The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County hosted its annual holiday food drive, but it needs more to keep up with demand

Until 2020, the Letter Carriers Food Drive—a drive that used the U.S. Postal Service to pick up nonperishable foods from residents’ homes—was a major source of big food donations for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. 

Letter carriers would deliver brown paper bags to people’s mailboxes and people would fill them up with nonperishable foods like canned proteins, nut butters, rice, and beans. Later, they’d leave them at their mailbox for the Postal Service to pick up and take to the food banks, said Judith Smith-Meyer, the food bank’s senior communications manager. 

click to enlarge The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County hosted its annual holiday food drive, but it needs more to keep up with demand
PHOTO COURTESY OF JUDITH SMITH-MEYER
INCREASED DEMAND : As the holiday season approaches, more people are in need of food, and to meet that need, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County hosted its annual Fill the Foodbank drive.

“We love this program, but it’s not viable for letter carriers anymore,” she said. “We needed a creative way to replace that food coming and also people needed a way without a lot of face-to-face contact, so we made a drive-through model work for food distribution.” 

Now, Fill the Foodbank is hosted twice a year where people will drive up to a donation spot—in North or South County—volunteers unload the car, and donors go on their way.

The nonprofit hosted its third Fill the Foodbank drive on Nov. 19 and brought in about 5,000 pounds of food and 76 turkeys countywide as of Nov. 21, far from its goal of 40,000 pounds of food and 3,000 turkeys, she said. Community members can still drop off food at the organization’s locations in both North and South County if they’d like to support December holiday food needs. 

“This is focused on the increased need for food during the holiday season,” Smith-Meyer said. “Inflation is really hitting low-income people; food prices and the price of everything is going up so much it’s making the difference for paying phone bills, paying for rent, paying for food, [but] not being able to accomplish that last bit, which is putting food on the table.”

Students who usually receive free meals at schools are on Thanksgiving and holiday breaks, which means they lose access to the food that many families rely on to help kids receive the nutrients they need. Also during this time of the year, the service industries have fewer shifts because of decreased demand, and farmworkers are hit hard because the growing season is over, she said.  

“We just see more people going without pay. That’s an ordinary year, but with inflation it’s just exploding,” Smith-Meyer said. 

The food bank served 111,000 individuals from July 1 to Sept. 30—the highest number of people served in its history since the pandemic, Smith-Meyer added.

“Seventy percent at least, 70 to 75 percent [of food] is distributed in mid and North County. The city we distribute the most [food to] is Santa Maria, with Lompoc being a strong contender for the need within city limits,” she said. 

Canned chicken, tuna, and salmon; nut butters; and dried beans have the highest demand because they are nutrient-dense sources of protein that have a long shelf life. Low-sugar, whole grain cereals; pasta; canned tomatoes; or canned sauce are other good items to consider donating along with whole chickens and turkeys during the holiday season, Smith-Meyer said. 

Contributing financially is another avenue Smith-Meyer recommended for those who want to get involved with the food bank because it has several ways to leverage a dollar. 

“It can be involved with our partnership or grocery rescue program. We are bringing in a lot of food from restaurants and retail partners, a lot of fresh food that’s still good but they’re not going to be selling,” she said. “We have a lot of ways we can source food, and we are always looking for community members to donate their time, and we have a wide variety of volunteering options that people can contribute in so many ways.” 

Visit foodbanksbc.org for more information about community events and donation and volunteer opportunities. 

Highlight 

Cottage Health is seeing a significant increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases and urges the community to take precautions to protect those most at risk, especially infants and adults over 65 years of age, as holiday gatherings can increase the spread of infection and serious illness. RSV is a common cause of respiratory infections in people of all ages, and most children have had the virus by age 2. Infants younger than 12 months old are at the highest risk of severe disease, but older children and adults also get infected and usually have mild symptoms like a regular cold. If children are struggling to breathe, they should be taken immediately to a doctor or the emergency room.

Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor wrote this week’s Spotlight. Reach her at [email protected]

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