Countywide : Food Bank Buys Its Home, Plans Party

Ventura County’s largest food bank will celebrate the purchase of the Oxnard warehouse where it operates by symbolically burning the building’s mortgage at a Western-style hoedown today, officials said.

Food Share Inc. was able to buy the 12,000-square-foot warehouse and an adjacent parking lot on North Southbank Street after it received a $950,000 federal grant in February.

“This is a very exciting time for us,” said Jewel Pedi, the nonprofit agency’s executive director.

The Western-themed party, which is open to the public, will honor Robert Lagomarsino, who agency officials said directed the grant money to the food bank while he was a Republican member of Congress.

“He really fought to make sure that we weren’t forgotten,” Diane Volz, a Food Share spokeswoman, said.

Lagomarsino, as well as Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard), are expected to attend, Volz said.

Agency employees say the purchase of the warehouse represents a significant step for the food bank, which began 15 years ago operating out of a garage. It now serves 252 agencies in the county, affecting some 93,000 people, or one out of seven county residents. Fifty-three percent of the people it serves are children, Pedi said.

“It is the guardian angel for any food pantry” in the county, said Mary Ann Decaen, community services coordinator for Catholic Charities, which doles out more than a ton of food each month to needy county residents.

“Without them, we wouldn’t be able to give out at least half of the food that we do now,” Decaen said.

Says Pedi: “Even though (Ventura County) looks affluent, we have a lot of problems. There is still 10% unemployment in the county.”

The free celebration will start at 5 p.m. at Maulhardt’s Barn, 2853 Camino de la Raza, in Oxnard. Party-goers are asked to wear Western attire and be ready for a night of dancing, said Pedi.