Being able to collect nutritious food while wearing a t-shirt that is both comfortable and trendy is a win-win for Farm to Pantry. Gapelii Brand, a Sonoma County Black-owned luxury brand, was co-founded by Andrew Akufo in 2019 and features clothing and accessories. Through his work, he met Kelly Conrad, development director from Farm to Pantry. Conrad reached out to Akufo to collaborate and provide T-shirts for volunteers that could feature Gapelii Brand’s style and promote the organization.
“A major part of our purpose and reasoning for existing was we wanted to find a creative way to give back to the community, and philanthropy was always a large part of us putting this brand together from the beginning,” Akufo said.
Farm to Pantry, a Healdsburg-based nonprofit, gleans fruits and vegetables from fields, and distributes them to the hungry. Farm to Pantry wanted to partner with someone local — at both ends, there was a positive outcome.
“They provide volunteers with something comfortable, something classy looking and something that they could be proud of, and maybe even as a tool to attract more volunteers. So, we came together and went over the design concepts, and we came up with the hunger relief T-shirt and long sleeve being perfect for gleaning out in the fields,” Akufo said.
The T-shirts are also available for purchase for anyone to buy, and 10% of the proceeds go to Farm to Pantry.
“It’s something which we’re hoping will continue and that we’ll be able to build upon. But just being able to support an organization like Farm to Pantry, which does amazing work in the community, it makes our hearts full. So we’re very appreciative that Kelly reached out to us and Duskie Estes, the executive director, was on board and all for it and approved it and, you know, we look forward to what the future holds,” he said.
The collaboration began late last year, and Akufo hopes other organizations will want to collaborate as well in the future.
His and his partner’s main goal was to inspire people through their brand — to not only offer good quality products, but also emit positivity. Akufo explained the meaning behind the name of the brand.
“Some people have asked us if it is Italian, sounds Italian, we like the sound of that. Because a lot of … our shoes are handcrafted from Italy, and shipped to anywhere in the world from that point. But the Gapelii Brand is actually an acronym. The ‘g’ stands for growth, the ‘a’ for ambition, the ‘p’ for prosperity, elevate lifestyle, innovation and influence,” he said.
Brett Leduc, operations manager of Farm to Pantry, said after the pandemic the organization saw plenty of growth.
“With restaurants closing, a lot of farms had a lot of surplus food and Farm to Pantry kicked into high gear and has grown so much. I came on in 2021 to really meet that need that’s grown up since the pandemic in our community,” Leduc said. She has a background in agriculture and food. Leduc has been farming for a while before joining the team.
Leduc said she loves the T-shirts and thinks they will encourage volunteers to join.
Estes said the organization always likes to provide volunteer gleaners with some swag.
“We want to use the power of how we spend our dollar, intentionally to make an impact and Gapelii donates 10% back of their sales to marginalized people. Intentional purchasing allows us to keep our dollar in Sonoma County with the Sonoma County Black-owned luxury brand.We’re big believers in win-win,” Estes said.
“The shirts that they’ve made for us and our volunteers, they’re very soft. It’s one of my favorite shirts. I wear it all the time because it’s so soft, and the long sleeves are incredibly useful for us because right now is citrus season. We’re spending a lot of time picking a huge Meyer lemon orchard in Sebastopol that has over 12,000 trees. Meyer lemon trees tend to have big thorns. And so the long sleeves protect us from being you know, poked at while we’re trying to get some good vitamin C for our community members. So basically, we’re thrilled,” Estes said.
