May 5 was Giving Tuesday and many worthy charities in the Tri-Counties received funding.

This year’s appeals took on additional urgency given the state of the economy, stock market volatility and what could be a decline in giving during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent donations have included $5,000 from Saalex CEO Travis Mack to Food Share of Ventura County and $25,000 from the James Cox Foundation to Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. Cox was Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president and founder of Cox Communications.

COVID-19 RESPONSE FUNDED

• The COVID-19 Joint Response Effort for Santa Barbara County through the COVID-19 Response Grant program has distributed relief funds with 72 nonprofits receiving grants totaling around $1,493,000. The joint response is being led by United Way of Santa Barbara County, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Hutton Parker Foundation and the Foundation Roundtable.

• The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County awarded a second round of Disaster Support Fund rapid response grants of $32,900 to nonprofits.

• Aera Energy has made a $50,000 donation to the Ventura County Community Foundation for its Rapid Response Fund.

SWEET SHOW OF APPRECIATION

Corona Family Farms in Santa Maria donated more than 40 boxes of strawberries as a show of appreciation to Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, French Hospital Medical Center, and Marian Regional Medical Center physicians, nurses and ancillary departments.

DUDA MATCHING SEEAG DONATIONS

Duda Farm Fresh Foods in Oxnard will match all donations up $10,000 for every dollar donated to Students for Eco-Education and Agriculture in the month of May during SEEAG’s “Duda Farm’s Double Your Impact Challenge.”

SEEAG’s agricultural education programming has reached more than 40,000 elementary school students.

Duda participates in SEEAG’s annual Ventura County Farm Day, scheduled for Nov. 7, where farms, ranches and agricultural organizations open their doors.

FOOD BANK KEEPS CHEFS BUSY

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is piloting a new program designed to provide prepared meals to seniors, while also helping local restaurants.

The program, called “Chef’s Kitchen,” was launched with a trial distribution in which the food bank delivered 1,000 meals from chefs at Acme Hospitality.

While the goal of the program is to deliver prepared meals to seniors, in the pilot run, meals were provided to community members at the food bank’s SAFE Food Net drive-thru distributions at two Santa Barbara-area United Boys & Girls Clubs and the Salvation Army as a first test of the food bank’s operational logistics. Delivering prepared food is new for the food bank and requires specialized food handling expertise.

“The beauty of a program like this is that everyone wins. Yes, food insecure seniors get gourmet meals. And yes, restaurants and chefs have a new avenue to help keep their businesses going,” said Foodbank CEO Erik Talkin.

• The Good Works column is a monthly roundup of nonprofit and philanthropy news in the Tri-Counties. Submit items to Glenn Rabinowitz at grabinowitz@pacbiztimes.com.