Feeding Those In Need In Montecito

Cover photo used by permission of © Paul Wellman/ Santa Barbara Independent

Please help us at Village Cheese and Wine of Montecito by making a contribution to help us continue to provide food and support for the Montecito Fire, Police, Emergency Service and First Responder personnel, Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade, residents and community
as they do the unbearable tasks ahead and to rebuild the community of Montecito, CA

100% of what's raised will be used to continue to keep operations at the shop up so we can keep providing free food and supplies for the coming weeks. The steward of the funds is the late John Braid's son Patrick Braid, owner of Village Cheese and Wine of Montecito, CA.
www.facebook.com/villagecheeseandwine

Our hearts are stricken with sadness for the ones we have lost and for the ones that are still unaccounted for. These are unprecedented times.


1/9/18 
The work continues to move forward. The Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade has been growing stronger each week With the increase of volunteers, the need to feed the roster has increased with it. With your contriibutions, Village Cheese and Wine has been able to scale with the needs. Thank you! The store is still providing free food to the community and has been a staple for the community. 

1/30/18 
The recovery efforts of Montecito still continue as the roads are now open to almost everywhere in the city. Now the community are returning to their homes to discover just how bad the deviation is. Many homes are completely gone! It's terrible. For the homes that are still standing, these homes still aren't accessible to their owners, because there's still a lot of debris and mud to clear out and remove. Patrick Braid and the Village Cheese and Wine crew (many amazing volunteers too) have teamed up with the Abe Powell the Chief of the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade to help feed the Bucket Brigade volunteers and the home owners as they work tirelessly to manually dig out the homes. This work is removing the debris (trees, rocks, boulders, tons of household items, etc) along with the mud by hand with shovels and wheel barrels. 

So along with providing food and supplies for the beloved Montecito community, there's more mouths to feed as the volunteers of the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade come in to help. Abe Powell Chief of Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade estimates they're going to need 2000 more volunteers over the next two months to step in and help. 

Here's Abe Powell explaining to Patrick Braid what the Bucket Brigade is and what they're able to do for home owners. It's truly amazing! 
https://youtu.be/9QqXfzhSUyQ

To volunteer yourself contact the Brigade at teafirerelief@gmail.com with "VOLUNTEER" in the Subject line

1/29/18
Charmaine Fajardo, Robin Himovitz and Ann-Marie Cepkauskas ride along with Patrick Braid from Village Cheese and Wine Store in Montecito,CA. CHP and the Santa Barbara Sherriff's Dept team up with them to distribute food and water to the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade and the Victims of the horrific Thomas Fire/Montecito Mudslides.
https://youtu.be/MKKTY2VV28s

1/28/18
Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade!  
https://youtu.be/9QqXfzhSUyQ

1/26/18
It's been a tradition for the 6th Grade class of Montecito Union School to visit Village Cheese and WIne Store to pick up candy and snacks after school each Friday afternoon. This is the first time the students have had a chance to carry on their tradition since the Montecito Mudslides. A truly joyous occasion!
https://youtu.be/uV-ut1nOTTw

1/25/18
Patrick Braid takes a few moments to show us what it's like in the shop today. 
https://youtu.be/xJ1Hh8Sw2-c

1/24/18
Patrick Braid delivers more free food to those in need for Village Cheese and Wine Store of Montecito, CA.
Jonathan Allcock and Bradly reunite and Jonathan shares his account of the Montecito Mudslides.
https://youtu.be/T3wbxjBxkFw

http://www.independent.com/news/2018/jan/24/montecito-hub-feeds-folks-disaster-zone/

1/22/18
Patrick Braid of Village Cheese and Wine tore of Montecito, CA shares an update of the progress of repair of the devastation caused by the Thomas Fires and the mudslides
https://youtu.be/4vfVAlrJ7ec

1/20/18 Some photo from behind the scene https://photos.app.goo.gl/KM9pyDrsdTwFoOqb2

1/17/18
County Supervisor Das Williams and Ellen Degeneres discuss Montecito 
https://youtu.be/Y_ik4valJiI

1/16/18 https://youtu.be/hukjO3MiRio

1/13/18
http://www.ksby.com/story/37259393/montecito-sandwich-shop-feeds-mudslide-emergency-responders ‌

1/9/18
I'm Neil Lund and I manage Village Cheese and Wine Store social media. Patrick asked me to start this campaign on his behalf as he is too busy helping the people on the ground to manage this with updates.  

Patrick has share with me serveral stories of whats happened and it's bad, really bad. The community has lost so many family and friends.  100's of homes are destroyed and they still don't know the full extent of the damages and losses.