Not all victories carry the same freight.
Take the Santa Cruz Warriors win over the San Diego Clippers at San Francisco’s Chase Center March 1.
After trailing 61-58 at halftime, the Warriors capsized the San Diego Clippers, allowing just 39 second-half points and roaring to a 121-100 victory.
It was a stirring—and resilient—win, the kind they’ll need to make the G-League Playoffs. But that wasn’t the biggest triumph at work.
That would be the ongoing Swishes for Dishes both the Golden State Warriors and Santa Cruz club operate, with SCW donating 10 meals for every single point scored. That’s a lot of meals.
SCW’s teammate on Swishes, Second Harvest Food Bank, shared an update last week as part of its annual awards banquet: The 2025 Holiday Food & Fund Drive—which Sea Dubs President Chris Murphy co-chaired—has been tallied.
The drive smashed the ambitious goal of 5.5 million, hitting 8,653,707 healthy meals. Talk about a high score.
“Surpassing our goal isn’t just a milestone—it’s a triumph for the people who rely on us and a testament to our community’s generosity,” Second Harvest CEO Erica Padilla-Chavez said at the dinner. “At a time when uncertainty is affecting so many families, our community chose to act. Every meal raised represents hope, stability, and dignity for our neighbors.”
Meanwhile the Surf City Ws are barreling into the last games of the season.
A few to flag: Surfers Night with special promos, one-off uniforms and game-worn jersey auctions (March 21); Valkyries Night when their WNBA big sisters visit and meet fans and there’ll be cross-team swag giveaways (March 27); and the regular season closer, which doubles as Fan Appreciation Night with with Sea Dubs scarves for the faithful (March 28).
For Info: thefoodbank.org, santacruz.gleague.nba.com
FLAVOR OF FREEDOM
The Santa Cruz Vegan Chef Challenge—original installment—is encouraging area eateries to add meat-free menu items for April, or as the website puts it,,“an entire month of BRAND NEW vegan options all over Santa Cruz!” The Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Association are collaborating on the push, and New Leaf Community Markets is sponsoring the effort. Diners will have the chance to go out, enjoy meals, rate menus and post photos through the challenge’s various channels. The kitchens that have signed up so far include Avanti Restaurant, Chocolat, Cultiva, La Posta Restaurant, Pharaoh’s Plate, Circle & Square Bistro, Areperia 831, Pizza My Heart (Santa Cruz Location), and Full Steam Dumpling, veganchefchallenge.org/santacruz.
NOTES AND NIBS
March is Hummingbird Month at UC Santa Cruz’s Arboretum & Botanic Garden—think thrumming bird walks, bird talks and bird photo tricks, arboretum.ucsc.edu…These do-gooders operate year round, but Goodwill Central Coast is seizing upon daylight saving reset energy to encourage real-world impact in the form of donations and thrift shopping and Santa Cruz County enjoys a bunch of venues to help out, from Santa Cruz (204 Union St.) to Aptos (9043 Soquel Drive) to Scotts Valley (224 Mt. Hermon Road) to Watsonville (470 Main St.), goodwill.org…Ever heard of an upside down pizza? It’s a thing, layering cheese first, then sauce on top, bigger on the East Coast, maybe coming to our robust lineup of pizza spots here soon…Pizza’s best friend (excluding beer), had its big day yesterday: March 10 was National Ranch Day—and Pack Your Own Lunch Day—so hopefully you skipped the chicken wings and 32-ounce “Big A$$ Ranch Cup” that went for $30 in select N.Y. and Texas Wingstops…With that in mind, a closing thought attributed to many, including 1 Corinthians: “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
