Manna’s Muscle : Retiree Helps Feed Needy, Spread Cheer From Conejo Valley to Downtown L. A.

In just three years, Gil Janke’s part-time volunteer job has become a full-time volunteer job--very full-time.

Janke, a 68-year-old retiree, spends 364 days a year visiting supermarkets to collect vanloads of surplus baked goods, meats, vegetables and dairy products that are distributed to the needy of the Conejo Valley.

He does not mind that his only day off is Christmas. “I get to deal with nice people, people who treat us nice and are willing to help,” Janke said.

“When I do this, really, it makes every day like Christmas.”

Janke is the muscle of Manna, a Conejo Valley food bank that feeds more than 200 families a month. He is also the volunteer agency’s most visible public relations man, spreading greetings and cheer to the clerks and store managers of eight local supermarkets which donate shopping carts full of goods that, while still edible, have reached their expiration date and can no longer be sold.

‘Keeps the Brain Working’

“Instead of sitting home watching television, I’m out doing something for the community,” said Janke, who worked for 19 years at the Newbury Park post office. “It keeps the brain working.”

Manna is operated and supported by volunteers such as Janke. The 15-year-old food bank, whose name is derived from food said to have sustained the ancient tribes of Israel during 40 years of wandering in the desert, is housed in a Thousand Oaks residence that was purchased with donated funds three years ago.

Inside are well-stocked refrigerators and freezers, as well as three shelf-lined rooms filled with canned and dry foods, paper goods, breads and vegetables.

Families without jobs, senior citizens, the disabled and those who are just down on their luck can stop by the house to pick up free groceries. The rest of the food is shared with other Ventura County assistance agencies, local senior citizen homes and several downtown Los Angeles missions, Manna board member Al Caffrey said.

Money and food are donated by local service clubs, individuals and churches, Caffrey said.

But getting the food from stores and supermarkets to the Manna house and other destinations is Janke’s job.

“He’s fantastic,” Caffrey said.

Janke drives a van that is leased to the food bank by a local car dealer for $1 a month. Several days a week Janke is assisted by Domenic DellaRosa, 67, also of Thousand Oaks.

On a recent morning, the two men began their day of pick-ups and deliveries at their usual hour, 7 a.m., loading the van with empty boxes that would eventually be filled with the goods donated by local markets.

Food Was Trashed

“It’s amazing to think that before we started coming around, the markets were throwing this food away,” said Janke, who first started his volunteer work for Manna nearly three years ago.

Since that time, the number of supermarket donors, which include stores located between Agoura and Newbury Park, has more than doubled, requiring Janke to work seven days instead of only two or three days a week, he said. At each stop, Janke parks near the market’s loading dock, where stores leave the food that is to be donated that day.

There are almost always cartloads of breads and pastries, and occasionally fresh meats, juices and dairy goods, Janke said. He greets supermarket workers by name and is careful to be on time at his scheduled stops so that goods do not block incoming food deliveries, he said.

“Sometimes we’ll get seven or eight cartloads from one store,” Janke said.

The relationship between Manna and the supermarkets that donate the food is an informal one. Most of the store managers asked that the names of their stores not be mentioned.

But Jean Altsher, whose son Mark owns the Foster’s Donuts in Thousand Oaks, explained her family’s reasons for donating food. “We just want to do our part to help feed the needy,” she said.

Some of the doughnuts contributed by Altsher find their way into the break rooms of local supermarkets, a good-will gesture that Janke says is part of the relationship he has developed with store employees over the years.