11 Hikers Raise Money for Hungry

As cars sped past them on the Ventura Freeway, 11 good Samaritans marched at a brisk pace Friday on a 30-mile walk to raise money to feed the hungry.

“In this great country of ours, hungry people and homeless people still exist and that bothers me,” said Jane Caldwell, a 59-year-old Oxnard real estate agent who collected $800 in pledges for the walk from Ventura to Santa Barbara.

“I was really, really surprised at people’s generosity,” Caldwell said. “Gave me motivation.”

The group of 10 Food Share volunteers and staff member Susan Hixon hoped to raise at least $2,000 in the walk, the first fund-raising trek for Food Share. The Oxnard-based organization collected and distributed 9.7 million pounds of food in 1991.

Most of the volunteers are Food Share gleaners, who comb Ventura County fields several times a week for crops left by pickers and donate the vegetables and fruit to the food bank.

The money may be spent to buy new shovels and other equipment for the gleaners, but a final decision on its use has not been made, Hixon said.

The walkers set out at 8:30 a.m. from the Holiday Inn parking lot in Ventura, aiming to reach La Conchita for lunch by 1 p.m. and Carpinteria by 5 p.m. Due to their brisk pace, they arrived at Carpinteria two hours early.

Because of the recent rainstorms, the group had to walk alongside the freeway at times when paths along the beach were too muddy or closed to the public.

Walkers Bill Mitchell, 69, of Oxnard and Stanley Howlett, 64, of Santa Paula, held red flags high as they led the group along the highway shoulder.

“It’s a semi-dangerous thing to do,” said Bill’s wife, Nancy, 59, as she headed up the Main Street off-ramp past the red and white “Wrong Way. Do Not Enter” signs.

The Mitchells, who are avid hikers, came up with the walk idea and planned the trail.

“We were walking and having a beautiful day and I said, ‘I could walk all the way to Santa Barbara,’ ” Nancy Mitchell said. “We like to walk, we like to help Food Share. . . . We wanted to go all the way to raise money.”

Mitchell said she called the California Highway Patrol, where an officer told her it was OK to walk along the highway if there is no access to other roadways, though it is otherwise illegal.

Members will continue walking today, and will be joined by other walkers in Carpinteria. The group hopes to reach Santa Barbara by 3 p.m.