SBAFE/Sweet Wheel Farms

For a nonprofit whose main asset is a modest seven-acre farm in Summerland known as Sweet Wheel Farms, the Santa Barbara Agriculture and Farm Education Foundation (SBAFE) has a rather large and lofty goal. Namely, to upend our “modern” food systems and reconnect people to the understanding that our food comes from the land, and needs to be protected and nurtured. 

Officially, SBAFE’s mission is to educate, promote and increase awareness on how our food is grown, propagated and distributed to minors and underserved, unrecognized, and fragile populations – particularly in the food scarce areas of Santa Barbara County. 

But the driving force is to combat how humans have become more and more disconnected from their food, with most folks buying from grocery stores without any thought of where the food is coming from or the processes required to get nourishment to supermarket shelves. This disconnection has had some severe consequences, including declining human health, increased use of unhealthy GMOs and pesticides, unequal distribution of food, continued climate change, and a disappearance of agricultural knowledge.

SBAFE Foundation wants to reverse the disappearing knowledge of agriculture, thereby feeding communities by educating and promoting awareness of how food is grown and distributed in Santa Barbara County and beyond, in hopes of helping others grow and consume more consciously. The foundation demonstrates and teaches organic farming techniques and provides expert agricultural knowledge that can aid in sustainably and ethically feeding fragile populations and transforming food scarce areas into flourishing food forests. And SBAFE Foundation regularly donates food grown on its farm to those in need. 

The whole thing started just seven years ago when CEO Leslie Person Ryan started a green food cart and sold fresh organic produce in Summerland in response to the Thomas Fire and Montecito Debris Flow having effectively cut the community off. After a young employee confided in her that her family was food insecure, Ryan started Sweet Wheel Farms’ food program for the community’s most fragile, delivering organic produce for free to those in need. It wasn’t long before she needed to create a campaign to save the farm from development. 

These days Sweet Wheel Farms – which says it’s the only farm in Santa Barbara County that uses absolutely no pesticides – is continuing to expand, but much more support is needed to further its mission. 

“We’re trying to build the farm out and protect what we have,” Ryan explains. “We need fences, and they don’t grow from seeds. Irrigation doesn’t grow from seeds. We have a terrific five-year strategic plan, but it takes a lot of money to make it happen.” 

Among the goals is creation of a seed bank in Summerland for Santa Barbara County, one that would save and protect heirloom seeds – such as the phenomenal black corn grown at Sweet Wheel – and would in turn properly protect seed stock from the elements and forces of nature. 

“The Altadena seed bank had no fire protection, and they just lost everything, which is horrifying,” she said. “We need to envision, as our board has, that this is a community project and a long-term community asset for Santa Barbara. We’re taking care of food scarcity each and every day, but Sweet Wheel Farms needs to get a whole lot more efficient on our irrigation, something much more professional than what we have, which was cobbled together just last year. That way we can grow 100% more than what we’re growing now.” 

Ryan said that the farm is actually wasting water because the system, which is just a hose attached to a hydrant, is broken. “There are a bunch of broken parts and we’re just mending as best we can, but it needs to go under the ground. We need to have sensors so we can tell when the irrigation’s broken.” 

SBAFE Foundation’s biggest endeavor is its healthy food security program, which operates as Santa Barbara County’s Healthy Food Bank, providing non-GMO, non-chemically treated produce to those in need. “We’re a farm that does not grow with herbicides and pesticides or push fertilizers,” Ryan said.

The farm stand, now adjacent to the Farm to Paper stationer on Lillie Avenue, produces income for the nonprofit’s program. Otherwise the bulk of the food distribution is through delivery to those in need, Ryan said. 

“Every Monday is food delivery day. Some of our paid staff and a huge number of volunteers disseminate food throughout the county to more than 240 people. Clean food for people who have cancer, leukemia or MS or are waiting for kidney transplants, and to several no parent households, where there just isn’t any food in the house for them to eat.” 

While it seems that Sweet Wheel and Santa Barbara Agriculture and Farm Education Foundation have made great strides in their endeavors, Ryan said there’s a long way to go. 

“We’re still kind of in that beginning phase, still fundraising for infrastructure,” she said. “Beyond irrigation, we need roadways, we have to have a tractor, and a grain garage to keep the grains safe. We need very, very basic things to be a strong community farm. Eventually we’ll have some farm worker housing and an education center where we can be a little bit more formal about our farm education.”

In the meantime donations of any kind are gratefully accepted. And everyone should feel free to reach out and learn more about the farm and the foundation, to whatever level feels right. 

“You can always ask for a farm tour,” Ryan said. “The more you learn, the more you understand what we do here is a very different food system – and the more you are going to want to help a farm that wants to provide people food that’s free from preservatives and pesticides, nutritious and delicious.”  

Visit www.SBAFEFoundation.com and https://sweetwheelfarms.org or call (805) 453-1465