Back in 1965, Bob Dylan ridiculed the eternal square in his song “Ballad of a Thin Man” on the Highway 61 Revisited album. (“Something is happening here and you don’t know what it is/Do you, Mr. Jones?”) In one verse, he singled out “the professors” and the “very well-read,” as if the highly educated elites couldn’t possibly have a clue about the counterculture.
That may have been true back then—although ironically mass student protests on campus would start just a year after Dylan wrote the song. But these are different times, with nearly half of all states legalizing weed, and dispensaries proliferating across the West Coast and the country. And the two authors who have stepped in to educate the world about the rapidly shifting realities of modern weed are, of all things, academics.
Yes, the new book published by the University of California Press and written by two professors who teach at the University of California at Davis is a sure sign that the world of weed is now taken seriously in a way it wasn’t even a few short years ago. And Can Legal Weed Win: The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics by Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner also shows that it’s now safe for academics to venture into territory once off limits to any writers except dyed-in-the-wool marijuana journalists and gonzo reporters unafraid to puff on a joint and write about it.
Then again, there’s not much that Sumner is afraid of; he’s not intimidated by anyone inside or outside academia. “The cotton industry tried to get me fired,” he tells me. “I also pissed off the dairy industry. I studied tobacco subsidies and that made me suspect, too.”
Rolling Off the Presses
Just a decade ago, an editor at UC Press rejected my own book, Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War, saying it was too hot to handle. Fortunately, High Times published it, along with a dozen color photos and a glossy cover that depicts a big fat bud of the kind that makes cannabis connoisseurs drool (or so the publisher told me).
A French paperback appeared in print in France soon after the American edition went on sale. “Everyone from Paris and the Riviera to Normandy and Brittany knows the word ‘marijuana,’” Virginie Giraud, the translator, explained. “There’s no need to find a French equivalent.”
On a book tour in France, I met French growers—many of them self-styled anarchists who weren’t mad bombers, but advocate for community control of everything, from power to wealth, in their communities. In Paris, I appeared on an anarchist radio show. The host met me at a stop on the Paris Metro and took me to a clandestine location.
A New Weed Reality
Sumner and Goldstein conceived their book in a new, very different era. Goldstein is the younger of the two authors; a native of Massachusetts who settled here more than a decade ago, he has reinvented himself as a Californian. (Although his hometown, Northampton, Massachusetts, is a tamer East Coast version of Santa Cruz.)
Sumner, who was born in 1950, has kids who have smoked weed. Back in the day, Sumner was once a wrangler who doubled as a hippie. He wore boots, a cowboy hat and long hair in a ponytail. “I straddled two worlds,” he says.
Goldstein focuses on sales and retailing issues, while Sumner looks at weed as a crop.
“I get excited about technical stuff like rice and drought in the Central Valley,” Sumner tells me.
The two professors explored the weed world in and around Santa Cruz, where they visited the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana and met its founder, the legendary Valerie Corral. Unusual issues abound in this corner of the cannabis industry.
“In the Santa Cruz area, some people in the cut flower business were worried that weed farmers would monopolize greenhouses and put them out of business,” Sumner says. “That has not happened, and they’ve calmed down, though some of the best managers in the cut flower business have jumped ship and joined the weed industry, where salaries are heftier.”
Sumner and Goldstein also obtained valuable information from students on their own campus in Davis who say they don’t buy marijuana from dispensaries because it’s more expensive than the illegal product on the black market. In California, the law states that you have to be 21 years of age or older to purchase weed. That leaves preteens, teens and kids aged 20 with no choice but to spend millions of dollars on the black market. A legal grower in Santa Cruz County tells me that most students here buy on the black market.
“Everyone is doing the black market thing,” he says. “With the high price of gas, people have less disposable income, so the market for dispensary weed has narrowed.”
Yolo County, where Davis is located, has a double standard when it comes to weed, Sumner tells me. Farmers in Yolo don’t have a problem with the cultivation of weed. After all, it’s a crop. “But they don’t like the cannabiz,” he says. “In that regard, Yolo has a lot in common with the Central Valley.”
A large portion of Can Legal Weed Win? is devoted to predictions, but when I interviewed the authors, they backed away from their crystal ball. “The future is uncertain,” Goldstein says. “We’re not in the business of making industry forecasts.” That’s a wise choice. “The industry is evolving faster than books can keep up with it,” Sumner and Goldstein write in their book. Ain’t that the truth.
The Potency Myth
Goldstein also argues that consumers don’t know much about the marijuana they purchase. Sumner adds that the prohibition against weed, like the prohibition against booze, has prompted consumers to focus mistakenly on potency.
In the days of Al Capone and his fellow mobsters, they looked at the alcohol content of bootleg whiskey and gin. Now, for cannabis, it’s THC. But weed with high levels of THC isn’t necessarily better than weed with lower levels of THC, Sumner points out, much as whiskey with a high alcoholic content isn’t always superior to whiskey with a low alcoholic content.
Caveat emptor: buyer beware. That slogan made sense during the days when con artists sold snake oil as a miracle drug to unsuspecting consumers. Caveat emptor still makes sense today when the market is flooded with so many different weed products with different packaging that it’s challenging to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.
Over half a century after Dylan wrote “Ballad of a Thin Man,” there are still plenty of Mr. Joneses, even if they’re harder to pigeonhole. But if they read Goldstein and Sumner, they’ll learn a thing or two—and so will the rest of us.
Santa Cruz County saw a decline in its cannabis industry in 2022, with tax revenues falling far short of projections for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
In February, county officials said that their revenues of $1.68 million were lagging behind projections by more than $1 million, and $1.6 million for the previous year.
The county currently has 12 licensed retail locations in its unincorporated area, along with 76 non-retail businesses.
A total of six cannabis businesses closed over the 2021-22 fiscal year, a trend industry professionals say could continue.
Colin Disheroon, who owns Santa Cruz Naturals in Aptos and its sister location in Pajaro, said that the reason for the problem starts with a public wary of spending in an economy shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“People can’t afford to spend money on expensive cannabis,” he told GT earlier this year.
This problem is compounded, he added, by the taxes tacked on to legal weed by state and local officials that add roughly 40% to the total cost at the register.
“When you have 15% excise tax, you still have the cultivation tax, the manufacturing tax, the local 7% sales taxes; it’s all too much,” he said. “All of those need to come down.”
An issue statewide for the growing industry, Disheroon’s sentiments are gaining traction among cannabis business owners.
In a letter late last year to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro-Tempore Toni Atkins, Speaker Anthony Rendon and 30 cannabis industry professionals demanded lawmakers work to reduce the taxes and to eliminate the cultivation tax.
“Four years after the start of legal sales, our industry is collapsing, and our global leadership and legacy is at the brink of disappearing forever,” the letter read. “It is critical to recognize that an unwillingness to effectively legislate, implement and oversee a functional regulated cannabis industry has brought us to our knees.”
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 25 passed a resolution requesting that Newsom and the State Legislature work to reform the tax structure and regulatory framework for the legal cannabis industry.
In his budget proposal in January, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is willing to consider changes to the state’s tax structure. But such changes to state taxes require support from two-thirds of the Legislature.
“The Administration supports cannabis tax reform and plans to work with the Legislature to make modifications to California’s cannabis tax policy to help stabilize the market, better support California’s small licensed operators and strengthen compliance with state law,” Newsom stated.
And state officials appear to be on board with these reforms, too. California Bureau of Cannabis Control Acting Deputy Director of External Affairs Christina Dempsey said the agency is “committed to ensuring meaningful pathways exist for California’s small, legacy and equity licensees to thrive in this legal market.”
In the last year, Dempsey said, the state consolidated three legacy programs into a new standalone cannabis department, combined three sets of state regulations governing commercial cannabis activity and awarded $100 million to support businesses’ transition to annual licensure through the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program.
The state has also distributed millions of dollars through the Cannabis Tax Fund for “equity and enforcement,” Dempsey said.
Disheroon said he supports “smart regulation and smart taxation.”
“But it’s got to be realistic, and the rates across the industry are unrealistic,” he said.
He added that the Covid-19 lockdown also contributed to the problem when the public was consuming more cannabis products.
As a result, the industry ramped up production, only to encounter a major slowdown, he said.
“They anticipated this growth was going to continue. Suddenly, the growers and manufacturers have way more product than they know what to do with, and they have to pay to have that product processed.”
Much of this excess product is being shunted into the black market, worsening a problem that Prop. 64 sought to address, Disheroon said.
County officials say that illegal cannabis operators also create unfair competition by being able to sell their products for less.
This is not a problem in Santa Cruz County, where operators are instead destroying their extra or plowing their fields under, said Cannabis Licensing Manager Samuel LoForti.
LoForti agreed that the oversupply problem is a statewide issue, but said it is also caused by more players entering the market as the industry slowly takes hold statewide.
Last year, he said, many jurisdictions added licensing operations, leading to significantly more canopy. Santa Barbara, for example, increased its canopy by more than 400 acres, he said.
“More and more people are entering the marketplace, and that has tipped the scales,” he said.
LoForti said that these economic problems are not surprising, and were predicted in industry forecasts when recreational marijuana was legalized, which also foretold of independently owned cannabis farms collapsing as market rates decrease.
Still, he said the problem will eventually improve.
“I see market stabilization as an inevitability,” he said.
On Oct. 6, President Joe Biden made history when he pardoned thousands of Americans convicted of marijuana possession under federal laws. The pardons will help people who have been barred from employment, federal grants and federal housing and those who have been denied admission to colleges.
Biden also said that the White House would decide whether or not to continue to classify marijuana as a heroin-type Schedule One drug, a legacy of Richard Nixon and the War on Drugs.
The current enforcement of anti-cannabis laws is unacceptable, he suggested. “While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates,” Biden said, “Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionately higher rates.”
That policy has been called the “New Jim Crow.” In California, Illinois and other states, tens of thousands of marijuana convictions have already been expunged. Still, on the federal level, a new day has finally dawned. I’m celebrating.
Every year for a couple of decades, I grew marijuana without a permit, and wondered why everyone didn’t grow it. Now that I live in an apartment with a small backyard, I understand why many Californians would rather buy weed from a dealer or a dispensary than cultivate and harvest themselves.
Still, there is the pleasure of growing your own. In four months, sun-stroked female plants can be six feet tall, beautiful to behold and aromatic, too.
But growing weed takes time, patience, passion and a green thumb. Plus, a thief might rip off the plants as they reach maturity. Also, unless you know the origin of the seeds, and the phenotypes and genotypes, you might find yourself with dope that doesn’t have the desired effect.
These days, sales folk at dispensaries are much savvier about THC, CBD, strains and terpenes than they were a short while ago. They can help buyers find the product that’s right for each individual body and mind.
As a weed reporter, I receive free samples. I try them and like some better than others, tinctures more than gummies. I recommend Care By Design’s potent, fast-acting Full Spectrum Drops, which have 100 mg of CBD and 100 mg of THC. One drop under the tongue will stone you.
Oaky Joe, as he’s known in the trade, gives me four or five joints at a time when he visits. He’s strictly black market. He got his start in the biz by selling joints on urban street corners. Joe tells me, “If someone, say in Santa Cruz or San Francisco, wants to score weed and doesn’t have a connection, they could go to a park or bar where hippies hang out, but that’s dicey. They might be ripped off.”
I know Oaky Joe grows without toxic chemicals, and while I’d rather not smoke weed, I’m an “OG,” and old habits die hard. So I go on smoking and not eating or using gummies.
The State of California aims to abolish the black market and liquidate criminal and outlaw growers, but that won’t happen soon. There’s too much money at stake and growers are unlikely to change soon.
Everyone should have an Oaky Joe in his/her/their life. Joe is a bit of a nutcase, but he genuinely means to help the sick. A loving husband with a Japanese-born wife and their two kids, he has grown weed for decades, and as a grower has practiced civil disobedience Henry David Thoreau style, which means he stood and still stands outside the law, which he thinks is unjust and immoral. I agree.
These days, year-round growers always need and want trimmers. As a trimmer, you have access to quality weed at fair prices. You also might get a contact high when you trim with other trimmers, like my two Mexican-born friends Rosa and Paula. I’d trim with them again and again and again.
Many if not most of the growers I’ve interviewed, from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara and Santa Rosa, who have permits and who sell to licensed dispensaries in the Golden State, also sell on the black market, or as they call it, “out the back door.”
Growers and dealers like Joe don’t get out of the biz until they’re forced out by cops, judges or their own aging bodies. A thirty-something-year-old son of a friend is now doing time in a federal prison because he shipped tons of weed out of state and laundered millions of dollars. Crime doesn’t always pay. Pot farmers are still busted.
I didn’t grow in 2022. Last season’s weed didn’t look or smell good, and it didn’t get me stoned. I gave most of it away to a friend who helped me manicure the buds, so it was payment for services performed.
Joe grew in 2022, but he tells me, “It’s not fun anymore. This is my last year.” He has been saying that for years, so I don’t believe him. In a way, he’s addicted to growing weed. He adds, “If someone is really desperate for weed, they should get in touch with me, and I’ll hook them up.”
POI ROGERS Somewhere in between the tropical lounges of 1930s Los Angeles and the honky tonks of rural 1950s California, you’ll find Poi Rogers. The Santa Cruz duo—Gerard Egan and Carolyn Sills—performs vintage country-western swing, Hawaiian steel guitar ballads and cowboy tunes anchored by breathtaking harmonies. Both musicians are inductees into the Sacramento Western Swing Hall of Fame, and Sills is the Academy of Western Artists Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year. Meanwhile, Egan doubles up on acoustic guitar and his 1954 Fender triple neck steel guitar. Free. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 5pm. The Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. thecrepeplace.com.
THE SERPENTINE SOLSTICE HAFLA After a three-year break, Serpentine Solstice Hafla returns to celebrate the year’s darkest night. The Middle Eastern celebration of life is an unforgettable dance showcase that features every type of body moving imaginable: belly dancing, burlesque, breakdancing, Samba, Ukrainian fusion, fire dancing and more. The booty shaking is just one piece of a giant puzzle that includes a DJ, MCs, local jewelry vendors and a tarot card reader—if you are in the mood for some soul searching. Formal attire is recommended, so come gussied up. The theme is “A Sparkling Soiree” to light up the night. Sequins and sparkles are recommended. The “Most Glittering” dressed will be awarded a prize. $25/$30 plus fees. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7pm. Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. moesalley.com.
‘THE NUTCRACKER’ It’s the 10th anniversary of the 2022 Agape Dance Academy’s Nutcracker Ballet, a special holiday tradition. This season Agape Dance welcomes Yeva Ziniak, the newest company dancer who fled Ukraine with her family. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to Nova Ukraine, an organization providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainians during the ongoing struggle. $35-50. Wednesday, Dec. 21, and Thursday, Dec. 22, 2:30pm and 6:30pm. Cabrillo College Crocker Theater, 6500 Perimeter Drive, Aptos. agapedance.com.
COMMUNITY
STANFORD CARDINAL VS. LOYOLA CHICAGO RAMBLERS Josue Gil-Silva played only two minutes during Stanford’s 85-40 Dec. 16 victory over Green Bay Phoenix. However, those two minutes might have been the best two minutes of his life. On Dec. 1, Stanford coach Jarod Haase added Gil-Silva to the roster after two years as team manager. He’s now teammates with his cousin Isa Silva, a star point guard from Sacramento. Gil-Silva remembers dreaming of wearing a Cardinal jersey as a kid. And now, his dream has come true. Time to see what he can do against the Ramblers. $12-175. Thursday, Dec. 22, 7pm. Kaiser Permanente Arena, 140 Front St., Santa Cruz. ticketmaster.com/event/1C005D0A97A119A1.
ROARING CAMP HOLIDAY LIGHTS TRAIN Vintage excursion cars adorned with thousands of colorful lights roll through Santa Cruz streets. Passengers lend their voices to holiday carols and sip spiced cider while Santa visits with the little ones and the young at heart. $44.95; $32.95/children. Thursday, Dec. 22, and Friday, Dec. 23, 4:30pm. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. beachboardwalk.com/holiday-train-rides.
TOY TRAINS 2022 Get whisked away into the whimsical world of toy trains and enjoy the 17th year of this adored annual pop-up exhibit. From Lionel Pennsylvania Flyers and the Lionel Polar Express to the Lionel Union Pacific Flyer LionChief Train Set and the Hornby Flying Scotsman, it’s a magical miniature world where anything is possible. Free with MAH admission. Thursday, Dec. 22 through Saturday, Dec. 24, noon. Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, 705 Front St., Santa Cruz. santacruzmah.org.
SANTA CRUZ CHANUKAH TRAIN Make sure you arrive early; the menorah will be lit 15 minutes before the train departs. Kosher refreshments will be provided throughout the ride. Play dreidel and enjoy Chanukah stories as the train travels through the streets of Santa Cruz. $44.95; $32.95/children. Monday, Dec. 26, 5:15pm. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, 400 Beach St., Santa Cruz. beachboardwalk.com/holiday-train-rides.
[Warning: This story contains descriptions of of sexual violence. — Editor]
In 2004, Jody Geare was a 20-year-old second-year firefighter living in Santa Cruz in the Seacliff area. As she walked to a friend’s house before dawn along a frontage road running parallel to Highway 1, she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She moved to the right, close to a guardrail, thinking it was just someone jogging, and they’d pass her. Instead, a man tackled her, knocking her over the guardrail into a ravine.
“I was in such shock I think I said, ‘This can’t be happening,’ out loud,” Geare recalls. “I remember getting punched in the face repeatedly. I told him he would have to kill me if he wanted to do what he wanted. Somehow, he got my belt wrapped around my neck, and once my air was cut off, I just stopped [fighting back]. He raped me. When he was done, I thought, ‘If I just lay here, he’ll think that I’m dead and leave me alone.’ He ran up the hill, and I waited until I didn’t hear his footsteps anymore. Then I got up and ran in the other direction.”
Geare ran as fast as she could, wearing only one shoe and a shirt. She climbed a chain link fence and sprinted across the freeway to the median so both sides of traffic would see her.
It wasn’t until she was in the hospital bathroom that she could see the damage to her face and body in the mirror.
“That’s what made it real,” Geare says. “I remember collapsing in the hospital bathroom.”
Geare said she was in a car accident, so she didn’t have to return to work until her face healed.
“I was quiet about it for many years,” she says. “And because [the assailant] wasn’t caught, it was almost like it didn’t happen. There was no justice; there was no closure. There was no safety—this guy wasn’t off the streets.”
Fourteen years after that horrid night, Geare’s rapist was convicted of the crime after he was arrested for a separate sexual assault case in Aptos, where he attempted to rape another woman
“We were living through the trial, as Jody was living through it,” Jody’s brother Jeff says. “We started having emotions like, ‘We want to kill the guy. We want him to suffer for what he did. Not just have his freedom stripped.’”
Moving On
Jeff and Jody’s other brother Darren felt they needed to do something. There was a burden of trauma they had been carrying around as if it was their own. They needed to do something creative. After all, they’d worked in the music industry and were aspiring screenwriters, so making a film seemed like a natural direction. But they didn’t know how to approach it.
“We never felt like we could tell Jody’s exact story,” Darren says. “Our story was as brothers trying to cope with it.”
But it changed from a brother coping with the experience to a father. Darren had watched his and Jody’s dad—Jeff is their half-brother—experience the trial, and he listened to his father describe his anger at the man who had inflicted such suffering on his daughter.
“It’s easy to be academic about it with a rational mind and say, ‘Well, that’s not the right thing to do,’” Darren says. “But when you’re in that moment, and you go, ‘That’s my daughter, my sister, my wife, whatever.’ There is pain and frustration that has nowhere to go. What if there was a service for family members of crime victims that offered one minute alone [with the assaulter]?”
Darren’s question became the genesis for the Geare Brothers’ feature-length debut The Retaliators. Part throwback to ’70s revenge horror flicks like I Spit on Your Grave and Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left, the mashup of influences is also a gruesome homage to other exploitation movies of the same era, like Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes.
“Jeff and I grew up making films to amuse ourselves—and friends and family,” Darren says. “We were very passionate, crazy movie nerds.”
Darren went into acting when he was younger and worked a little bit professionally before his passion slowly morphed towards making music with Jeff, and he left acting behind.
“By the early 2000s, Jeff and I had a little record deal, put out a few records and we did well on a regional level and had a fan base and things like that,” he says.
Jeff went on to earn his master’s at Cal State Long Beach. From there, life moved forward: Darren got married and had kids. But Darren says writing was always a dream of his.
“Five years ago, out of the blue, I called Jeff and said, ‘Hey, you want to write a script? Not tell anybody and just do it?’” Darren says. “That’s how it all started. It’s a bizarre path that got us here.”
The movie’s plot follows a respected pastor and single father of two girls, John Bishop, who dives into the pitch-black underbelly of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens degenerates and meth dealers after a twisted sociopath brutally murders his daughter on Christmas Eve because she saw something incriminating.
“We wanted it to be Christmas, but not like Silent Night, Deadly Night,” Jeff says. “Christmas helps set the stage, but it’s not in every scene of the film.”
Christmas is a setting that brings a tone of happiness and joy that seems so painful alongside the tragedy. This juxtaposition flows through the protagonist, John Bishop, played by Rescue Me’s Michael Lombardi, who Jeff describes as an earnest “Jimmy Stewart type who has his flaws but is a good person.”
Making Connections
Darren first hooked up with Lombardi over a decade earlier. The actor had just finished the popular FX series Rescue Me with Dennis Leary, and was making music. He was looking for a songwriting partner.
“There was a lot of serendipity involved,” Darren says. “We hit it off immediately and worked together for a few months before [Lombardi] headed back east, where he lives.”
Years went by without seeing each other or talking. But the day Jeff and Darren were going to meet with producers interested in The Retaliators, Lombardi called.
“I told him we had written a script,” Darren says. “He goes, ‘Send me the script.’ Three days later, he was on a plane and said, ‘I’m going to get this movie made. I was born to play the John Bishop role.’”
The first person Lombardi took the script to was Allen Kovac, a 40-year entertainment industry veteran who managed Blondie, the Cranberries and Mötley Crüe. Kovac suggested that The Retaliators have a rock soundtrack in the vein of movies like The Lost Boys.
Kovac assisted with The Retaliators’ metal-fueled soundtrack featuring Mötley Crüe, Crossbone Skully and Papa Roach and helped navigate some lofty cameos, including Tommy Lee and Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory. It’s gory, gritty and loaded with scenes that are difficult to watch. But it’s not gratuitous without reason, and a lot of the splatter is campy a la Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste.
Since The Retaliators’ theatrical release on Sept. 14, the Geare Brothers say the reception has been incredible, especially the 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes. More importantly, it’s been cathartic for Jody.
Like the film itself, the poster for “The Retaliators” is a tribute to
exploitation films of the 1970s. PHOTO: Courtesy of Better Noise Films
“As heartbreaking as the situation is, it’s almost like [The Retaliators] gave me a voice,” she says. “I felt like I was hidden. I felt like it wasn’t real because there was no conclusion. There was a police investigation, but for 10 years, it was just like, ‘Okay, now I’m supposed to go and live my life.’”
Jody felt some closure after her assailant was thrown in prison for nearly 25 years, but she feels like the movie continues to give her more. She’s been able to move on with her life as the captain of a local fire department, and continue to tell her story..
“To have people that I love, trust and adore tell a version—maybe not necessarily of my story, but the experience of being in a family and having this happen to a family member—is powerful and empowering,” Jody says. “When I was going through this, I had no one to look up to; I had no other stories that I look at as a female firefighter, a young woman. I’m grateful to my brothers and Mike Lombardi for allowing me to come on press tours; they have embraced me with open, loving arms. If nothing else, this movie has allowed me to save anyone else from the unnecessary struggles that I went through. You never get over it, but you learn to live with it.
Wait, can it possibly be Year in Review time again? How is that possible? Oh, right, because a whole year’s worth of crazy crap happened. I forgot there for a second!
But you can experience it all again—or at least page through it between checking updates on whether or not Elon Musk has finally decided to just upload himself into Twitter so he can mainline the world’s attention around the clock—by reading our cover story this week. With pretty much the whole staff contributing, I always feel like Year in Review is one of our weirdest and wildest issues every year, and this one is no exception. It’s full of odd, unfortunate and even mysterious events; the things that gave us hope, the things that grossed us out and the things that made us cringe, facepalm or drop to our knees, tear our shirt in anguish and scream to the heavens “WHY?” (To be fair, only one of us did that last one, and it was only the one time.)Ultimately, it’s all in fun, and we hope it allows you to look back and laugh. If it also makes you say, “Gee, I wish there was a way to make things better for the people who had to go through all this in 2022”—well, what a coincidence, we are rounding into the home stretch of our Santa Cruz Givescampaign, and you can go to santacruzgives.org and help more than 60 local nonprofits in their work for our community. Happy Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or whatever you may be celebrating over the next week!
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND BREATHE Just a friendly reminder in the middle of the holiday season, brought to you by Seacliff Beach. Photograph by Elizabeth Good.
Submit to ph****@go*******.sc. Include information (location, etc.) and your name. Photos may be cropped. Preferably, photos should be 4 inches by 4 inches and minimum 250dpi.
GOOD IDEA
HOPE TO FIND A SPOT
For once, we can feel good about feeding the parking meter, instead of cursing the parking overlords while searching the car for another quarter. The city is hosting its Parking for Hope holiday parking program, where it will donate the proceeds from the street meters to Hope Services. Hope Services keeps downtown streets clean, and employs and trains adults with developmental disabilities. The program runs from Sunday, Dec. 18, through Sunday, Dec. 25.
GOOD WORK
NEWS NEWS
Last week, Community Bridges officially announced its hiring of Tony Nuñez, former Good Times News Editor, as their marketing and communications manager. We know he’s going to do amazing work at the nonprofit, but we’ll miss reading his unique and captivating reporting. We’re also excited to announce that our own tireless and talented reporter Aiyana Moya will be taking over as GT’s News Editor, and we can’t wait to see what she’ll do!
Trees, the poor sad trees, along segment 9 of the rail trail. Over 400 trees to be removed from the trestle to 17th Ave., 50′ tall trees, wide oaks. I wrote a letter a while back concerned about the blackberries that would have to be destroyed—that was never published. I honestly have an almost impossible time fathoming who would agree to cut down that many trees, except that I’ve seen so many outrageous things already done to this county.
This is a stretch I’ve grown up walking to and from school, and to friends’ houses and so on. This is atrocious, one of the most horrible things I could imagine. This would be one of the worst things I’ve ever seen happen—and a lot of things have happened. Everyone should see what trees are planned to be cut down, at Save Santa Cruz Trees. There must be an article in the Good Times. This is too much! We can’t let this happen! It’s unbelievable.
Gene Wood, Big Sur
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Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is characterized as a type of depression that is related to changes in seasons, typically tied to the start of fall and persisting into the winter months. We know that depressive disorders don’t take holidays, and this time of year can be stressful. For individuals who suffer from or are at risk for depression, though, the impact of holiday stresses and pressures can be much more severe than the momentary frustrations that almost everyone experiences. Typical symptoms of SAD, sometimes referred to as “winter depression,” may include the following (from the Mayo Clinic): feeling depressed most of the day, nearly every day; a lack of energy; losing interest in activities you once enjoyed; feeling sluggish or agitated; oversleeping or having problems with sleeping; social withdrawal; feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty; substance abuse.
Contrary to a prevalent myth, suicide rates do not peak during the holiday season. However, depressed individuals are hardly immune from either depressive episodes or suicidal ideation during this time. If you or someone you love is struggling with depression and/or thinking about suicide, get help now. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or 988, is a free resource, available 24 hours a day for anyone who is in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The Crisis Text Line is a free 24/7 text line where trained crisis counselors support individuals in crisis. Text “Jason” to 741741 to speak with a compassionate, trained Crisis Counselor. Confidential support 24/7, for free. For more information on ways to prevent, respond or act against bullying, visit stopbullying.org, which is a special initiative from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Jason Foundation (jasonfoundation.com) is another available resource. It is dedicated to the awareness and prevention of youth suicide through educational programs that equip youth, parents, educators and the community with the tools and resources to identify and assist at-risk youth. Many times, a young person will exhibit clear warning signs prior to an attempt. By knowing the warning signs, and knowing how to help, you could save a life.
770 bills became law this year, and many went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022. Some will affect millions of Californians, like the minimum-wage hike and steeper penalties for cellphone use while driving. Then there are those laws that most people will never know even exist. One is Senate Bill 395, the roadkill-for-consumption bill. But don’t get too excited, would-be lovers of pavement pizza! Though Gov. Newsom did sign the bill allowing state wildlife regulators to establish a pilot roadkill salvage program, the legislature never put up the millions of dollars it would take to regulate it. It’s still illegal to scrape crushed carcasses of deer, elk, wild boar and any other animal off California roads. The bill’s author—and staunch roadkill salvage advocate—State Sen. Bob Archuleta, said hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat could help those in need. The senator failed to mention that health officials are wary of people dying from eating potentially rotten meat, and highway officials are worried about motorists on dangerous highways. So for now, everyone just carry on as usual.
SURF LEGEND IN PUZZLING TRAGEDY
Former professional big wave surfer Darryl “Flea” Virostko won the Mavericks competition three times, and is featured in some of the most well-known surfing docs, including Step Into Liquid. While Flea—part of the infamous Santa Cruz “Vermin” squad with other like-minded freaks who loved large waves as much as ingesting large quantities of drugs—is a natural talent, he had a perpetual death wish. In 2004, he managed to survive a 50-foot drop at Hawaii’s Waimea Bay, which Surfer dubbed the “Wipeout of the Decade.” Now sober for over a decade, Flea is a doting father of two and teaches other recovering addicts how to surf. But earlier this year, he was in the news for something totally unexpected: a crash that took a truly bizarre and tragic turn. At 9am on Jan. 10, a Honda Accord rear-ended his Tundra on Highway 1 near Swanton Road; according to the CHP’s report, both vehicles pulled over after the accident. The woman driving the Honda got out of her car, crossed the highway towards the cliff overlooking the ocean and plummeted 300 feet to her death. Flea told KRON4 later that day that he was unharmed. Whether the Santa Cruz woman (whose name was not released) jumped or fell remains a mystery, but in yet another weird twist, the CHP classified the incident as a “hit and run” because she technically left the scene.
February
THIS IS SO MYCELIUM
If you always thought it sounded like Santa Cruz’s Fungus Federation stole its name from Star Trek, well, that might make more sense than you realized. During a particularly fungal February at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, local mushroom maniacs got their annual fix, with lectures on subjects like how to find mushrooms at DeLavega (pro tip: watch out for sliced golf balls). But things got downright psychedelic when it was revealed that the current theory on the origin of mushroom spores is that they literally came from outer space. Supposedly, they adhered to meteorites and flew willy-nilly until they entered our atmosphere, where they landed in the primordial soup and began multiplying, proliferating, adding complexities and eventually becoming Joe Rogan.
DEAR HR, PLEASE ADVISE ON WHETHER THIS PROCEDURE IS COVERED BY KAISER, ’CAUSE MUST HAVE NOW
We love Santa Cruz native Adam Scott, and were happy to see him get his first Emmy noms for the incredible Apple TV+ series Severance, which premiered Feb. 18. It seems lucky that we got it at all, what with Covid-19 shutdowns and production postponements, but all the perseverance paid off, as it’s a delicious dystopian dive into why work sucks. And its timing couldn’t be better as millions of Americans, having worked from home for two years, have gone from wondering “Why did we ever have to work in an office?” to “Why do we even have to work at all?” In Severance, Scott plays the disaffected Mark, who has agreed to an elective surgery that causes you to not remember what happened at work. The show is part horror, part brilliant commentary and part fantasy for everyone who still clocks in 9 to 5. It’s all very surreal, but to us the strangest part is that the show seems to think not remembering what happened at work is a bad thing.
March
I’VE BEEN WORKING AGAINST THE RAILROAD, ALL THE LIVE-LONG DAY
Trail-only supporters in the goddamned exhausting rail vs. trail debate were cautiously optimistic on March 8, when the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to place what would become Measure D on the June ballot. Passage would have changed the county’s general plan to focus solely on a bicycle and pedestrian path, and would have resulted in “railbanking” the stretch of track between Davenport and Pajaro. But the light they saw at the end of the tunnel was actually the headlight of an oncoming passenger train, bearing down slowly but inexorably upon their rail-free vision. Trigger warning for disgruntled D supporters: If you don’t like remembering March, you’re really not going to like remembering June.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? THAT’D BE NO
County supervisors approved a plan to use a $500,000 grant to place cellular antennae in rural areas throughout the county. The move was inspired in part by an August 2021 fatal stabbing at Aptos High School, during which bystanders had difficulty calling 911 because of a lack of cell towers in the area. At the time of the decision, county officials were looking at roughly three-dozen sites for the rooftop antennas. Incidentally, residents who live in the area of Aptos High–just off the Freedom Boulevard exit–still report their coverage as spotty at best, because of course.
April
FLOODING, YOU SAY? SURELY NOT WITH THESE ACCELERATING WEATHER PATTERNS THAT ARE NOT AT ALL INCREASINGLY ERRATIC
NIMBYs and anti-tax locals were in an uproar when some 3,000 residents with properties near the Pajaro River levee began receiving ballots in their mailboxes with a single question: Will you approve a property tax assessment to fund annual maintenance and operations of the future rebuild of the levee? That was the final funding piece in the long-awaited—and much needed—rebuild of the levee, where flooding during rainstorms in 1955, 1958, 1995 and 1998 devastated large swaths of the agricultural community. All things considered, the ask for residents—roughly $200 per parcel annually—seemed relatively meager by comparison. Failure of the assessment would have scuttled the project, so a group of residents began a door-to-door campaign that ultimately was successful—it passed with a sizable 79% margin. In October, county officials gathered in a pocket park with a view of the levee to celebrate having gathered the local, state and federal funding for the $400 million project.
NEXT THING YOU KNOW, THEY’LL LET A WOMAN ACTUALLY BE GOVERNOR
A mere 102 years after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in the U.S.—and millennia since gender roles evolved beyond a hunter-gatherer lifestyle—Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis became the first woman in California history to sign a piece of legislation into law on March 31. Acting as governor while Gavin Newsom was on vacation, Kounalakis signed Assembly Bill 2179, which extended eviction protections through June 30 for tenants affected by the pandemic. At the time, she said the law would help 220,000 households. By the way, those statewide protections were later left to expire. Let’s not get too crazy with the progress!
MAY
AWW, BUT ALSO EWW
Mothers. We really can’t ever give them the attention and credit they deserve (just ask them!). Especially when you consider the lengths they go to for their children—raising them, putting their lives on the line, getting stuck in roofs as they try to feed their young. Well, that’s what one raccoon mama did in May, at least. After being separated from her attic-dwelling children, she chewed through a homeowner’s roof and ended up making it halfway through, with her head inside and hind legs out, Winnie-the-Pooh style. Luckily, a nearby work crew came to the rescue, widening the hole enough for the raccoon to squirm through into the attic and reunite with her babies.
I’LL HAVE WAGE EQUITY WITH ONE PUMP CLASSIC, DOUBLE BLENDED, WITH CARAMEL DRIZZLE
Two Starbucks in Santa Cruz were the first locations in California to vote to unionize on May 11, in a double-shot effort to join the first unionized Starbucks in New York. The workers at the stores on 517 Mission Street and 745 Ocean Street approved forming unions, the former in a 15-2 vote and the latter with a 13-1 vote. Later that afternoon, workers held rallies outside the stores, stirring cheers and honks from supporters—and feelings of despair from disappointed customers who went without venti oatmilk frappuccinos in solidarity.
JUNE
IN THE HOPES THAT, SOMEDAY, ALL OF US CAN ENJOY THE RIGHTS THAT WE LITERALLY HAD FOR DECADES UNTIL LIKE SIX MONTHS AGO
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, reversing almost 50 years of precedent, several hundred people gathered around the Santa Cruz County Courthouse steps. Several of them had shown up to the same spot in early May when a draft of the decision leaked. In response to the ruling, the speakers and sign-bearers returned to rally for bodily autonomy and the right to privacy. Medical professionals, mothers and local politicians expressed sorrow and urged the crowd to keep fighting for safe abortion access and a right to choose. The rally was one of thousands across the country.
MEASURE D-ONE
OK, we promise that’s the last Measure D pun we’ll make in 2022. But don’t blame us for how many of them we had to break out this year, considering how the rail-trail debate completely dominated local politics for months. There were so many people who wouldn’t shut up about it on both sides that it made it hard to tell just how much support the trail-only initiative really had. Spoiler alert: not very much! Though some rail supporters openly admitted to being nervous going into the June 7 vote, in the end they had absolutely no reason to be, as more than 70 percent of voters rejected Measure D. The rail-trail debate may finally be over, but at least we’ll have the memories of how divisive and toxic this entire chapter of Santa Cruz politics turned out to be.
JULY
THE HIGHEST THING IN SANTA CRUZ ISN’T STONERS
A July report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition revealed that the Santa Cruz-Watsonville area is now the second-most expensive place to live in the nation. Number one was a penthouse apartment in Trump Towers. OK, actually it was San Francisco, but you know how people around here hate being compared to “the City.” The study showed a Santa Cruz household would have to earn $60 an hour to comfortably afford a two-bedroom apartment; unfortunately, the average worker income here in 2021 was around half that number.
WHAT THE F
On July 6, the city gave up hope and verified that a half-cent sales tax measure had failed, nearly a month after residents voted on the issue. No one was exactly surprised that Measure F had failed, given the state of the economy, insane gas prices and the rent being too damn high. (The second-highest in the nation, remember? Like we could forget.) But for weeks after the June 7 balloting, the city held on to hope, kind of like that out-of-touch tech bro you went on one date with in an act of regrettable desperation. To make matters worse, the city’s revenue bid lost by only 50 votes—that’s gotta sting. We promise, Chad, your odds weren’t nearly as good.
AUGUST
BENCHLANDS BLUES
In August, the Santa Cruz City Council approved the closure of the pandemic-spanning local homeless encampment that sounded like it was named after a Bruce Springsteen song. Benchlands, you got a month to leave the park/Benchlands, don’t get caught there after dark/Benchlands…eh, okay, fine, there’s a reason the Boss is writing America’s every person anthems and we’re just out here trying to navigate the people shooting up, lighting things on fire and setting up tents in front of the door to our Benchlands-adjacent office.
I WANNA ROCK YARD
The Quarry at UCSC was an actual limestone quarry in the 1800s, and when UCSC opened in the 1960s, the storied hole in the ground became an arena for discussion, music, getting high and making love. The Quarry reopened in August with performances from the adopted sonic sons of Santa Cruz, Sound Tribe Sector Nine. Throughout the years, the Quarry has hosted Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar and speeches by Scotts Valley resident Alfred Hitchcock. The future looks bright for the Red Rocks of the Redwoods at it prepares for a new season—rumors are swirling that the reboot of The X-Files will have Scully and Mulder visiting the Quarry to see if it’s built on top of a vortex that opens into another dimension. We don’t want to say it’s aliens, but … it’s aliens.
SEPTEMBER
YOU OTTER BEWARE
Santa Cruz is infamous for surly surf lineups, but a September incident at Steamer Lane crossed the line. In a flagrant display of localism, a sea otter stole surfer Nick Ericksen’s board and lunged at him whenever he got close. The otter, suspected to be pregnant, took a few chunks out of the soft-top board. She ignored splashes and attempts to retrieve the board, until another surfer eventually yanked it away. But the aggro otter didn’t give up. After Ericksen got back on his board, she chased him out of the water. A video of the encounter went viral. Around the same time, YouTuber Colby Stevens uploaded a different video of an otter stealing another soft-top board at Steamer Lane. The otter’s motives remain a mystery, but some onlookers swear they heard her squeak, “Beat it, kook!”
THE REEK THAT WAS
When word got out that a corpse flower was on the verge of blooming at the UCSC Arboretum, Empire Grade turned into a parking lot. Cars lined the road as far as the eye could see, and hundreds of people swarmed to sniff the stinky, nearly human-sized tropical flower. After ten years of growing and storing energy, this was the plant’s first bloom. When the flower blossoms, it generates warmth and smells like a decaying carcass in order to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate it. But just as things were heating up, the process reversed. After a few days of nothing, the corpse flower seemed to be an actual corpse, and the arboretum scheduled an autopsy accordingly. And then, suddenly, it was back to life. The plant sprung into action and filled the grounds with the smell of death and irony.
OCTOBER
ATTACK OF THE PEEPING CYCLISTS
On Oct. 8, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge ruled that a group of Rio Del Mar property owners could put up temporary fencing to block public access to a 786-foot-long beachside walkway that runs along their properties. The matter has dominated many of the homeowners’ lives for years. They’ve regularly voiced their distress, with one resident saying: “One cannot safely stand, nor sit in [their patio] area, with the presence of cyclists moving through.” The ruling also stated that many people peer into their windows, which is even creepier considering that most speed by on bicycles. Just when it looked like things were looking up (not in) for these beachfront homeowners, however, the California Coastal Commission said that the walkway must remain open under state law, despite the verdict. While the conflict continues, one homeowner stated that most passersby are amicable, and she doesn’t want more barriers to be built. Unconfirmed reports say several of her fellow neighborhood homeowners passed out on the spot.
NOVEMBER
LIBRARY BROOKED
Local NIMBYs’ not-so-great year continued on Nov. 8, when almost 60 percent of voters rejected Measure O’s attempt to scuttle the downtown mixed-use library project. Perhaps Santa Cruzans were not impressed with the pro-O campaign’s fixation on the fact that the new library will include a parking garage; the campaign leaders’ galaxy-brained speculation on whether Santa Cruz will actually even need parking in the future turned out to be a non-starter. Nor did the O campaign’s promise that the project’s 124 units of affordable housing will be replaceable somewhere else resonate with a city staring down a requirement from the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments that it must add 3,735 housing units over the next eight years. Note to future anti-development campaigns: throwing around the scare word “skyscraper” apparently does not work when people know what an actual skyscraper is.
AND PLEASE, NO CONSTRUCTION OF SUPERVILLIAN BASES WITHIN THE PARK
The Bureau of Land Management has done a great job opening the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument in Santa Cruz County this year, but when it came to gathering public comment on a new set of guidelines for the land in November—well, bureaucrats gonna bureaucrat. Locals who wanted to look up the new rules (you know, so they could comment on them) had to scroll through tons of unnecessary verbiage about various related legislation and executive orders throughout American history. This led to a sentence that (ironically?) said, “Executive Order 12866 and Executive Order 13563 require each agency to write regulations that are simple and easy to understand. The BLM invites your comments on how to make this proposed supplementary rule easier to understand.” Hmm, we don’t know, maybe explain what you’re even talking about? When one finally got to the “supplementary rule”—or rather, set of rules—they turned out to be the most boring things ever: you have to pick up your dog poop, you have to stay on the trails, etc. Until the mind-blower that is #19: You can’t land an airplane in Cotoni-Coast Dairies. Geez, that escalated quickly!
DECEMBER
FROM OUR “OH NO, PLEASE NO” DEPARTMENT
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about (have you heard that this is the second-most expensive place to live in the country?), the California Geological Survey updated its tsunami hazard maps this year for the first time since 2009. The bad news is that a tsunami triggered by a distant source (the maps hypothesize a 9.3-magnitude earthquake in the eastern Aleutian Islands) could reach the shores of Monterey Bay within a few hours. The even worse news is that one set in motion by a closer event such as an underwater landslide in the Grand-Canyon-sized undersea chasm known as Monterey Canyon could be here in minutes. A worst-case tsunami could, according to the new maps, hit low-elevation areas around the Boardwalk, the harbor, Capitola Beach, Seacliff Beach, La Selva Beach and Pajaro River Beach. If you’re thinking “I’d prefer to stick with my daily fear of earthquakes, thanks,” don’t worry, we haven’t had a tsunami around these parts since, let’s see … January.
THIS PLACE WILL STEAL YOUR HEART
If there’s one thing you can say about Santa Cruz, it’s that it has heart—and last week, we had one lying around on Ocean Street. According to KRON4, some witnesses at the scene believed the organ might be human; however, a coroner’s van arrived around 10:45am on Dec. 15 to cart it away, along with some other remains, and determined it was not. Time for a welfare check on Bigfoot; anyone seen him lately?
In 2020, when the team at Pajaro Valley Loaves and Fishes first heard the news about the pandemic and watched as food pantries shuttered their doors across the valley, there was an understanding within the small team: they would remain open.
“We were open that day, and the day after and haven’t closed our doors since,” says Ashley Bridges, director of Loaves and Fishes.
Loaves and Fishes is just one of the food-focused organizations participating in the Santa Cruz Gives fundraiser. The program functions as a food pantry, serving lunch every day of the week, and also offering produce and groceries to people in need. Staffers from nearly all of the organizations that address food insecurity expressed that recent inflation has made providing services more costly, and the need for assistance more pressing.
Because of its location in Watsonville, Loaves and Fishes mainly sees Latinx workers in the agriculture industry coming in for hot meals and fresh produce during the week. The group says 90% of its clients are Latinx, 65% work in agriculture and about 10% of all clients are unsheltered.
Bridges says these populations are still reeling from Covid-induced financial losses and setbacks, and the timing of inflation and skyrocketing gas prices has only compounded these hardships.
During the first months of the pandemic, the pantry saw a historical 20% increase in demand for services. That demand has held steady since 2020, and only recently has slowed to rates closer to pre-pandemic levels. In the past year alone, the program has served 34,000 meals, and the pantry has seen 15,000 visits, with about 9,000 families that use the pantry’s services.
“People generally know that farmworkers have it tough, but they don’t actually know the level of poverty migrant farmworkers are living in,” says Bridges. “It’s not even just people living under the poverty line, too. It’s just tough to live here.”
About 90% of the organization’s budget is made up through donations. Since the pandemic, all lunches have been held outside, but the organization is gearing up to reopen its indoor dining services, which Bridges says is almost as important as the food itself: it gives people a safe place to eat, and fosters community. That’s what the organization plans to fund with the money raised from Santa Cruz Gives.
“We live in a society that isn’t just and equal, and until we get there, there will always be a need for services like Loaves and Fishes,” says Bridges. “When people don’t have anywhere else to turn, they are welcome at Loaves and Fishes.”
Teen Kitchen Project
For people suffering from life-threatening illnesses like cancer, exhaustion can be debilitating. Often, that exhaustion can be felt throughout a whole family.
In 2011, Angela Farley’s son was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer. During his treatment, friends and family brought home-cooked meals to help keep Farley’s family nourished.
Farley witnessed first-hand how much time and energy these meals saved her family; after her son’s treatment was completed, she wanted to return the favor.
That inspired the Teen Kitchen Project, which Farley founded in 2012. Farley wanted to relieve people of one difficult task while also supporting their health, and she knew that cooking nutritious meals could help with both.
The Teen Kitchen Project cooks low-cost, medically tailored meals for the critically and chronically ill. Part of the emphasis is on making nutritious meals for those who might not otherwise have the access to people in the lower poverty levels. Farley says about 70% of the project’s clients are low-income, and according to intake surveys, those are also the people making frequent trips to the emergency room.
“Access to food allows you to be more compliant with your medications,” says Farley. “And all of our meals are diabetes-friendly and heart-healthy. So that means that they’re medically tailored to be responsive to people with specific needs. Having these types of prepared meals allows them to stay on top of their medication, stay hydrated, stay out of the ER and saves them and taxpayers money.”
While the project is centered around helping clients during illnesses, having teens working alongside the project is an essential component. Farley hopes that by educating teens and teaching them how to make healthy meals, they will maintain healthy habits outside of the program. She also sees firsthand how the teen volunteers and employees gain a sense of purpose through the work.
“Before you’re an adult, people don’t trust you with just anything,” says Farley. “But at the project, we give you a knife, something super hot to cook. We’re gonna trust you with that. And they understand that what they’re doing is not just a job—they’re actually helping people.”
Eventually, Farley hopes California will adopt medically tailored meals as part of healthcare plans. Chronic and diet-related illnesses, which include cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes, are among the leading causes of death in the United States, disproportionately affecting BIPOC and low-income communities.
Until then, Farley will continue to stretch the project budget to meet demand. Her team works throughout the holiday weeks, checking in on clients to ensure they have support. The project already holds free cooking classes for clients interested in making nutritious meals at home. The program is just starting to support people even further by shopping for medically tailored groceries for clients.
“People tell us all the time that there’s no way they could have gotten home from the hospital and been able to eat this healthy,” says Farley. “Santa Cruz Gives is a wonderful opportunity for people to share their compassion for others and support free meal delivery for people who don’t have the resources to prepare this type of food for themselves.”
Food Nonprofits Around the County
Here are the other organizations around the county making it their mission to make sure people don’t go hungry and have access to healthy produce and meals.
Farm Discovery at Live Earth is a 150-acre patchwork of working organic farms in the Pajaro Valley. The organization works with low-income youth and families, to educate them on healthy food and sustainable farming. In 2021, the farm distributed 115,000 pounds of produce to low-income families, educated low-income youth on how to grow, cook and eat sustainably raised foods and hosted field trips for local schools. With funds from Santa Cruz Gives, the farm hopes to continue to grow and deliver organic food to those in the community who need it the most.
Eat for the Earth educates children and families on how to eat more plants and fewer animal products. Funds from the Santa Cruz Gives campaign will go towards workshops, in both English and Spanish, that focus on nutrition education, mentorship and will provide resources to those interested in adopting plant-based diets.
The Grower-Shipper Foundation believes that the more educated the community is about local agriculture, the better its decisions about food and food policies will be. In 2023, the organization will focus on educating the community about “gleaning,” a process that collects excess produce left behind in the fields that might otherwise go to waste and delivers that produce to food banks and distributors who serve those in need. In 2023, the organization hopes to host four gleaning events, reach more volunteers and provide the community with 800 cartons of fresh produce.
Most people will recognize Second Harvest Food Bank SCC by its name, because of the incredible work it has done locally to provide food for families since it was established in 1972. Second Harvest has a network of approximately 150 partner agencies and sites, making sure marginalized families have access to nutritious food. The food bank will use donations to continue to provide food for the 65,000 locals each month who depend on it.
Valley Churches United offers a food pantry and so much more for locals, including crisis rent, mortgage, utility and disaster assistance. The organization does not receive any government funding, so fundraising is critical. Currently, Valley Churches United provides 7,000 pounds of food to its clients annually, but it hopes to double that number and reach 15,000 pounds.
Sustainable Systems Research Foundation is a green think tank and project incubator in Santa Cruz. It plans to use funds from the campaign in a unique way: supporting Latinx farmers opening their own farms. According to the foundation, a growing number of Latinx farmworkers are transitioning to farm ownership, and the think tank wants to help. In partnership with other local agriculture organizations, the foundation will hold workshops designed to help increase productivity, conserve soil and water and earn greater profits targeted to new and experienced Latinx farmers.
Visit santacruzgives.org to donate and learn about all 63 participating nonprofits.
From the stinky to the sweet, the annoying to the just plain weird, here’s a look back at the offbeat news that wafted into our noses and brains in 2022
