economically speaking, there’s people that really do take advantage of that. It works for everybody,” Castañeda said.
He added he might put a limit into the items in order for everyone to have access.
Castañeda stressed what he does for Windsor is not for recognition. He does it in order to provide a sense of place to his business.
“When we support the teachers, we’re basically supporting the community as a whole. But at the same time, we’re supporting, you know, our Latino community, because there’s a very high percentage of Latino kids,” he said.
“To be honest, my story is no different than most of the Latino kids in all the schools — we showed up as immigrants. There were eight of us here. My parents struggled over the years, luckily, I was one of the youngest ones, so I had the opportunity to go to school, get an engineering degree, and I was able to work in corporate life. You could say this sort of like my way of giving back,” Castañeda said.
Castañeda has lived in Sonoma County since 2004 and grew up in Redwood City. His parents are immigrants from Michoacán, México.
Before opening up Castañeda’s Marketplace in Windsor, he had a store in Healdsburg. Though Castañeda has been in the food and market business for a long time, he did not start out in that line of work. Before, he worked for high tech.
“I went from selling computer chips to selling tortilla chips. So, still in the chip business,” he said.
Castañeda recalled reading articles of people who left corporate life to follow a different path — whether that involved making cheese or creating an entire different business. He was intrigued. Castañeda moved to Sonoma County and has come a long way since then.
His Windsor market has been around since 2007, he is very proud of where it has gotten.
“We’re not the biggest store. We’re not an Oliver’s, we’re not a Safeway, stuff like that. But, you know, I always tell people, I think of ourselves like a Latino Trader Joe’s,” he said.
