They don’t wear red tights and a cape. Nor do they have superpowers. However they do dedicate their lives to helping the less fortunate, and they drive a cool van with a giant carrot on the back.
The fine folks at Veggie Rescue are making our community a better place, and it’s probably only slightly a stretch to call them real-life superheroes.
Santa Ynez Valley Fruit and Vegetable Rescue, or Veggie Rescue as they’re called, are volunteers who collect excess produce from farmers markets, farm fields, and home gardens, then drive it to the hungriest in our community, at no charge.
In the last four years, the nonprofit group has delivered nearly 400,000 pounds of fresh vegetables and fruit to local charities and schools in Santa Barbara County.
Founders Terry and Holly Delaney started Veggie Rescue several years ago after witnessing the formerly less-than-fresh food options at a program sponsored by the Salvation Army.
The Delaneys started donating from their own orchard and picking up produce from the Solvang farmers market, then personally dropping it off at the Salvation Army in Santa Barbara.
Pretty soon, they were collecting more produce than the Salvation Army could use, so they began making stops at other homeless shelters and rescue missions too.
They now deliver to more than two dozen local organizations such as People Helping People, the Buellton Senior Center, Casa Esperanza, the Salvation Army in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara, and a few schools.
Nine months ago, Amy Derryberry was hired to serve as executive director, in hopes of expanding Veggie Rescue to better serve Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Santa Barbara, in addition to the Santa Ynez Valley.
“We’ve grown in terms of how much produce we’ve been gleaning, and we’ve grown in terms of our delivery days. I see that we can continue growing,” Derryberry said. “There certainly is food out there that has yet to be gleaned from the fields and the farms, and sadly, it seems as though there is continual need; our community members who are not able to make ends meet and get their family enough food.”
The Orfalea Foundation funded the purchase of a refrigerated van, with the provision that Veggie Rescue gives priority to local schools during the school year.
Veggie Rescue delivers fresh produce to three schools in the Santa Ynez Valley that have a “cooking from scratch” program.
“Solvang School has an enormously talented and energetic chef there, Bethany Markee,” Derryberry said. “The kids are benefitting because they are being served real food. There is a salad bar every day. She makes baked kale chips. The kids love them! It’s incredible! We feel very fortunate to be able to make a difference in the lives of the children in our community.”
Veggie Rescue not only provides wholesome fresh food for Meals on Wheels, they keep a reach-in cooler at the Buellton Senior Center stocked with fresh produce so that seniors and visitors can pick up produce every season of the year to take home.
“Every time I’m there making deliveries, I get people thanking us for what a difference that’s made in their lives,” Derryberry said.
“Going to the homeless shelters is satisfying as well. They are extremely appreciative of Veggie Rescue and getting all that fresh produce.”
Veggie Rescue volunteers are willing to get their hands dirty, going out into the fields to pick produce. They often get a call from local farmers who can’t sell an entire field of lettuce or garlic or tomatoes or whatever, so Veggie Rescue swoops in and hand-harvests several rows left behind before the farmer plows it under.
In one instance, a 10-acre plot of romaine lettuce in Santa Maria grew faster than anticipated following a recent heat wave, and the farmer’s field workers were busy harvesting in another location the day the lettuce was ready, so he made the lettuce available to organizations such as Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and Veggie Rescue, if they would come right away and pick it.
Produce harvested in the morning goes into the Veggie Rescue van and is driven directly to a charitable group’s kitchen by afternoon, to be enjoyed the same day.
The group is on track to glean and deliver 100,000 pounds of fresh produce this year, going a long way in “nourishing our community,” as its slogan suggests.
As Veggie Rescue’s efforts grow, so does the need for more people to help.
“We’d love to have volunteers who have strong backs, and are willing to drive the van, picking up produce, and delivering it,” Derryberry said. “I feel really lucky that this is one of my responsibilities. It’s a pretty special thing to do!”
Sun wine and food columnist Wendy Thies Sell admires anyone willing to get his or her hands dirty. She can be contacted at wthies@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2015.