Countywide : Food Bank Plans to Buy Warehouse
Ventura County’s food bank, strapped with a $6,000 monthly rent payment, will buy the Oxnard warehouse and an adjoining lot it now uses with a $950,000 federal grant officials expect to receive within three months.
The Board of Supervisors has agreed to apply for the grant on behalf of Food Share Inc., which runs the food bank.
The process is a formality, however, because the money has already been set aside by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, food bank spokeswoman Susan Dixon said.
Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) helped get the grant into the 1992 federal budget, she said.
The food bank, founded in 1978, distributes surplus food to 250 nonprofit agencies that serve 90,000 people a month, she said.
About $631,000 of the grant would purchase the food bank warehouse at 4156 N. South Bank Road. A $263,000 portion would buy an adjoining .75-acre lot for future expansion, and $41,000 would buy two trucks needed for a new program to gather excess food from restaurants and cafeterias, Dixon said.
Most of the 9.7 million pounds of food distributed last year was surplus from grocery stores, food manufacturers and local farmers, she said. Demand for food is even higher this year because of the recession and high rate of unemployment, she said.
“There has been a definite increase in the number of individuals going to the agencies,” Dixon said.
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