Director of Pantry Likes the Work : Assistance: Willa Dobbs, who helped found program 24 years ago, runs a service that provides more than 250,000 meals a year.

For Willa Dobbs, happiness is working in a room the size of a large walk-in closet crammed with day-old bread, creamed corn and peanut butter.

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As director of Care and Share in Simi Valley, the 55-year-old Dobbs has doled out food and understanding since she helped found the food pantry 24 years ago.

From its beginnings as a word-of-mouth program Dobbs operated out of her garage, the pantry has grown into a citywide service that provides more than 250,000 meals a year.

“What Willa does is inestimable,” said Diane Davis-Crompton, director of Simi Valley’s environmental services department.

Care and Share, which operates on a budget of about $24,000 a year, receives no government funding, relying entirely on donations for its sustenance.

This spring, the pantry will move from its cramped building at the Church of the Nazarene on Royal Avenue in Simi Valley to a 1,500-square-foot mobile home parked on an empty lot at the church. After searching for larger rent-free space for three years, Dobbs persuaded the Salvation Army to donate the trailer.

“People in the community give generously to Care and Share, in large part because of their deep respect for Willa,” Davis-Crompton said.

L. Jewel Pedi, executive director of Food Share, the countywide food bank, praised Dobbs for her work in Simi Valley.

“I know she’s doing a great job,” Pedi said. “It really helps to have Care and Share in the east county because the folks there need it just as desperately as they do in the west county.”

Dobbs shrugged off the compliments, saying she runs Care and Share because she likes the work.

“It’s a good feeling to help people,” she said. “There’s no feeling like it; everybody knows that.”

On a recent morning, half a dozen needy residents found their way to the tiny building the food pantry shares with the Salvation Army.

As the food recipients entered the office, Dobbs waved them past a large sign proclaiming “Emergency Food Bank--Not Grocery Store!!” and welcomed each one with a broad, dimpled smile.

Beverly LaSalle, a tiny woman with bright blue eyes, made her way down the cluttered pantry aisle, filling a yellow plastic wagon with soup, beans, pasta and toilet paper.

“I’m on disability and I couldn’t make it without it,” LaSalle, 58, said of the pantry.

Stephanie Camino and Dylan Thompson brought their 7-month-old son, Cody, to the pantry.

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While Camino, 28, selected a range of baby food and canned goods, Dobbs nodded sympathetically as Thompson, 34, bounced Cody on his knee and outlined the difficulties of finding work.

“It’s real tough,” Thompson said. “I’m really getting frustrated.”

Camino said she was grateful for the assistance the pantry offered.

“It’s a real help,” Camino said. “It’s all stuff that’s healthy and easy to cook up, so you don’t have to worry.”

Thousand Oaks resident Steve Pollastrini, 44, said he comes to the pantry when his work as a cabinet-refacing salesman drops off.

“Right now, the economy is putting a real crimp in my business,” the father of five said as he selected a large can of spaghetti sauce. “Sometimes I run into these tough times and coming here helps get me through.”

Dobbs said her own experiences growing up poor make her especially sensitive to the plight of the needy.

The youngest of four children raised by a single mother, Dobbs and her family moved to California from Oklahoma in the 1950s seeking work picking fruit.

To make ends meet, her mother ended up working several jobs simultaneously, in a shipping yard and as a waitress.

But she refused to accept donations of food or any other sort of assistance. “It was pride,” Dobbs said. “She saw it as something bad. It was almost as if she would rather die than accept help.”

Dobbs said part of her goal at Care and Share is to remove the stigma from seeking help.

“We try to make it easier on people when they come here,” Dobbs said. “Often, people are very upset, and we welcome them and make them feel comfortable.”

Dobbs said she is particularly concerned about the elderly. “Many of them live on a fixed income,” she said. “They make a meal out of graham crackers and tea.”

Under a program established by Dobbs several years ago, elderly residents are given a special allotment of groceries once a month, including canned goods and special items that Dobbs sets aside, such as coffee, tea, honey and crackers.

“Everyone likes to feel like there (is) someone looking out for them,” Dobbs said. “For some of these people, we’re the only ones.”