The San Benito Olive Festival (SBOF) would normally be gearing up for its annual October event in coming weeks, but organizers are taking a step back this year to re-group and strategize.
“As a developing non-profit still in its relative infancy, our biggest challenge is in fundraising enough to really make some headway with capacity-building,” said SBOF President Kathina Szeto, who is also the owner of San Benito Bene, one of downtown Hollister’s most popular stores featuring foods and other products made by local artisans.
“We also need more board members and committee chairs to help develop a strong and sustainable organizational structure, and to orchestrate this wonderful event.”
The festival is a model of success when it comes to numbers. It has expanded quickly since its first event in 2014, attracting more than 2,000 visitors to the San Benito County the first two years. Ticket sales increased 45 percent from the first year, with an estimated 70 percent of attendees coming from outside of San Benito County. As any local official will tell you, tourism is a boon to the economy – infusing businesses with new patrons and the area with notoriety while putting little stress (and cost) on local services.
“I think that the Olive Festival is great for the community. Events like the Olive Festival are a great way to bring people to the community,” said Juli Vieira, CEO of the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, the festival attracted the attention of several media outlets including NBC, Patch, Edible Silicon Valley and the Paso Robles Daily News.
As a nonprofit, all proceeds from the festival go back to the community. Organizers modeled it after the Gilroy Garlic Festival, which raises thousands of dollars for Gilroy charities each year and has made the city world-famous for its garlic. Bryan Saba is one of the more than 86 festival participants. Owner of Big Paw Olive Oil, he fell in love with San Benito County — so in love that he moved his growing business in Campbell and home, in Saratoga, to San Benito County on Santa Ana Road.
“We had so much fun we thought we ought to move down here,” Saba said. “I like to call Big Paw the biggest little olive oil business in the United States.”
With annual sales of $250,000 and growing, Saba is expanding in San Benito County and hoping to purchase 3,800 more olive trees currently planted along Nash Road. He already owns an orchard on his Santa Ana Road property.
“We moved to San Benito County to be closer to the trees and we hope to have major acreage under our belt in the years to come,” Saba said. He is also employing local high school students — his “associates” — who sell Big Paw at farmer’s markets in Marin County and up and down the peninsula. Saba also hired local contractors to build a 2,000-square-foot warehouse and do small manufacturing jobs.
“If we do it right, those trees will never go away. We’re planning on putting a tasting room on the property and hope to make it a destination. Hollister is a golden gem that more and more people are beginning to discover,” Saba said. “I feel like I live at a resort, it’s so beautiful.”
Paul Hain, an organic rancher and owner of Hain Ranch Organics in Tres Pinos, sits on the board of the Olive Festival. He sees the festival as a perfect pairing of what San Benito County has to offer.
“I’ve attended all the olives festivals in the past and have had a great time. It’s really a unique event in bringing together foodies and the producers,” Hain said. “The vision has actually broadened because of so many good people being involved. Our mission is to grow awareness of our local culinary culture and the artisans that produce it.”
Olive Festival board members have reached out to other organizations and businesses, hoping to gain support and raise awareness about the event. The Chamber of Commerce declined to partner with the festival. Szeto and Hain say they are working with festival participants like Saba, to build a strong strategic team that can guide the festival as it grows and faces the inevitable challenges of a growing non-profit dependent on volunteers.
“With the festival growing 45 percent in three years, with mostly volunteer board and committee chairs, there’s a lot to do and knowing that we need more board members and committee members, we want it to be a successful festival vs. a few people burning out,” Szeto said. “We’re also listening to feedback of visitors who have requested that we come closer to town, so we working on finding a location that will meet that request.”
One location they’re considering is the city of Hollister-owned Brigantino Park, along San Juan Road near Union Road. Szeto said organizers are hoping to have infrastructure there in place by 2017. Despite the challenges, festival organizers are confident they can use this year to build momentum and promote a successful event next year.
“I think our greatest accomplishment has been in bringing tremendous attention to the county and all of its spectacular agricultural and artisanal aspects — via a really fun, and well-anticipated, gourmet celebration,” Szeto said. “The growers, the producers, artists, craftspeople and culinary wizards are all involved. As the result of SBOF, and SBOF branding, thousands of people — locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally — are now aware of the many exceptional things that originate here in San Benito County. Some continue to visit local businesses and our wonderful towns year round. We’ve generated interest and an audience. Now it’s time to build infrastructure to sustain it.”
Visit the SBOF online at www.sanbenitoolivefestival.com.
CLICK HERE to Like their facebook page
To get involved, contact the SBOF via phone or e-mail: (831) 537-7270 or email team@sanbenitoolivefestival.com.
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