Sunday, October 2 , 2022, 3:47 pm | Fair 71º
All-volunteer Santa Barbara nonprofit has been delivering on its mission — for free — for more than 27 years
Food From the Heart founder Evelyn Jacob and executive director Steven Sharpe inside the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church fellowship hall, where the magic of meal preparation happens each week. (Judy Foreman / Noozhawk photo)
Each week, Food From the Heart relies on 80-100 volunteers to prepare meals and deliver them. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Meals include an entrée, a casserole, a fresh green salad, a cold deli-style salad, a large container of soup, a small dessert, and bags of bread and fresh fruit. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Food From the Heart’s food and produce is all donated by local businesses, and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church provides the space to prepare it. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Food From the Heart chef Aaron Casale pours soup into containers for further distribution. The organization’s meals are intended to feed clients for up to five days. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Food From the Heart founder Evelyn Jacob and executive director Steven Sharpe inside the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church fellowship hall, where the magic of meal preparation happens each week. (Judy Foreman / Noozhawk photo)
Each week, Food From the Heart relies on 80-100 volunteers to prepare meals and deliver them. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Meals include an entrée, a casserole, a fresh green salad, a cold deli-style salad, a large container of soup, a small dessert, and bags of bread and fresh fruit. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Food From the Heart’s food and produce is all donated by local businesses, and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church provides the space to prepare it. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
Food From the Heart chef Aaron Casale pours soup into containers for further distribution. The organization’s meals are intended to feed clients for up to five days. (Kelly Onnen / Food From the Heart photo)
On a recent morning, the fellowship hall at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Santa Barbara was a beehive of activity. Inside, a small army of volunteers was chopping and preparing food and assembling bags of meals.
The cause of the controlled chaos — with an unmistakable energy punctuated by chatter and laughs — was the nonprofit Food From the Heart, which, for the past 27 years, has been delivering fully cooked meals for homebound neighbors in need, for free.
Steven Sharpe, Food From the Heart’s executive director, and founder Evelyn Jacob told Noozhawk that, each week, the all-volunteer organization prepares and delivers the bagged food to 156 low-income residents at no cost.
The food and produce is all donated by local businesses, and Trinity Lutheran Church provides the space to prepare it at its campus at 909 N. La Cumbre Road.
“We’re striving to combat food insecurity among the area’s most vulnerable and who are managing a major illness or recovering from surgery, live alone and don’t have the financial resources to hire a caregiver,” Sharpe said.
Food From the Heart believes that nutritious meals are a critical component in supporting people in recovery from a major medical condition or who are managing an illness. The gratitude on its clients’ faces proves it.
Kelly Onnen, Food From the Heart’s board chairwoman and a 20-year volunteer, hailed the organization’s consistency. It has never missed a week of food delivery, and she noted that she’s still working alongside volunteers who were there when she first got involved.
“Our volunteers love what they do and get back as much as they give,” she exclaimed.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, drivers would stop in for a quick visit with clients while putting away the food, developing a rapport with the shut-ins and providing important social interaction. Improving COVID-19 conditions are again creating an opportunity for more contact.
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Food From the Heart’s contingent of volunteers is returning to pre-pandemic conditions, too, but more help is always needed and welcomed.
With just two part-time employees, the bulk of the work is done by 80-100 volunteers who gather each week to prep and assemble the meals, and then deliver the carefully packed bags — along with fresh flowers when available — to clients.
Each big white bag with the distinctive red heart includes an entrée, a casserole, a fresh green salad, a cold deli-style salad, a large container of soup, a small dessert, and bags of bread and fresh fruit. Everything, including the salad dressing, is freshly prepared by hand.
The meals are intended to feed clients for up to five days.
“We try to bring what we consider would be five days’ worth of prepared meals so those we serve are fed for the bulk of the week,” Sharpe said.
Food From the Heart also manages a twice-weekly Harvest Program, with volunteers collecting fresh fruit from private homes and orchards that otherwise would fall to the ground and go to waste.
More fruit is collected than needed, and the remainder is donated to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and other nonprofit organizations.
In a typical year, Sharpe said, “between 70,000 and 100,000 pounds of fruit is harvested, and fully two-thirds of it is donated to other organizations.”
Most clients are referred by physicians and medical agencies, but clients can self-refer.
Food From the Heart’s name, Onnen noted, “reflects all the love that goes into each bag of food.”
Click here for more information about Food From the Heart. Click here to make an online donation.
— Judy Foreman is a Noozhawk columnist and longtime local writer and lifestyles observer. She can be contacted at [email protected] . Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
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