AnonymousBy Karinna Carrillo
On April 24, 2020, Governor Newsom announced the launch of a new program, Great Plates, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was the first of its kind in the nation and aimed to support two of the most vulnerable and hardest hit populations of the pandemic: older adults and small businesses.
Great Plates was created to help seniors and older adults at high risk of COVID-19 stay indoors and avoid unnecessary exposure in grocery stores and restaurants by delivering three nutritious meals a day, seven days a week from partnering local restaurants. Unlike other food programs, this program was far more robust and went a step further by also providing crucial stimulus efforts to local businesses struggling in these trying and unprecedented times. As stated on the Great Plates website, partnering restaurants were able to be reimbursed up to $66 per day per person. Only catch was that the program had to be administered by cities and counties.
Solvang implemented it, then Ventura County, Los Angeles, and San Diego, but not Santa Barbara. Week after week, the list of cities who adopted the program grew but never to include Santa Barbara. I phoned our Public Health Department, local COVID-19 hotline, and 211 endlessly looking for answers, but there were none. Nobody knew if we were adopting the program, who was leading it, or who I could call to learn more.
Eventually I contacted Congressman Salud Carbajal and Supervisor Gregg Hart, highlighted the importance of the program and our lack of any equivalent program. Carbajal noted that the issue was a city matter that I would have to address with local officials.
Despite continued pressure, Supervisor Hart fails to recognize that our existing programs are not nearly as extensive as what Great Plates could be offering and that older adults are advised against visiting existing food distribution sites as they are hot spots for COVID-19 transmission.
Current programs supporting Santa Barbara include: the Community Action Commission delivery of one meal a day (five days a week) and the FoodBank’s pantry good delivery (twice a month). There was also the short-lived “Chef’s Kitchen” program, which similar to Great Plates, partnered with restaurants, but only included ACME Hospitality and only delivered 3 frozen meals a week. The short-lived program only lasted around a month (ended sometime in June), meanwhile, funding for Great Plates continues to be extended by the state of California.
The Santa Barbara Foodbank’s Director of Community Programs & Education confirmed all of my concerns: existing programs are incredibly costly, funded through donations, and can never be as robust as Great Plates, but city legislators did not approve of the time and economic investments needed for the establishment of Great Plates Santa Barbara for it was too much of an economic investment.
Frustrated with the lack of support from local elected officials, I took my outreach to the office of Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson. “Wow, I am a young, public health professional, and it has been so challenging for me to get any straightforward answers, I can’t imagine how this process would be like for any older adult” I told Hannah Sullivan of Senator Jackson’s office. “That’s where you’re wrong. Older adults wouldn’t be asking so many questions, they would just be happy with what we give them” Sullivan said.
Public health is about developing innovative solutions that support the greater good, and Supervisor Hart fails to hear the concerns of some of his most vulnerable constituents. A program able to stimulate so many local restaurants with thousands of dollars, so many workers and older adults must be worth the time and money to administer. I could not help but wonder if there was an economic relationship with ACME hospitality impeding Supervisor Hart’s ability to act.
“After reading the suggestion of impropriety, I do not think that any further conversation will be productive” wrote Hart’s office.
“The role of our elected officials is to serve as our advocates and representatives to state and federal leaders; honest communication between our district representatives and constituents is key” I wrote back to Supervisor Hart. I never received any further communication.
When asked later on about why Santa Barbara did not invest in Great Plates, they clarified, “There would be significant out of pocket costs to the county…[and] there would be a disincentive for restaurants to continue to participate in our current programs as the allowable costs for the state program (Great Plates) are higher (i.e. they would make more money participating in the state program).”
Santa Barbara, we need this program to ensure the safety of our older adult communities and the financial security of our small businesses, but we also need elected officials who care. We need legislators who work for our interests and are invested in creating impactful programs that address all of our needs–even the most vulnerable of our city–regardless of the time investment needed to address the issue. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented solutions.
Supervisor Hart, as we continue to topple new daily case records and threaten hospital capacity, how can we work to establish not only this program, but also promise to consider the safety of all of Santa Barbara, not just our most wealthy, in future programming and legislation?
Originally from Santa Barbara, California, Karinna M. Carrillo is a second-year Master of Public Health candidate at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and graduate of the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Her study focus includes environmental, economic, and social justice advocacy and the creation of equitable and innovative policy.
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Wow local government is leaving money on the table due to sheer incompetence?! Thats weird. As much as I hate the local machine politics, the conservative alternatives are a whiny talk radio host, a 22-year old whose dad is buying him a political campaign, and my favorite, Peter Adam. The north county farmer with the ridiculous mustache who wants to get Covid-19 to prove a political point.
Right except they just took everything from me in a day, and never gave it back.
That I worked for
It should be 100% against the 5th Amendment takings clause
Thank you! It truly does feel illegal
When I got to the part of the unduly long complaint that said the businesses were to be guaranteed $66 a day to provide meals to a few people I sort of shut down. There are people in this town who don’t get $66 a day to live on. Why should some get that much in food delivery? Just because you are old does not mean you are poor.
As business owner and self employed Santa Barbara officials and gov officials have done absolutely NOTHING for us. We have been Shut down for Almost 7 months. Being serviced based and mostly doing private services, when we are shut down we cannot do things outside. they screwed us offered no help. We need to vote them out. I have an honest email from one of the supervisors that would shame the public health and our other local leaders.
When people give them the power to give them things they’re giving them the power to take things away
Really all of them should go. Perhaps the worse are; Hannah-Beth, Salud, Gregg Hart, Cathy Murillo, and Das.
Is there one of them that have supported local local citizens and businesses? I have never seen it. Instead they look at how they can get more tax money and spend it on their union allies to support their election campaigns.
The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.
Watch who is in our local and state offices And vote them out, we need new ideas.
That letter attacking Cole was pure, boiler plate union-driven drivel. Kudos to the NewPress for even printing all sides. Because it does allow for the exercise of critical thinking.
I hope one of our local media operations runs a list of every business forced to close because of the city council’s ham-handed approach to this alleged lockdown – including not fighting Sacramento and using the voices to our elected representatives to carry this message. The silence and disinterest of Hannah-Beth Jackson and Monique Limon has been deafening. They were playing to some other political interests and certainly not the needs of the local community.
My error.
Liberals have proven they can’t manage a government at any level.
NO, Doulie, it isn’t the liberals that are running things into the ground. Take a look at our country after 4 years of Trump and a Republican majority! We are worse off than we have ever been since the Great Depression days. And now we are about to have women’s rights rolled back 50 years to appease the religious zealot faction of the GOP. SHAMEFUL.
That comment by Hannah Sullivan about older adults not asking questions and “just being happy with what we give them” is horrific! WTH! Talk about “Let them eat cake”… she should be fired.
Selections from the OP’s post: This would be shocking, if it weren’t so expected of these “public servants”. Happily, Jackson is now retired; Hart continues his self-serving career that he so perfected as a SB city councilperson, ironically followed as district 6 representative by one in his mold.
“…Hannah Sullivan of Senator Jackson’s office. “…Older adults wouldn’t be asking so many questions, they would just be happy with what we give them” Sullivan said.
…
Public health is about developing innovative solutions that support the greater good, and Supervisor Hart fails to hear the concerns of some of his most vulnerable constituents. … “After reading the suggestion of impropriety, I do not think that any further conversation will be productive” wrote Hart’s office.
Let’s see how the Edhat “vote them out” mob does in November. Willing to bet cash that they are not voted out.