Food Drive Nets Less Than 5% of Holiday Goal

Volunteers working the Holiday Food Drive that began Dec. 1 in San Diego County have collected less than 5% of their goal of canned goods for numerous charitable organizations in the county, it was announced Friday.

“We have collected very little food, and we are not even at 5% of our goal,” said Jana Jagoe, executive director of the drive, which ends Dec. 21. “I think maybe San Diego just hasn’t caught on yet.”

Last year, a record 176,000 pounds of food was collected and distributed to 80 nonprofit charitable groups cleared by the San Diego Food Bank, Jagoe said. Food was distributed to more than 19,000 people in groups ranging from battered women’s associations to religious and ethnic groups, she said. But by this date last year, the organization had already collected at least 15% of their total.

“Our goal for the food drive is to meet or exceed what we did last year,” Jagoe said. “I’m not sure that we’re not going to meet that goal. We’re worried because we’re into the second week of the drive. I just think people need to be reminded.”

Canned goods can be donated at about 250 locations: all Vons supermarkets in the county, Domino’s Pizza, Home Savings of America, Dixieline Lumber, KFMB Radio, Kobey’s Swap Meet, San Diego fire stations, police stations, city libraries and all county facilities.

In an effort to gather more canned goods, mini-drives are scheduled for todayat 15 Vons supermarkets. Also today, merchants at three shopping centers in the county--Parkway Plaza, University Towne Centre and Horton Plaza--have each been asked to donate a bag of goods to deliver to their center courts between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

On Sunday, a Horton Plaza stage show about 10 a.m. will include a speaker representing the Holiday Food Drive.

Other efforts to collect goods include:

- A Dec. 16 event and raffle sponsored by the SDG&E; Contrib Club in the SDG&E; auditorium.

- A Dec. 19 event sponsored by the Police Officers Assn. at 6th and Laurel streets. A trip to San Francisco will be raffled off and the event will be broadcast live.

- A Dec. 19. Century 21-sponsored event in Clairemont with a Dixieland band. A raffle ticket will be given in exhange for a can of food, and $100 in lottery tickets will be given away, Jagoe said.

- A Dec. 19 “Magic of Giving Gala” at 6:30 p.m. at the San Diego Marriott. This annual fund raiser by the Holiday Food Drive asks for cash donations so that volunteers may buy fresh food to distribute along with the canned goods, Jagoe said.

“As of now, we don’t have enough cash to buy poultry and produce to go along with our canned goods,” Jagoe said. For more information, call 582-FOOD.

“We have this weekend and next weekend only,” Jagoe said. “We have to have the food distributed by the 24th so people can have a Christmas meal and our volunteers can have Christmas with their families.”

Law enforcement groups and other public and private agencies formed the annual Holiday Food Drive in 1981 in response to a burglary at the San Diego Food Bank. The nonprofit group aids people at or below the poverty line in the county.