Teen Brothers Raise Nearly $100,000 in Triathlon Event for Foodbank

Team Join Jacob returns to Santa Barbara Triathlon August 24 & 25 to Benefit Foodbank of Santa Barbara County

Source: Foodbank of Santa Barbara County

The JOIN JACOB triathlon team, teen brothers Jacob and Joe Mansbach, will compete in a south coast triathlon for the 8th year in a row to benefit the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. The two will compete at the 53.3 Club level, which means they’ll complete both the long course on Saturday, August 24 and the sprint race on Sunday, August 25. 

The community can support the JOIN JACOB effort by fundraising, donating or signing up to volunteer at water station #1 on the triathlon running course at https://donate.foodbanksbc.org/joinjacob2019. 

JOIN JACOB is less than $5,000 from raising a total of $100,000 for the Foodbank, or enough to provide 800,000 meals.

The JOIN JACOB triathlon team began competing in 2012, when then-8-year-old Jacob Mansbach tried his first Santa Barbara Triathlon with the challenge to raise money for the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County to help kids living with hunger. 

Since then, Jacob and his younger brother Joe (who took on his first triathlon at age 7) have completed the Santa Barbara and Carpinteria Triathlons when either or both of those events have operated. (Santa Barbara’s event was cancelled in 2018 due to route damage from the Montecito 1/9 Debris Flow and this year’s Carpinteria triathlon has been cancelled.)

Now a 15-year-old high school sophomore and 13-year-old 8th grader, Jacob and Joe are assuming new leadership in their endeavors to ensure local kids have enough to eat.

“I helped at an event one time where we cooked food and I hadn’t really interacted with anyone with food insecurity,” Jacob explained about his evolution over the course of JOIN JACOB. “That’s when it really hit home for me that this is why I’m doing this. The people we’re trying to help are the same as me, except they have food insecurity and we need to do something about it.”

“I feel more in control of the whole process now; before I was part of it, but now I’m more of a leader,” added Joe. “I’ve been really noticing at my school in the morning they give out free breakfast and some days there are lots of kids who really need it.”

The Mansbach brothers are also assuming full responsibility for the monthly Saturday Family Day volunteer program they have participated in with their parents for several years. 

Once a month, families with children of any age can volunteer together at the Foodbank’s Santa Barbara warehouse sorting groceries, separating over-ripe or damaged produce from what is still good to distribute, or other special projects

“Our parents told us, ‘You’re running Saturday Family Day now,’” Joe noted.

“I’m thinking of starting a club or getting my school involved in Saturday Family Day,” aspired Jacob. “We could show the entire school what we do is cool and makes a real difference.”

JOIN JACOB is sponsored by Hazard’s Cyclesport 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 distributions operated by the Foodbank, and volunteers. In Santa Barbara County, one in four people receive food support from the Foodbank. Last year, the Foodbank distributed 10 million pounds of food–nearly half of which was fresh produce–to more than 175,000 unduplicated people, 38% of whom are children. For more information, visit www.foodbanksbc.org