Judith Smith-MeyerSource: Foodbank
On Saturday, August 28, the JOIN JACOB triathlon team competed in the 2021 Santa Barbara Triathlon to benefit the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. This is the 10th year in a row that the team, composed of teen brothers Jacob and Joseph Mansbach, has raised funds for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.
The community can support the JOIN JACOB fundraising effort here.
Brothers Jacob and Joseph set a goal of providing one million meals within 10 years. JOIN JACOB is $11,771 from raising a total of $125,000 for the Foodbank and providing one million meals to people experiencing food insecurity in Santa Barbara County.
The JOIN JACOB triathlon team began competing in 2012, when then-8-year-old Jacob Mansbach participated in his first Santa Barbara Triathlon with the goal of raising money for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County to help kids at risk of hunger.
Since then, Jacob and his younger brother Joseph (who took on his first triathlon at age 7) have completed the Santa Barbara and Carpinteria Triathlons whenever given the opportunity (Santa Barbara’s event was canceled in 2018 due to route damage from the Montecito Debris Flow, and both events were made virtual in 2020 due to Covid-19.)
Now a 17-year-old high school senior and 15-year-old sophomore, Jacob and Joseph have continued working to increase awareness and raise funds to ensure local kids have enough to eat.
“Food insecurity has staggering impacts. We tend to think of our Foodbanks solving immediate near-term needs of hunger – and they do! When we start looking at the long-term adverse impacts of food insecurity on health, on education and on socio-economic success, it becomes exponentially clearer that every little bit helps,” shared Jacob. “These are our neighbors, our friends, our community. What can we do to help one another?”
“Last year we saw so much support from the community, and we were able to raise money to get food right away to families impacted by the pandemic,” explained Joseph. “And in 2021, the need for food is still just as great, as many families continue to struggle with the pandemic. We can help with giving them the food they need to stay healthy.”
The Mansbach brothers also founded and led the monthly Saturday Family Day volunteer program at the Foodbank warehouse (prior to Covid-19). In this program, kids from kindergarten to high school volunteered at the warehouse, where they crated fresh produce and dry goods and learned about the role that the Foodbank plays in the community. The brothers look forward to welcoming student volunteers back once conditions are appropriate for large gatherings.
JOIN JACOB has enjoyed support from many sponsors over the past 10 years, including Hazard’s Cyclesport, Village Properties, Sodexo, MindBody, Mission Wealth and Coach John Herzog.
About the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County
The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is transforming health by eliminating hunger and food insecurity through good nutrition and food literacy. The Foodbank provides nourishment and education through a network of more than 300 partner agencies, nutrition education programs and food distribution sites operated by the Foodbank and its volunteers. Over the last year, our response to the Covid-19 economic crisis has included distributing 18 million pounds of food, making 65,000 home deliveries of healthy groceries to seniors and adults with disabilities, and launching new services in high-poverty areas, such as our Healthy Farmworkers program. For many people in our community, recovery from the economic crisis of the last 18 months will take a long time. With your continued support, we will do whatever it takes to help Santa Barbara County recover. For more information, visit FoodbankSBC.org.
Great work done by good young men for such a wonderful program. Thank you both Jacob and Joseph and your team of supporters.