Growing to Give
Our Mission
We give away for free our whole harvest (farmers-market-quality produce that is sustainably grown) to children in need in Santa Barbara County.
Our Vision
We envision a food system guided by awareness of the sacred: the sacredness of the food itself, the people who eat it, and the earth that creates it.
The Need
Despite Santa Barbara’s reputation for refined wealth and sumptuous comfort, despite being known as the “American Riviera,” home to Hollywood stars, tech magnates, and British royalty, 21.1% of our county’s residents are “food insecure,” meaning they have limited, uncertain access to the food necessary for a healthy life. In light of Santa Barbara County’s affluence, this is a juggernaut of a statistic. According to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, 1 in 3 households in Santa Barbara County faces food insecurity. (Meanwhile, according to the Food Research and Action Center, 1 in 7 households in the U.S. faces food insecurity.) Some local children live in homes without kitchens or refrigerators and rely on junk food from liquor stores for their sustenance. Other children in our county don’t live in homes at all. Food insecurity, according to Santa Barbara’s Cottage Hospital, “affects physical and mental health” among all ages, contributing to “anemia, poor nutrition, and cognitive and behavioral problems…and poorer general health.” And food insecurity in Santa Barbara County is worsening.
Give to Help Us Grow
In all things one should have discretion, except in love.
—Marguerite Porete
A vision without a task is but a dream;
a task without a vision is but drudgery;
a vision with a task is the hope of the world.
–an inscription on a church wall in Sussex, England