CASTROVILLE, MONTEREY COUNTY, CA. (Sept. 2011) - When harvesting Iceberg lettuce, first give the plump round head a squeeze. If the lettuce feels firm and dense, jab the wedge-shaped harvesting knife at the base of the plant to sever the stem, pull off the floppy outer leaves, and drop the moist green orb gently into the harvesting crate.

But if the lettuce gives beneath your touch, or has a spot of mold or a brown leaf, leave it behind. There are thousands of leftover lettuces in this ocean-view field, and our crew of volunteer gleaners has only one truck to haul away its share, so we take only the perfectly full and heavy Icebergs, and leave the rest for the plow.

It seems unbelievable that so many beautiful, perfectly-shaped vegetables will be tilled back into the earth, but in fact, an estimated 20 percent of all field crops grown on California’s Central Coast are left in the field or thrown out at the packing shed.

SANTA CRUZ, CA (Sept. 2011) - Farmers in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties donate thousands of tons of fresh fruits and vegetables to food banks every year, supplying feeding centers as far away as Washington and Colorado.

It’s a massive foodlift operation that all began 38 years ago with a freezer full of slightly yellow cauliflower.

The year was 1973, and Michael Alexander was a VISTA volunteer assigned to a tiny emergency food pantry in Santa Cruz, where his job was to scrounge up dented cans and long-in-the-tooth produce from grocery stores to hand out to needy families.

“One day I got a call from a lady in Watsonville who told me she had some cauliflower that she hated to see thrown away, and did we want it,” Alexander said. “I thought it was a great idea and I asked ‘how much do you have?’ And she said “oh, about 30 tons’.”

By Tara Leonard

WATSONVILLE, CA (September, 2011) - As the staff and volunteers at Second Harvest Food Bank work to combine food distribution with community-based nutrition education, the obvious questions arise: Do these peer education programs actually make a difference? Do participants change their eating habits for the better? And do these behavioral changes create measurable differences in participants' health? While anecdotal evidence points towards a positive impact, hard data is not yet available. But with scarce social service resources increasingly allocated to evidence-based practices, data collection is becoming a bigger focus at Second Harvest.

By Tara Leonard

WATSONVILLE, CA (September, 2011) -- In a Watsonville elementary school auditorium, sixty adults brainstorm ways to incorporate exercise into their busy lives. In a meeting room at nearby Church of the Nazarene, several dozen men, women and children whip up delicious licuados, or smoothies, made with fresh spinach, oranges, and melon. At Dominican Rehabilitation Hospital, thirty women take a brisk stroll around the grounds before gathering in a third-floor lounge to cook vegetable stir-fry with brown rice, garlic and ginger.

All of these activities are a part of the nutrition education and outreach services of Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County. By combining fresh fruit and vegetable delivery with health education, Second Harvest is empowering food bank members to become active participants in their community’s nutrition education. It’s just one of many ways in which Second Harvest has transformed itself from a “food bank” to a “nutrition bank”. Along the way, they are creating the community organizers of tomorrow.

SANTA CRUZ, CA (Sept. 2011) – When California’s first food bank opened in this Central Coast city in 1972, its mission was simple and practical: eliminate hunger by collecting society’s surplus food and giving it to people in need.

Families with a referral from a social service agency could come to the Emergency Food Bank in the city’s Harvey West Business Park and take home a bag of groceries containing three days worth of food.

“Our emergency food bags held dented canned goods that we collected from grocery stores, bags of rice and dried beans, and whatever fresh vegetables the stores would give us,” said Michael Alexander, who began working at the food bank as a VISTA volunteer and eventually transformed the little pantry into the Second Harvest Food Bank, a regional powerhouse that now feeds more than 54,000 people every month. “We gave away one bag per person in the family, and people survived on that.”

But over the years, the mix of donated foods flowing into Second Harvest’s Watsonville warehouse changed dramatically, reflecting wider changes in the American diet and food supply. Agricultural commodities such as apples, rice, and beans were overwhelmed by a flood of processed foods, including tons of sugary soda and energy drinks.

SANTA CRUZ (August 12, 2011) - Summer visitors take a moonlight whirl at the Beach Boardwalk. ©santacruzwire.com

 
By Tara Leonard

FELTON, CA (August 9, 2011) -- Michael Rugg is a true believer. Seated behind the counter of his Bigfoot Discovery Museum , Rugg is a genial and convincing tour guide, regaling visitors with the history and science behind the huge, hairy biped known as Sasquatch. Suspend disbelief for a half-hour and Rugg will try to convince you that this infamous beast is living rather than legend. Believe him or not, it's a fascinating, fun-filled adventure, sure to amuse even the most skeptical visitor.

SANTA CRUZ (July 21, 2011) - The San Lorenzo River levee bikepath runs beneath the Riverside Ave. bridge near the Beach Boardwalk. ©santacruzwire.com

 by Andy Waddell

SANTA CRUZ (July 21, 2011) - Some years ago, at a conference of English teachers, a group of colleagues and I found ourselves in a room by a fire with time to kill. I suggested that each of us recite some poem or speech we had learned in school. I realize that such a suggestion is nerdy to an almost unbelievable degree, but these were English teachers after all and I expected full well that the idea would be taken up with enthusiasm. I pictured, not only exclamations as to the beauty of the lines, but funny stories of nervousness overcome, childish misreading of famous lines, perhaps even negative comments, such as, “And that is why, to this day, I cannot stand Longfellow.” What I did not expect from my young colleagues was their reaction that they had “never really memorized anything.”

by David Hoban

PARIS (July 21, 2011) - I noticed, commuting on the train in early morning Paris, women who were half-dressed, getting dressed and made up. It was as if the jam-packed car was a private boudoir. Ordinarily I would think that making up the face is done in private until the face in the mirror matches the mask one wants to present to the public. Not true. I watched a woman put on lipstick, lip-liner, powder, eye shadow, and eye-liner then, replacing sandals with high heels, she tied a scarf around her neck and pulled her tight, tapered pants over her heels. She was not alone. It seemed possible to me that these women had, in fact, placed themselves in an autistic shell awaiting their emergence into the world of offices or professionalism, in such a way that the masses did not exist at all.

SANTA CRUZ (July 4, 2011) - Disabled veterans march down Pacific Avenue. ©santacruzwire.com

by Maria Gaura

SANTA CRUZ (June 28, 2011) – A Soquel man riding his bike near Soquel High School was struck and killed Monday night by a motorist who fled the scene – the second hit-and-run collision to claim the life of a county cyclist this month, and the third fatal bike accident so far this year.

Monday’s death was a grim benchmark. The number of deadly bike accidents this year now equals the number in all of 2009, and it’s only June. And 2009 was the worst year for local bicycle deaths in at least a decade.

Noel Hamilton, 31, was declared dead at the scene of Monday's crash. Officials have not yet released the name of the hit-and-run driver, who returned to the scene 40 minutes to an hour after the collision.

SANTA CRUZ (June 28, 2011) - Campers in the Junior Guards summer program huddle beneath a lifeguard tower during a rare, drenching summer rain. ©santacruzwire.com

SANTA CRUZ (June 2011) - Business sponsors and city officials take a shakedown cruise on the Downtown Association's new tourist trolley on June 16th. The trolley celebrates its official launch Thursday, June 30th, with a ribbon-cutting at 5 p.m. Click headline or read more for additional photos. Maria Gaura ©santacruzwire.com

 

by Maria Gaura

SANTA CRUZ (June 28, 2011) -  Thursday June 30th will mark the official debut of a motorized trolley service intended to lure visitors from their cars, and provide a convenient link between the city's business district and its main tourist destination.

The Santa Cruz Beach Trolley has been shuttling between downtown and the Municipal Wharf for nearly two weeks since a June 16 "soft launch" intended to work out the kinks in the system. Thursday's ribbon-cutting celebration will serve as the public kick-off, complete with free rides.

Tourism officials estimate that three million people visit the Main Beach/Boardwalk area every year. But few out-of-town visitors are aware of Santa Cruz's downtown business district, and fewer still know how to get there.

The Beach Trolley runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily through Labor Day (September 5th), and on weekends through October 15. The downtown stop is in front of the Del Mar Theater at 1124 Pacific Ave., and the beach area stop is at the foot of the Municipal Wharf, in front of the Ideal Fish Co. The trolley leaves downtown on the hour and half-hour, and departs the beach at fifteen minutes and 45 minutes past the hour. The fare is 25 cents each way, exact change only. The trolley runs on natural gas, and is accessible for handicapped riders.