As the season of giving unfolds, Santa Barbara County comes alive with acts of kindness that strengthen the community we’re proud to serve. At Noozhawk, we believe in elevating the stories and organizations that show just how far a little generosity can go.
Our Good for Santa Barbara County Nonprofit Section highlights the nonprofits creating meaningful, lasting impact across our region. Whether you donate, volunteer, or help spread the word, every action contributes to the work they do.
Take a moment to explore our Giving Guide and help brighten the season for those who need it most.
In this feature, Noozhawk spoke with Eryn Shugart, Executive Director at SYV Fruit & Vegetable Rescue aka Veggie Rescue, to dive into the nonprofit’s commitment to addressing the problems of food waste and food insecurity in Santa Barbara County.
Veggie Rescue
Question: What is the name of your nonprofit?
Answer: SYV Fruit & Vegetable Rescue aka Veggie Rescue.
Q: How long has your organization been serving the community, and who founded it?
A: Veggie Rescue was founded in 2010 by seafood salesman and Santa Ynez resident Terry Delaney. We have been serving the community for the past 15 years.
Q: What motivated the creation of your nonprofit?
A: Terry saw fruits and vegetables withering in the fields throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. Knowing that there were community members who were hungry, Terry decided to do something about it.
Armed with a pickup truck and a group of volunteers, they began gleaning fruits and vegetables and donating them to nonprofits in the Santa Ynez Valley who served food insecure individuals. We now serve all of Santa Barbara County.
Veggie Rescue picks up surplus produce and other food from more than 55 farms, stores, and bakeries and donates it via our refrigerated trucks within 24 hours to 69 nonprofits, churches, and schools serving hungry community members.
Q: How is your nonprofit primarily funded, and what are its biggest needs right now?
A: Veggie Rescue is funded entirely through grants and private donations; we do not receive federal funding, though we do receive some city grants.
Our biggest needs right now include increased funding to bring on a new driver and rescue more food, additional food donors from farms, restaurants, bakeries, and backyard gardens to help scale up the quantity of food we distribute, and volunteers to support gleaning efforts.
These resources are especially critical given recent cuts to SNAP and the Foodbank’s budget.
Q: How do you allocate your funding to support your mission?
A: Most of our funding directly supports our transportation program, the heart of our mission. This includes salaries for our two drivers who rescue and deliver fresh food 363 days a year, along with fuel, insurance, registration, and maintenance for our vehicles.
Remaining funds support our small administrative team to keep the program running smoothly.
Q: What types of events or programs do you run to engage your community and raise funds?
A: In the coming year, Veggie Rescue is expanding community involvement and strengthening our mission through several key initiatives. We are reintroducing our gleaning program, by inviting community members to help harvest fruits and vegetables from local farms and backyard orchards.
This hands-on effort prevents fresh produce from going to waste and gives volunteers a meaningful way to support neighbors facing food insecurity.
We are also planning our second annual Gathering for Good event, tentatively scheduled for May 21, 2026, in Los Olivos. This event helps raise both awareness and essential support for our year-round food rescue operations.
Additionally, Los Olivos Wine Merchant, one of our valued food donors, will be celebrating its 30th anniversary with a special five course dinner on Sunday, December 14.
More information about the event can be found here: https://www.winemerchantcafe.com/special-events/.
Their continued partnership exemplifies how local businesses play a vital role in reducing food waste and nourishing our community.
Together, these efforts deepen community engagement, generate critical support, and expand the ways people can participate in ensuring fresh, healthy food reaches those who need it most.
Q: How is your team structured? Have there been any major changes in your operations since you started?
A: Veggie Rescue initially started as an all-volunteer effort, but as we have grown into a large-scale organization tackling food waste and food insecurity, we now rely on a dedicated staff team to sustain and expand our impact.
Currently, our small but mighty team includes an Executive Director, a Program Director, and two full-time drivers who rescue and deliver food nearly every day of the year.
We are excited to be expanding our team with the addition of our first Advancement Manager in December. This new role will focus on building out our volunteer program, as well as supporting marketing and grant writing, allowing us to further strengthen community engagement and secure resources to grow our programs.
Over time, our operations have evolved from purely volunteer-driven initiatives to a structured, year-round program that requires coordination, logistics, and professional management to operate at scale.
This evolution has allowed Veggie Rescue to significantly increase the amount of food we rescue and the number of people we serve.
Q: How can people get involved with your nonprofit or volunteer?
A: There are many ways to get involved with Veggie Rescue. You can sign up to volunteer for our gleaning program, let us know about a farm or backyard fruit trees we can glean from, make a donation, or simply learn more about our work.
The best way to get started is by visiting our website at www.veggierescue.org, where you can find information and sign-up forms. We welcome anyone who wants to help reduce food waste and feed those in need!
Q: What sets your nonprofit apart from similar organizations?
A: Veggie Rescue is a lean, highly efficient organization with no warehouses. We transport rescued food directly from farms, farmers’ markets, and grocery stores to local organizations serving community members experiencing food insecurity.
Using our refrigerated trucks, we are able to deliver fresh, high-quality food within 24 hours of rescue, and we are the only organization in our county to do so. This direct, rapid delivery model ensures that healthy food reaches those who need it most while preventing perfectly good food from going to waste.
Q: Can you share a fun fact or little-known detail about your nonprofit that would surprise people?
A: Santa Barbara County has the highest poverty rate of any California county, and Veggie Rescue is the only organization here that delivers rescued fresh food to people in need within 24 hours via refrigerated trucks, without the use of warehouses. Our small, lean team makes a big impact every day.
Q: Could you share a story or two about individuals whose lives have been positively impacted by your organization?
A: This is a quote from Kevin Easter, who manages inventory control at the Unity Shoppe in Santa Barbara: Veggie Rescue’s generous donations of fresh, locally grown produce help nourish our clients and their families, providing healthy food and hope during times of hardship.
Their generosity ensures that those facing challenges in our community continue to have access to fresh, nutritious meals when they need it most.
Veggie Rescue helps reduce other nonprofit organization’s costs through our donation of fresh produce and other surplus food that might otherwise go to waste.
Q: How do you share your nonprofit’s impact and updates with the public?
A: We share Veggie Rescue’s impact and updates with the public through a combination of media outreach and active community engagement. We regularly work with local news outlets to highlight our programs and successes, and our team participates in community groups and serves on boards such as Rotary Clubs and Chambers of Commerce.
These efforts help us raise awareness about food waste and food insecurity while connecting with individuals and organizations who want to support our mission.
Q: What makes your organization trustworthy for donors, and are there other ways people can support your cause beyond donations?
A: Veggie Rescue demonstrates transparency and accountability through our Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, reflecting our commitment to responsible management of donations.
In addition, our 69 nonprofit and community partners can share firsthand testimonials about the impact of our programs.
Beyond financial contributions, people can support our mission by volunteering for food rescues or gleaning events, donating excess produce from farms or backyard trees, helping spread awareness of our work, or purchasing tickets for our annual Gathering for Good.
Q: Can you highlight one immediate goal and one long-term vision your nonprofit aims to achieve in the next year?
A: One immediate goal for Veggie Rescue is to secure 3–5 additional food donors within the next six months, which will help increase the volume and variety of fresh food we can rescue and distribute.
Our long-term vision is to substantially scale up food donations from an estimated 700,000 pounds this year to nearly one million pounds in the next 3–4 years. Achieving this goal will allow us to make a much bigger impact on food insecurity across Santa Barbara County while continuing to strengthen our volunteer programs, partnerships, and community engagement.
Q: Is there anything important or unique about your nonprofit that we haven’t covered yet?
A: Veggie Rescue not only feeds people in need, but also fights food waste and protects the environment. Every pound of produce we rescue prevents greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, conserves water and resources used to grow that food, and reduces our community’s overall environmental footprint.
Click here to support Veggie Rescue’s mission to address the problems of food waste and food insecurity in Santa Barbara County.
Check out Noozhawk’s Guide to Giving for a full list of nonprofits to donate to this giving season.
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