More Families Than Ever Seek Groceries From Food Banks : Recession: Officials say people with jobs are relying on the relief organizations to help combat hard times.

More Ventura County residents than ever are taking groceries from food banks to combat hard times brought on by the recession, hunger-relief volunteers said Tuesday.

“There’s definitely a lot more people coming to us looking for help lately,” said Helen Lockwood, a volunteer at Camarillo’s Seventh-day Adventist Church, which provides free groceries once a week to 90 Camarillo families.

Every Tuesday, Lockwood and fellow volunteers make their way to Food Share Inc.’s Oxnard warehouse, where they buy the day-old bread, canned goods and freshly picked vegetables that the organization collects for the poor.

The church was only serving 70 families a month and a half ago, Lockwood said Tuesday at the warehouse.

“There’s more people out of work now, and the number of families we’re helping just keeps going up all the time,” she said.

However, results from a study of food bank recipients released last year by the University of California debunked the widely held belief that everyone who collects food aid is unemployed.

All the recipients at the food pantry of St. Mary Magdalena Church in Camarillo are employed, Director Jessica Bessette said.

“This is a supplement for most of them. Some of them have been coming here for years, just trapped in low-paying jobs that don’t allow them to feed their families,” Bessette said of her program, which serves 86 families.

Josefina Contreras has been receiving food from St. Mary Magdalena for two years, she said. The mother of 11 children, Contreras said her family would have trouble surviving on the salary that her husband earns as a $5.25-an-hour tractor driver.

“We would have a big problem without this food,” Contreras said, gesturing at the two large bags of bread, vegetables and other staples that she picks up each week at the Camarillo church. “Most of the bread will be gone tomorrow, but the vegetables and beans help a lot later in the week.”

With its strong agricultural economy luring migrant workers, Ventura County families headed by farm workers top the list of the county’s poverty-stricken workers.

Food Share Director Jewel Pedi knows all too well the facts about the working poor as well as the recession’s impact on local food banks.

She said the organization has distributed 8 million pounds of food this year, 1 million above the total amount handed out in 1990. With the holidays just beginning, the needy will require more.

“Luckily, we’ve had the food to give out,” Pedi said, surveying the throngs of senior citizen volunteers working near her. “But people have to know that we’re here all year long, and we always need food.”

Food Share Inc. began in 1978 with a small group of friends gleaning leftover produce from farm fields and turning it over to shelters helping the poor.

It has become the leader in the county’s emergency hunger-relief efforts. From its 12,000-square-foot warehouse, the organization provides food to almost 250 agencies countywide.

Food Share has five full-time staff members and about 300 volunteers.

On Tuesday, one man driving a forklift carted pallets of canned and baked goods to sorting areas. Others filled orders placed by food bank volunteers, who came from every area of the county to purchase groceries, which sell for 6 to 12 cents a pound.

Other workers boxed vegetables, which were picked earlier in the day.

The vegetables have caught Peter Maria’s eyes. Maria and a colleague from St. Anthony’s Parish in Oxnard calculate what they can buy for the day’s grocery rounds, choosing several cases of cough medicine to go along with U.S. Department of Agriculture meats and cheeses that are staples of their program.

Maria said 47 families receive twice-weekly deliveries of groceries, up 25% from previous years. But he quickly adds that his real concern are the three to four calls for emergency food supplies that the church receives daily.

“In my 33 years in the parish, I’ve never seen things this bad. There’s no work, no jobs; the cost of living keeps getting higher. It’s just a lot worse for poor people than it was before.”