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Food Charity Warns of Solicitation Scam

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Officials of Food Share, a nonprofit group in Ventura County, are cautioning residents not to give money to anyone soliciting donations for the organization door to door.

The warning comes after a Food Share staff member was approached in Camarillo this week by two people posing as Food Share volunteers, said Jewel Pedi, the group’s executive director.

“The money is not coming to the food bank and I don’t want people to be taken advantage of,” she said.

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Food Share gathers food from grocers, farmers, packers and other sources, then distributes it to dozens of other nonprofit organizations in the county. It does not collect money door to door, Pedi said.

Although she has received only one report of impersonators, Pedi believes the scam may be more widespread and that it only came to light because a Food Share staff member was approached.

“They just hit the wrong person,” she said.

Detective Mike Colon of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said police in Camarillo have no reports of people posing as Food Share workers.

“From time to time we have some kind of a soliciting scam, but it’s not that common here,” he said.

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