Not Just a Hungry Heart

Not just a hungry heart

Food is often the most immediate and relentless need when resources run thin. Food pantries are operated out of many organizations in Ventura County; however, nearly all of the supplies come from FOOD Share. The acronym stands for Food On Our Doorsteps.

“One of the critical things is getting the word out to people that we are here,” Jeanne Benitez, Manager of Annual Giving for FOOD Share, said. “Our role is to collect all the food, then prepare it and have it ready for others to pick up who feed people as part of their outreach.”

The task for the organization is to gather up wholesome food that would otherwise be wasted. It must be done quickly or there is the risk of spoilage.

“We’re getting it from any way we can: Beg, borrow or buy it,” Benitez said. The list of food sources is long, and includes donations from America’s Harvest and local grocery stores, packing houses, restaurants and bakeries. The group sends out volunteers to farms and backyard orchards to glean and pick the produce. All of this is done with a staff of 24 and a heavy reliance on volunteers.

FOOD Share also provides food directly. “We have a brown-bag program where we bring an extra bag of groceries to seniors every week, and we have about 2,100 seniors on that program,” Benitez said. “We deliver to homebound seniors once a week and, unfortunately for those seniors, our driver may be the only person that seniors might see all week. We also take food to 31 different senior centers in the county every week.

For the full article:  http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/when_in_need_look_to_your_community/6168/