SEEAG expands its education and outreach efforts with new office in Orcutt

It takes about nine months for a lemon to go from a flower to a harvestable fruit. 

That’s one of Caitlin Paulus-Case’s favorite lessons to teach students, helping them put into perspective how much time and effort goes into the food they consume.

“By the time that it reaches your fridge, just the amount of love and labor and resources that went into it is pretty mind-blowing when you look at it,” said Paulus-Case, Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture (SEEAG) executive director. 

SEEAG, a nonprofit founded in 2008 that provides free agriculture education to students and community members in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, recently opened a new office in Orcutt. The organization previously operated only out of Ventura County with educators who would travel north, but now, with the new office, Paulus-Case hopes that SEEAG will enhance its presence in Northern Santa Barbara County to hire locally and serve even more students. 

“Having an office space will enable us to be able to hold meetings, to attend meetings, and to be a part of the community in a more significant way,” she said. “It’ll just really allow us to expand and deepen our impact so that we can have the same amount of growth and impact in Northern Santa Barbara County as we do in Ventura.”

Northern Santa Barbara County is a major agricultural hub, Paulus-Case said, but many local students lack access to educational programs focused on food production. She explained that SEEAG prioritizes reaching Title 1 schools, or ones with primarily low-income students, offering free programs and even covering transportation costs to remove barriers to participation. 

“Our organization is supported by a lot of the farmers and the growers, and so we like to work within the communities that those organizations exist,” Paulus-Case explained. “And then, we like to go where the greatest need is.”

SEEAG runs four core programs focused on youth and community education. These include the Farm to Food Lab, which introduces third graders to agriculture; the Youth Wellness Initiative, a program that combines nutrition education with produce distribution; the STEM Career Pathways in Agriculture, which exposes middle and high school students to career opportunities; and Farm Day Every Day, which connects the community to local agriculture through monthly tours.

“A lot of what SEEAG does, and what I’m so passionate about doing, is providing platforms for people to have hands-on experiential opportunities and be able to learn firsthand from people and gain knowledge and be a little bit more connected to food so that food becomes something that we make active choices toward,” she said. 

According to Paulus-Case, when students learn more about where their food comes from, they gain a much deeper appreciation and respect for it. She hopes that with this expansion, SEEAG will be able to reach even more students, growing a new generation of people who are knowledgeable about food production and potentially inspired to contribute to the industry’s future. 

“I think one of the most exciting things about the agricultural industry is that there’s so much room for innovation and for sustainability and for growth,” she said. “I’m really passionate about getting this next generation excited about creative problem solving and about looking at all of these different issues across a ton of different areas and saying, ‘I can solve that. I can be the person that can do this someday.’”

That passion for connecting students to agriculture is shared by Erin Krier, agricultural program coordinator and instructor at the Allan Hancock College Vineyard and Community Garden, who highlighted the college’s role as a host site for Santa Barbara County Farm Day tours and Farm to Food Lab. 

“I really love that [SEEAG] brings the whole community together to sort of honor and learn about the value of our agricultural producers in this region,” Krier said. “Opening up farms and the farm experience and the critical importance of our farming community and being able to showcase that to the broader community is really important.”

Highlight 

• The Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council (SBCFSC) recently launched a Community Wildfire Protection Plan for the Lompoc Valley to enhance wildfire preparedness and resilience. The initiative brings together state, local, and tribal governments, fire departments, and community members to identify wildfire hazards and develop risk reduction strategies. The SBCFSC appointed Monica Mathews as the project manager, and she will oversee the planning process. She can be reached at mmatthews@sbfiresafecouncil.org.

Staff Writer Emma Montalbano can be reached at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in Mar 6-16, 2025.