Jennifer Merchant (ED) & Kayla Traber (Dev't Dir) - Grey Bears 2026-04-24 interview on KZSC's 'Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club' by 'Dangerous Dan' Orange, DJ Spark Plug (Dylan Estevez) & Maury-the-Mentee (Maury Burnett-Cavotto)

Grey Bears recently secured a larger location, acquiring a warehouse (& 2.5 acres) that was previously owned by Palace Arts. which was sold to a Bay Area company (Triple A), but with the local store being managed by a son of the original owner; Grey Bears was built around seniors & healthy food, started in 1973 by UCSC student Kristina Maillard and her boyfriend, Gary Denny; they saw a need to nourish seniors, & food left to rot in local farm fields - they decided to gather their friends, gather the food, & host the first harvest festival; Grey Bears grew to have 3 pillars: 1) healthy food either picked up by, or delivered to, 4,000 seniors, 2) free food available to be picked out & taken from the Grey Bears on site market, and 3) free meals where seinors can gather & socialize with the Monday-Friday Grey Bears lunch; have any other towns in ag country imitated Grey Bears? "Great question!" - the answer is no, but with California law SB 1383 encouraging grocers & farms to share what would otherwise go to waste, maybe we'll see more Grey Bears like activities; their current capital campaign is 81% there, raising money to outfit the new warehouse & create a more dignified shopping experience; the budget is just under $4 million, with 34 employees (24 full time) & 836 volunteers - they have so many volunteers they have a weekly orientation! They still do recycling at their Chanticleer Ave. location, but the county took back the recycling centers at the landfill sites in December; the majority of their budget comes from thrift store sales, plus recycling (the "waste not, want not" mantra is baked into the Grey Bears DNA!); their website is GreyBears.org; Santa Cruz County has the fastest growing senior population in California! An interview on "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club" with "Dangerous Dan" Orange, & "DJ Spark Plug", "DJ Spark Plug" (Dylan Estevez) & Maury-the-Mentee (Maury Burnett-Cavotto) airing Friday mornings on KZSC Santa Cruz, California. 2026 is Bushwhacker's 37th year on the air! Thanks for listening! To support KZSC (& these podcasts), please go to KZSC.FM and click on the "Donate to KZSC" button. Thanks!

You can listen to Jennifer Merchant (ED) & Kayla Traber (Dev't Dir) - Grey Bears 2026-04-24 interview on KZSC's 'Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club' by 'Dangerous Dan' Orange, DJ Spark Plug (Dylan Estevez) & Maury-the-Mentee (Maury Burnett-Cavotto) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Jennifer Merchant (ED) & Kayla Traber (Dev't Dir) - Grey Bears 2026-04-24 interview on KZSC's 'Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club' by 'Dangerous Dan' Orange, DJ Spark Plug (Dylan Estevez) & Maury-the-Mentee (Maury Burnett-Cavotto) is an episode from KZSC FM on-demand by KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz.

This episode is 30:23 long.

This episode was published on Apr 24, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from KZSC FM on-demand when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.