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Backyard Bounty Program

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Backyard Bounty Program

The Backyard Bounty is a volunteer-powered gleaning program of the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.

04/29/2026

Here at the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, we’re working every day to transform potential food waste into community nourishment. An estimated $1.2 trillion worth of food is wasted annually, while 870 million people around the world remain undernourished - including 1 in 3 neighbors right here in Santa Barbara County. When good food goes to waste, so does an opportunity to provide for our community.

We are committed to strengthening environmental resiliency and nutrition security across our county through edible food recovery, garden education, and regenerative composting.

This Stop Food Waste Day, we invite you to join us in taking action:

🍽️ Plan your meals
🧊 Freeze extras
♻️ Compost food scraps
👩‍🍳 Get creative with leftovers
🤝 Volunteer with us - link in bio!

Every small change is another step toward a climate resilient, food secure Santa Barbara County.🍊

04/16/2026

Say hello to Big Hanna ♻️🌱

At the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, we’re giving leftovers new life. Every day, we work to rescue fresh bread and produce and get it into the hands of neighbors who need it most.

But our job doesn’t stop there.

When food comes through our doors that isn’t suitable for distribution, we make sure nothing goes to waste. With the help of our commercial composter, Big Hanna, we’re turning those scraps those scraps into nutrient-rich compost instead.

Thanks to a $1 million CalRecycle grant, we now have two commercial composters at our Sharehouse locations in Goleta and Santa Maria. Together, they have the capacity to divert up to 178,000 pounds of surplus food from the landfill each year.

The result? Compost that can power local food production and keep our community’s food system growing strong. 💚

Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes of our composting journey and ways you can be part of it!

04/14/2026

Meet the Grocery Rescue Program 🚚👋

Each morning, dedicated Foodbank staff and volunteers visit grocery stores throughout the county to reroute surplus food away the landfill and into the hands of community members experiencing food insecurity. ♻️

Millions of tons of fresh, nutritious food are wasted each year due to appearance, size, freshness, or surplus. Over 50% of what we dump into California’s landfills is organic waste, releasing potent greenhouse gasses that advance climate breakdown.

By rescuing over 2 million pounds of food each year, our Grocery Rescue Volunteers:
🍊 Reduce food waste
🌏 Lower greenhouse gas emissions
🤝 Ensure our community has access to nutritious food

You can team up with Foodbank staff and fellow volunteers to support our mission to combat hunger and protect the planet! Fill out the Interest Form in our bio to learn more about becoming a Grocery Rescue Volunteer.🌱

04/10/2026

🌷Meet Harvesthub Garden, where curiosity takes root!🍃

Harvesthub is our Foodbank’s demonstration garden, hosting educational field trips where elementary-aged students come to learn, explore, and play. Featuring six garden beds and two aeroponic towers, we grow leafy greens, herbs, and fresh produce right here in the community. Young learners will be introduced to the connection between nature, nutrition, and food security through hands-on learning experiences.

Students will explore:
🌱Various gardening techniques
🪱Sustainable ways to dispose of food waste
🥕Benefits of growing their own produce.

Through this experience, students will gain a deeper appreciation for the journey of food and understand their role in building a healthy community.

Stay tuned for behind-the-scenes garden updates, student moments, and growing tips!

04/08/2026

🌱Re-introducing our Backyard Bounty Program! 🍊

Backyard Bounty is a volunteer-powered gleaning program that harvests surplus produce from backyards, gardens, and orchards across the southern Santa Barbara County. We redistribute this fresh, local produce to people in our community facing food insecurity.

Through this program, we are able to:
✨ Prevent nutritious food from going to waste and entering landfills
🍓Make fresh, local produce accessible to all
🤝 Build connections between our community, environment, and local food system
All while helping protect our planet…

In our 2025 fiscal year, we:
🍊 Rescued more than 133,000 lbs of produce
🌎 Prevented 24.15 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions
💧 Saved more than 1 million gallons of water

Keep your eyes peeled on our VolunteerHub calendar for opportunities to join us in the orchard - link in our bio!

04/03/2026

We’re turning over a new leaf. 🌿

You already know our Backyard Bounty program - rescuing fresh, local produce to share with our community for nearly two decades. But that’s only part of the Foodbank’s sustainability story.

Our growing sustainability initiatives are building something bigger: a connected, community-driven food system that nourishes our neighbors in harmony with the earth. We’re bringing all of that work together here, to share with you.

Stay tuned for more on how we’re:
🍊 Rescuing local produce and unsold groceries through the Backyard Bounty and Grocery Rescue programs
♻️ Composting food that cannot be distributed, closing the loop and turning waste into resource
🌱 Offering hands-on, sustainability-focused nutrition education at our Harvest Hub

With every pound rescued, seed planted, and volunteer hour given, we’re creating a more nourished, more sustainable Santa Barbara County - together. Let’s grow something good. 💚

12/15/2025

Mandarin season is here, and we’re off to a sweet start! 🍊 With the help of our amazing volunteers, we gleaned 3,888 lbs of mandarins in November. Every harvest brings Santa Barbara County one step closer to hunger-free, healthy communities.

Interested in helping out? We’ll be back in the orchard after the holidays - head to the link in our bio to sign up!

04/14/2025

Our April Backyard Bounty gleans have been full of sunshine, smiles, and 4,545 lbs of citrus! Huge shoutout to all the amazing volunteers who have showed up and made it happen—tackling thorny lemon trees and steep orchard paths to bring a little extra nourishment to their neighbors’ plates this month. That’s community in action. 🧡

03/24/2025

What better way to kick off Spring than with a week of lemon gleans! Our amazing crew of volunteers worked together to harvest 4,871 lbs of locally grown lemons to share with our community last week, all while enjoying some time in the sunshine and making new connections. 👏🌸🍋

Join the Backyard Bounty team this Thursday, March 27th to harvest mandarins from a large orchard in Goleta! Click on the link in our bio to register. 🌱

01/16/2025

Starting the year off on a sweet note! 🍊 Our dedicated Backyard Bounty volunteers hit the ground running and have harvested over 3,900 lbs of mandarins since the start of the new year. We’re so excited to see what we can continue to accomplish together in 2025. 🧡🌱

Address

4554 Hollister Avenue
Santa Barbara, CA
93110

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18053199096

Website

https://foodbanksbc.org/backyardbounty/

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