The annual Santa Monica Pub Crawl, with emphasis on the Santa, will hold its 15th get together through three distinct bar and restaurant routes filled with holiday spirit. More than 20 local establishments will be offering exclusive food and drink specials throughout the evening, culminating in Santa’s Secret After Party at 1212 on the Third Street Promenade.
In the spirit of giving, the annual event benefits the Westside Food Bank, which provides free access to nutritious food through acquisition and distribution. Since the crawl began in 2008, the food bank has received 20% of the event’s net profit, providing over half a million meals through contributions. Westside President and Chief Executive Officer Genevieve Riutort noted that every $5 donated from the crawl can provide for 20 meals due to the organization’s bulk-buying procedures.
"We were really looking for a partner to align with that was very Westside based and helped the community," said Spin PR Group’s Kim Koury, who has organized the crawl since its inception. "We met Genevieve and instantly knew it was going to be the perfect fit."
At first, the event took in canned food donations, with 4,000 pounds delivered at the 2008 crawl despite only three weeks of advance notice. The next year, rain descended on the Santa Monica area, meaning "a lot of soggy boxes of cereal" and a long process of drying cans, prompting a switch to monetary donations. In addition to ticket sales, Westside Food Bank staff and volunteers will be at crawl route starting locations (1212 for the "Promenade Route," Sugar Plum at Viceroy for the "Ocean Avenue Route" and The Victorian for the "Main Street Route") to collect donations and sell Santa hats.
"I’ve presented them with some pretty nice checks over the years … to be able to bring the community together, to fill the streets of Santa Monica with jolly and good cheer, and to help support local businesses [by filling] all the bars on some of their busiest days of the year, [all of] that coupled with helping all these less fortunate for the holidays has been very fun and rewarding," Koury said.
Riutort added that much like area bars, the food bank also earns a large portion of their funds during December, with the month determining how much food staff can provide over the next year. She said that the height of the hunger crisis is occurring "right now" due to the loss of pandemic-era economic supports, and the food bank is seeing a "huge surge in demand" at all of its pantries.
"We’re distributing twice as much food as we were before [COVID-19] and we expect that need to stay really high at least for the next decade," Riutort said. "I was here for the 2008 recession, and we were just starting to recover from that when COVID hit. I know that it takes more than a decade, especially for low income people, to recover, and COVID was the biggest economic disruption we’ve ever seen in our lifetime. We’re here for the long haul .. we want to continue to serve at this higher level, but it’s going to take more community support for us to keep it up."
The funds and awareness raised for the food bank come from both local generosity and the good times the crawl brings to the thousands of participants each year. Tickets for the Promenade and Ocean Avenue routes cost $20, while the Main Street route and VIP route hopper tickets cost $30. The route hopper option provides access to all three routes, and all tickets provide one free drink as well as food and drink specials and access into the 1212 party. Amenities aside from the traditional crawl include DJs and live entertainment, prizes for the best Santa or holiday-related attire, and "Santa’s Scavenger Hunt" taking place throughout the city.
"It transcends culture, [it] transcends religion, this is really about celebrating community and having a good time, and supporting the people that are in need and making sure that we’re including everyone," Riutort said.
Tickets can be purchased at the Santa Monica pub crawl website.
