Sweet Wheel Farm in Summerland helping medically fragile residents with no pollution e-bike food deliveries

SUMMERLAND, Calif. – A small roadside stand in Summerland, the Sweet Wheel Farm, is part of a new program to bring healthy foods to local doorsteps only a few minutes from where it's been grown.  Its goal, in part, is to reach residents who are medically fragile and need the organic food as part of the best diet they can consume.

San Marcos High student Ethan Klawuhn has become a lifesaver to the recipients with his clean air plan to make the food deliveries on an e-bike.

The "Food is Medicine" lifestyle ha been embraced by many people as part of a regular diet or if they are facing a medical condition. The Sweet Wheel Farm says it can meet those needs.

Leslie Person Ryan is the Sweet Wheel Farm founder. She said, "everything grown here is fully organic and tested. We have shepherded in a hyper organic, super pure idea about growing food. No herbicides.  No pesticides. No synthetic fertilizers that are pushed at all."

It's a tasty variety not often found in one plot of land. It purchased by the non-profit in part as an emergency community food source, after the 2018 mudflow that restricted food supplies in the area. The farm's day to day mission is much broader than that.

"We grow six different colors  of non genetically modified corn we are the one certified to do that in the  County of Santa Barbara, the only ones," she said. That's right next to the culinary oat and wheat which is milled into flour. "In addition we grow a lot of row crops all sorts of vegetables and fruits."

The farm is a owned and operated by the non profit the Santa Barbara Agriculture and Farm Education Foundation.

The farm fresh food is sold at this stand on Lillie Avenue in Summerland. The small community is without a grocery store.

It's also where a new delivery system sprouted up when Klawuhn said he would do it on an e-bike and take food to those with special medical diets using his set of wheels.

Klawuhn said, "instead of just using them for recreational use I could put them into such an important cause and for the people that need this produce."

Deliveries have begun on bike in Summerland and Carpinteria. Soon they will be going all the way out to Goleta.

The deliveries have a combined health benefit.

Klawuhn said, "and they can do this without any emissions right? We know our environment is hurt so much by emissions that come from cars so this would be a perfect a way to take them to the next level without emissions."

A cancer survivor in Carpinteria had a no cost bag of fresh organic food delivered with celery, kale, broccoli, zucchini and berries.

Kelsey said, "I love the blackberries, they are so good. For me to be able to afford to buy everything organic is very expensive and when you are limited it makes things more challenging that is why this is a real blessing."

There are currently 200 food fragile residents Sweet Wheel Farm is serving.

Klawuhn wants to reach them all. "The more bikes we get the more  deliveries we will be able to make and we will be able to get out to more to the community who need this food to help them with their sicknesses."

Person Ryan said the recipients tell her, "they truly believe that's what's keeping them alive and we have seen our many miracles. We're believers in chemical free food."

She says research by the Santa Barbara Food Action Network shows 90 percent of the food the public is eating is imported.

The "closed loop" system involves a combination of food security, farm education, composting, solar and wind energy, pollution-free delivery and several other components that are part of the growing goals for the Sweet Wheel Farm.

Hundreds of students visit each year. Some harvest from the farm, make a meal, and send pictures of the food back to the Sweet Wheel team.

They are harvesting every day at the farm and the bounty is brought to the roadside stand which is open seven days a week. Tuesday it had citrus, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes and many other selections. There were also fresh flower bunches, honey and nuts.

For more information, to make donations or to volunteer go to: Sweet Wheel Farm.