When the pandemic forced Bell’s Restaurant, a French-inspired bistro in Los Alamos, to close its doors in March 2020, owners Daisy and Greg Ryan were certain of one thing: None of their employees would be losing their jobs.
“We made the decision that we weren’t going to furlough any of our staff, we were going to figure out ways to keep them employed,” Greg Ryan told the Sun.
Simultaneously, the Ryans started thinking about how they could help other people in the community who were struggling.
“As we continued to move forward with takeout, Daisy and I were really trying to think about that there has to be a better way to try and get to folks that are food insecure,” Ryan said.
After receiving a generous donation to kick-start the concept, the Ryans began networking with local organizations that already have ties to residents who are hungry, homebound, or both in the Santa Ynez Valley community. The goals were simple: deliver free, warm meals to people who need them and keep restaurant workers employed. Feed the Valley was born.
It started with Bell’s making meals for the Los Alamos Foundation’s weekly meal distribution for seniors. But as the initial donation began to dwindle, the Ryans knew they needed to make the program more sustainable, so they connected with the Santa Barbara Foundation, which became “essentially our financial partner,” Ryan said. “They allow us to run our pilot program through them.”
Anyone interested in donating to the collective can do so through the Santa Barbara Foundation, and contributions are tax-deductible.
In the first two months of the program, which started in April 2020, “I think we did close to 1,500 meals,” Ryan recalled. “It was great. … We’re being able to feed people that we know are in this town that just can’t come to our restaurant.”
After the initial shutdown ended and Bell’s opened back up, the restaurant put Feed the Valley on a temporary pause in order to build out the infrastructure needed to keep it going.
“As November came around and stay-at-home happened again, we were in a much better position to be like, ‘Great, this is what we’re doing,’” Ryan said.
This time around, Feed the Valley is more than just Bell’s: Santa Ynez Valley food favorites like Pico, Plenty on Bell, and First and Oak joined in to make meals and partner with local organizations to help deliver them.
A recent addition to the Feed the Valley collective is People Helping People (PHP), a Solvang-based organization that provides human and social services in mid-Santa Barbara County. Development and Communications Coordinator Erica Flores told the Sun that PHP joined a few weeks ago, delivering meals made by the restaurant partners three days a week.
“This really came from their vision to say, how do we take care of the community that we are a part of? How do we keep our employees, doing what they do best, which is feeding people? And how do we partner with local organizations that have the relationships with the people?” Flores said. “So that’s where we come in as People Helping People.”
Whether it’s a senior in need or a family with multiple children struggling to make ends meet, “we work with those clients day in and day out and have long before the pandemic,” Flores said. “That was really the natural pairing for both of us to come together and do what we do best.”
While COVID-19 metrics continue to improve in Santa Barbara County, Flores believes a lot of the impacts of the pandemic are not yet fully visible.
“I think we’ve still got a long ways ahead of us, and having these creative partnerships and thinking outside the box and being innovative is going to be the key of us taking care of our neighbors in our community,” she said.
Highlight:
• Marian Regional Medical Center announced on Feb. 24 that it received the Healthgrades 2021 America’s 250 Best Hospitals Award. The award places the hospital in the top 5 percent of nearly 4,500 hospitals assessed by Heathgrades, a resource that “connects consumers, physicians, and health systems,” according to a statement from Marian.
Staff Writer Malea Martin wrote this week’s Spotlight. Send news tips to spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 4-11, 2021.
