Tom Shepherd, local organic farmer for 54 years and member of the founding board of the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market, will be receiving the Communitarian of the Year Award For lifetime service and dedication to the community.

Shepherd will receive the award at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 25 during the Bucket Brigade Golden Shovel Awards Ceremony, 6-9 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Women’s Club, 670 Mission Canyon Road.

Tickets are available online here for $40.

Shepherd is one of Santa Barbara County’s original organic farmers, event organizers said. He has been growing organic produce and selling it at the farmers market since 1972.

He was at the first Farmer’s Market at the Santa Barbara Mission in 1979 and helped to create a vibrant, local organic farming community here in Santa Barbara along with the Farmer’s Market founder Randy Wade.  

In 2024, Shepherd, along with Steve Hanson and Abe Powell, founded the Bucket Brigade Humanitarian Farm to grow organic produce supporting local food aid and training the next generation of organic farmers and gardeners.

Since its founding, the Humanitarian Farm has grown, sorted, boxed and delivered 90,735 servings of organic produce to help feed Santa Barbara residents who are struggling with food insecurity, the Bucket Brigade said.

Along with a team of student volunteer leaders, Shepherd has taught organic farming to 1,187 volunteers who contributed 4,141 hours of labor to the project.

Farming has always been a labor of love for Shepherd, who said he looks forward to the Tuesday and Saturday markets each week, where he has been sharing the fruits of his labor with Santa Barbara for almost five decades.

He said he also looks forward to working with a new generation of organic farmers each week at the Bucket Brigade Humanitarian Farm.