PORT HUENEME : Seabees Donate Food for Thanksgiving

A Port Hueneme-based battalion of Seabees helped combat hunger Monday by donating 2,200 pounds of food to the Zoe Christian Center in Oxnard for its traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner for the needy. The 600-man Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3 delivered the load of canned goods, potatoes, rice and other non-perishables to the Zoe Center, the only shelter for homeless families in Ventura County. “This is the first time the Seabees have contributed to this cause and this is the first year we have had an overabundance of canned goods,” said Annie Burney, volunteer coordinator at the Zoe Center.

Burney said the shelter served 1,300 meals to the homeless and poor last Thanksgiving Day and expects to dish out an even greater number of dinners this Thursday. “The Seabees really helped cut our costs, but we need more hams and turkeys,” Burney said.

The donations from the Seabees were coordinated by the battalion’s First Class Petty Officers’ Assn., said battalion spokesman Lt. Dennis Tucker. The three other Seabee battalions from Port Hueneme are in Saudi Arabia building facilities for U.S. troops stationed in the region.

Zoe also received about 500 cans of food Monday from two Girl Scout and two Boy Scout troops made up of children of Navy employees at Point Mugu. The scouts collected food and cash donations from Navy personnel shopping at the Point Mugu commissary over the past two weeks, said Lt. Cmdr. Jack Winston, administration officer of the Naval Air Station.