Erik Talkin celebrated the 10 years he’s spent running the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County by publishing a book titled Hunger into Health. About the same time, the federal government issued brand-new statistics showing Santa Barbara County has the highest rate of child poverty in California, a grim punctuation mark underscoring the urgency of the Foodbank’s mission. Around town, Talkin is a hard guy to miss, a signature hat always perched on top of his head. In person, he’s focused and to the point, almost bristly. He’s got things to do. He took a few minutes out of his schedule to discuss the changes he’s seen — and the changes he’s making — with Santa Barbara Independent writer Nick Welsh. The following is an edited version of their talk.
In 10 years, how has the hunger picture in Santa Barbara changed? I think total numbers have zigzagged over that time. In 2008 there was just a huge spike.
It began to tail off in 2010. But I think we’re seeing more and more now, just a systemic level of poverty and hunger that is very, very hard to break out of. Some statistics have just come out about child poverty rates; we’re looking at a 28 percent child poverty rate in Santa Barbara County.