KEYT covered our first Shepherd Giving Farm volunteer day

News Channel 3-12 came out to Shepherd Giving Farm this week to cover Team Chumash and Veggie Rescue volunteers in the field. Watch the story here.

Shepherd Giving Farm is our newest program: land west of Buellton where volunteers plant, harvest, and send produce straight to Santa Barbara County families facing food insecurity. Team Chumash and Veggie Rescue teams were out planting new crops and harvesting fresh produce, including nearly 1,500 pounds of tomatoes and ambrosia melons in a single morning.

"Which is the best melon you've ever eaten." farmer Tom Shepherd told KEYT.

The farm runs on the same principle as everything else we do: no holding, no middle step. Produce picked at Shepherd Giving Farm goes directly to our nonprofit partners, who deliver it to families in need.

This work happens because of a partnership that's now 16 years deep. The Chumash Foundation has supported Veggie Rescue with operational grants, event sponsorships, and on-the-ground volunteers since 2010. Mayra Terrazas, spokesperson for Team Chumash Santa Ynez, put it simply in the piece: the Foundation partners with nonprofits across the county, and Veggie Rescue is one of them.

Shepherd sees something bigger happening in the dirt, too:

"People often are on their computers all day long inside, and that gives them a chance to get outside and have this therapeutic moment with nature and get their hands in the dirt."

And for many volunteers, farming isn't unfamiliar. As Shepherd put it: "If you go back two, three, four generations, there's always a farmer in the family. And so it gives you that genetic memory of that experience that your ancestors had, which I think is really valuable."

We're looking to expand these volunteer days to weekends so more people, including families, can join. If you want in, sign up on our website.