Summerland Farm and Non-Profit Meet Organic Food Demand for Low Income and Medically Fragile South Coast Residents
John Palminteri
SUMMERLAND, Calif. (KEYT ) – A local farm stand and non-profit in Summerland is producing and delivering more no-cost chemical free vegetables than ever before.
In part, the recent government shut down has stranded many people from their normal food programs.
Some are medically fragile and government provided foods are not always precisely right for them, which makes the Sweet Wheel Farms a life saver in every way.
Lesle Person Ryan is the farm CEO and the founder of the Santa Barbara Agriculture & Education Foundation non-profit. She had about 200 recipients in 2024 – today, that number is 1,200 with a sizeable increase recently. “It jumped very quickly,” she said.
She says nothing stops her team of volunteers, even the historic rains this week. It was pouring during the group’s work Monday morning, going in and out of the rain showers with produce and loaded to-go shopping bags.
“One of the volunteers said, ‘no one goes hungry on my watch'”, said Ryan.
They were bringing in plastic bins of vegetables from the farm, and those were all around her bagging headquarters at the Farm to Paper store on Lillie Avenue. Everything was sopping wet but quickly bagged, sorted, and sent out to addresses for those with little or no healthy food.
Each one can serve multiple people.
Bags were loaded with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, beets, basil, dill, berries and many other vegetables and fruits that can be found on the farm nearby on the back side of Summerland.
Deliveries are sent out Monday and Thursday each week.
She says many of the homes are “horrifically food insecure” with no food in the house.
It has been operating since 2018.
The volunteers making deliveries are vital to the operation. Some have been using electric bikes to get the food to recipients and also to reduce pollution by doing it without a car.
The most recent surge came during the government shutdown of over 40 days that upset the flow of fresh foods for many people. There’s also been a sign posted for anyone who knows a family or children that are not getting nutritious foods. The farm wants to help. The need is apparent.
Funding is coming from the farm stand sales, grants and straight donations into a box at the Farm to Paper store.
Some of the recipients say they have been able to slow or reverse some illnesses because of the healthy food they are eating, which makes the deliveries so vital. Ryan says it is “extending lives and creating community health.”
She says there is an urgent need for volunteers, drivers, people packing and people on the farm.
For more information go to: https://sweetwheelfarm.org/
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