Live Oak | Grey Bears Celebrate 51st Harvest Festival – Santa Cruz Sentinel

LIVE OAK — Live music and the smell of barbecue filled the air at the Grey Bears campus on Chanticleer Avenue in Live Oak on a cloudy Saturday afternoon as hundreds of community members enjoyed a free meal, take-home items and activities like a drawing and a free tie-dye station.

“It wouldn’t be a Grey Bears event without something tie-dye-related,” said Grey Bears Executive Director Jennifer Merchant. “We’re super excited about the turnout and we have a lot of community partners here — uplifting the community and serving seniors. It’s a good feeling, and to do it on our home field is awesome, too.”

The Grey Bears’ official mascot, Myles, made sure everyone had plenty to eat during the 51st annual Harvest Festival held Saturday at Live Oak. (Aric Sleeper/Santa Cruz Sentinel)

In 1973, a young UC Santa Cruz graduate, Kristina Mailliard, and her partner, Gary Denny, saw crops lying fallow in the fields and seniors starving in the community, and thought about harvesting the crops to share with local seniors, and founded Grey Bears. That year, they held their first Harvest Festival, which was attended by about 300 seniors.

Since then, Grey Bears has grown year over year and now offers a healthy food program, thrift store and recycling programs, among other services, with the support of hundreds of regular volunteers.

Merchant mentioned that the Grey Bears continue to grow and are looking to expand operations after purchasing the former Palace Business Solutions building adjacent to the Chanticleer campus.

“We are planning and preparing to move our entire healthy food program into this building,” Merchant said. “We will have everything under one roof and we will also be able to distribute free food in the space so it will be more like a grocery store, which will bring more dignity and respect to the seniors in our community and those who are in need.”

The executive director mentioned that with an aging population and higher prices at grocery stores across the county, there is an increasing need for healthy foods.

“We’re trying to keep up with demand,” Merchant said. “Our food budget has increased this year, so we’re trying to be more strategic and get back to our recycling and sustainability values, and we’re doing a lot more food recovery now. Last year was a record year for food recovery — 2 million pounds of food that we’re taking from local markets and farms, especially organic ones, that would otherwise go to landfill.”

Kayla Traber, Grey Bears development manager, also spoke about the growing senior population and the need for fresh, healthy food in the county.

“We know that by 2034, there will be more seniors, people over the age of 65, than there will be people under the age of 17,” Traber said. “As we look ahead to the next 10 years, the demand for the services of Grey Bears and our partners is going to increase significantly, so we hope to build the infrastructure now and make sure the community knows about the resources that are available now to help everyone through this unprecedented phase of senior population growth.”

In 2022-2023, more than 700 Grey Bears volunteers delivered 1,560,709 pounds of food, distributed 2,020,693 pounds of food at the Grey Bears Market, served 46,040 hot meals from their kitchen, and diverted 1,762 tons of materials through three recycling centers.

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Hundreds of community members enjoyed a free meal provided by a small army of volunteers at the Grey Bears Harvest Festival on Saturday. (Aric Sleeper/Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Increase

Recycling and Solid Waste Resource Planner Darcy Pruitt was at the Harvest Festival representing Santa Cruz County with a game that helps people understand recycling in the county. Pruitt mentioned that the Grey Bears are an ally of the county in many ways, such as recycling and reselling old electronics.

“They sell a lot of cool stuff, like old film reels, that would otherwise end up in the landfill,” Pruitt said.

Among the small army of volunteers handing out produce and hot food during Saturday’s Harvest Festival was artist Lisa Bennett of Aptos, who has volunteered with Grey Bears for more than a decade.

“Someone told me it was a great organization to volunteer for, and I started when I was still driving over the hill,” Bennett said. “Now I have a job on the production line that I really enjoy, and everyone knows it’s my job. I’ve been doing it for over a decade, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Bennett said volunteering with the Grey Bears has been a great way for her to get out of the house and socialize during the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteer Bob Cartwright of Live Oak also said volunteering with the Grey Bears has been a way for him to connect with interesting people. Cartwright has volunteered his time as a driver for the nonprofit for about six years.

“I do deliveries on Old San Jose Road,” Cartwright said. “It gives me something to do and I feel like I’m giving back.”

For more information, visit greybears.org.