More households are turning to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County in California for help, with the organization already serving about 200,000 people in a year as grocery bills strain family budgets.<\/p>\n
Those rising needs are colliding with a separate setback: the nonprofit said cuts wiped out $3 million in food and funding.<\/p>\n
Here’s what to know<\/p>\n
According to KSBY<\/a>, the county food bank is assisting more families as food costs climb.<\/p>\n Laurel Alcantar, director of marketing for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, said the strain is visible in the community.<\/p>\n “Families in our community are having trouble purchasing food,” Alcantar noted. “Food prices have gone up 30% since 2020.”<\/p>\n Grants strategy officer Hannah Ryckman said the food bank has also been hit by sizable losses.<\/p>\n “We’ve been undergoing mass cuts, and these cuts have resulted in the loss of $3 million in food and funding for the food bank,” Ryckman said.<\/p>\n More background<\/p>\n At the same time, the group is working to keep both fresh food and longer-lasting pantry items available.<\/p>\n “What we have here are boxes of staple food items,” Alcantar added. “You have items like beans, canned meals and various shelf-stable foods families can use to make a meal.”<\/p>\n Shelf-stable foods can help people put together simple meals at home, while fresh food can be among the first things that become harder to afford when prices rise.<\/p>\n What’s being done?<\/p>\n A produce-focused sourcing program is part of that response.<\/p>\n “We have a Farm to Food Table program, which is allowing us to source more produce to serve to our neighbors,” Alcantar said.<\/p>\n Even with that effort, the food bank is still trying to keep shelves supplied and to continue handing out staple boxes to families around the county.<\/p>\n In practice, that includes offering produce alongside beans, canned meals, and other shelf-stable items people can use for meals at home.<\/p>\n The food bank said supporters can lend a helping hand by donating money<\/a>, volunteering their time, or giving shelf-stable food. Donations to the Season of Hope campaign<\/a> will provide food for families in need across the Central Coast during the holidays.<\/p>\n As its resources narrow and the number of people seeking help rises, the organization said it is continuing to look for ways to reach more families in Santa Barbara County.<\/p>\n “Our team is constantly looking for ways to innovate, best serve our needs,” Alcantar said.<\/p>\n Where can I learn more?<\/p>\n Elsewhere, hunger-relief groups are finding other ways to stretch supplies and get food to people who need it.<\/p>\n \u2022 In California, ExtraFood’s state-backed food recovery program<\/a> redirects surplus food to neighbors in need.<\/p>\n \u2022 Worldwide, food banks provided 1.7 billion meals<\/a> in 2023 while keeping edible food out of landfills.<\/p>\n \u2022 In Arkansas, a Kroger power outage after storms still yielded over 60,000 meals<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 A major food market and food bank recover food before landfills<\/a>, routing it to neighbors.<\/p>\n \u2022 In Wisconsin, a food pantry partnered with community gardens<\/a> and local farms to reduce waste.<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More households are turning to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County in California for help, with the organization…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-506175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}