‘Cadillac’ of Food Banks Has Little Luxuries

The operators of the Manna community food bank in Thousand Oaks believe that even the needy needn’t live by bread alone.

So it offers the downtrodden an uplifting menu that’s been known to include Brie, frozen shrimp, imported German cookies, chocolate cake and gazpacho, along with the staples.

“We’ve been the Cadillac of food banks,” said Bob Fitzharris, a consultant who heads the board of directors of the food bank, which operates out of a converted house on Crescent Way. “We have canned shrimp, sardines. We have a section for low-salt and diet food.”

Nearby a book rack is stocked with Harlequin novels.

What began 20 years ago as a neighborhood project in a garage with only a few cans of food is now one of the biggest food banks in Ventura County in a city with a median household income estimated at $52,741 for 1991.

Even officials at other food banks concede that Manna offers a wide variety of food not normally available at other pantries.

“It’s a real broad-based community effort, so they can gather lots of different things from the local population to generate their menu,” said Jeanine Faria of the Ventura County Hunger Coalition.

At Project Understanding’s food pantry in Ventura, for example, “we don’t get low-salt foods very often,” Faria said. “Most of the food in the pantry is very high-salt.”

And at no time of year are Manna’s provisions more in demand.

Officials say the pantry fed more than 1,500 people in November with the help of supplies donated by local supermarkets and restaurants, including the upscale Mrs. Gooch’s and Trader Joe’s.

Kurt Hepler, an assistant manager at Trader Joe’s in Thousand Oaks, said the discount gourmet store has been donating surplus food to Manna for about two years.

Some of the bread Trader Joe’s donates is still fresh, but does not meet the store’s standards, he said. Other kinds of foods might spoil if not eaten right away.

“We donated some Brie the other day, as a matter of fact,” said Hepler, whose shop also donated shrimp, angel cake and gazpacho.

“It’s a shame to waste food,” he said.

Jobless families, single mothers, senior citizens and the disabled are welcome to drop by to pick up free groceries from the food bank. The only qualification is that they be Conejo Valley residents who have been referred by a social services agency.

Manna has become so good at collecting food that it donates to 23 food banks in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, including the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles.

Some people who come through Manna’s doors are amazed to see certain foods there, said Al Caffrey, 72, a Manna director who works with the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles. “Something like Brie cheese is a gourmet thing. They’re amazed to see it,” he said. “I’ve gone to several food banks in the San Fernando Valley and Dolores Mission, and I don’t ever recall seeing salad dressing there. They don’t have that money to buy those extra niceties.”

Officials say they have no estimates on how much food Manna gives away.

“We have gone out and aggressively gotten food,” Fitzharris said. “In just bread alone, we receive a couple of truckloads a day.”

Manna officials make frequent pitches at meetings of civic organizations and student groups to urge them to donate or conduct food drives, Fitzharris said. Local real estate agents conduct the biggest drive in July.

Some of the food comes from donors’ back yards. One recent day, Manna administrator Pauline Saterbo eagerly greeted a volunteer who was carrying a box of fresh-picked guavas.

Two rooms of shelves are lined with all the food, including basic canned goods and bread. Even during the recession, there is more food than the pantry needs. But Saterbo said she would like to see more donations of items that people ask for: sugar, for example, and coffee and disposable diapers.

Some who go to Manna have tears in their eyes as they pass through the well-stocked pantry pushing shopping carts to select foods.

“I felt bad when I walked in. I came in feeling nervous and embarrassed,” said a 35-year-old woman who identified herself only as Debra. “I have four kids. My husband is injured and can’t work.”

As she wheeled the cart filled with five bags of groceries to her car, Debra broke into a smile. “Now I feel good,” she said.

The only food that Manna purchases, with cash donations, are meats, eggs and dairy supplies.

Manna did not always have plenty. In 1971, when it began as the Conejo Valley Food Bank, the charity collected food for out-of-work aerospace engineers and their families at a private garage in Thousand Oaks, longtime volunteer Betty Langlois said.

Volunteers decided one night to name the pantry after the food that sustained the tribes of Israel during 40 years of wandering in the desert. It seemed apt, Langlois said, because it kept down-and-out families from starving.

In 1981, volunteers moved their supplies out of the garage to the house at 3020 Crescent Way. Manna still owes much of its success to a core group of 164 volunteers, some of whom have received help from the food bank.

That was the case with Gil Janke, 70, a retired Marine who drives a truck for Manna 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

Several years ago, the volunteer said, he brought his son to Manna to collect food when his family needed it. He ended up offering his truck to collect food from different stores each day before it is tossed out.

Janke is now the primary driver of a van he has dubbed the “Mannamobile,” and visits 25 to 30 stores beginning at about 7 a.m. each day.

“My son had five children. They helped us out, and I said, ‘If you ever need a hand, just call,’ ” Janke said during one of his rare breaks from picking up food. “Now I’m the Manna man.”