Food Banks Fear Running Short of Turkey Dinners

With hundreds of Ventura County residents soon to lose their food stamps, area food banks are concerned that many needy people will go without traditional turkey and trimmings this holiday season.

Although Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank in Thousand Oaks has already received commitments from the public to pay for 400 Thanksgiving food baskets, it is at least 600 shy of its anticipated need, said Pauline Saterbo, the agency’s administrator.

“I just hope we will have enough food for the people who come in for help,” she said. “The needs are now greater than ever before, due to the cut of food stamps.”

Although exact numbers are not known, area social service officials said many county residents have lost or will lose their monthly food stamps as a result of the federal government’s welfare reform law that passed last year.

As of Sept. 30 there were 12,434 Ventura County households--made up of 32,291 people--receiving food stamps, according to Suzanne Ramirez, a food stamp program specialist for the Public Social Services Agency in Ventura.

Those able-bodied adults ages 18-50 without dependents, who have not worked at least 20 hours a week during the last three months, will lose the benefits Nov. 30 in the first round of cuts.

Benefits for about 2,700 legal immigrants are also slated for the chopping block.

Patricia Ellison, casework manager for Catholic Charities in Ventura, said her agency gives bags of groceries to 2,900 needy people each month--nearly double the 1,500 a month it served last year.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “It’s unreal. I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked in my life.”

Ellison said she too fears that her office will be unable to fill all the Thanksgiving basket orders it receives this year.

Charles Rich, 48, has already been forced to adjust to life without food stamps.

The Ventura resident said he received government assistance for six months, until he was sent to Wasco State Prison on a parole violation earlier this year.

Rich said he was released about two months ago with little more than $100 that state authorities gave him for a bus ticket back to Ventura.

Losing food stamps “hurt me a lot because I’m unable to count on having a definitive amount of food,” he said.

Rich, who does handyman jobs, said he survives by staying with friends and munching on food they bring home each day from a pizzeria they own.

Karen Ingram, vice president of Thousand Oaks-based Lutheran Social Services, which screens food stamp applicants who apply to Manna for help, said she has reluctantly accepted the permanent status of these cuts.

“[The government] is going to continue to make their budget balance on the backs of poor people,” she said.

Lutheran Social Services, which last year handed out 55 food baskets on Thanksgiving, will refer all requests to Manna this year because the volunteer who coordinated its program recently moved out of the area.

Even without those referrals, the number of people Manna serves each month has jumped from about 3,200 last year to 3,600 this year, according to Saterbo.

Last year, the agency distributed 300 Thanksgiving food baskets, which include a turkey, traditional fixings, and paper plates and plastic utensils.

With another 600 food baskets needed for the Thanksgiving holiday, she is calling on the community for assistance.

Manna will have dozens of volunteers to deliver food to senior citizens and people with disabilities, starting a week before Thanksgiving.

Donations will be accepted in three forms: uncooked food, prepared food or cash.

Saterbo stressed that any portion of a food basket will be gladly accepted if the donor cannot afford to give an entire meal, which ranges in cost from $30 to $100 depending on the size of the family.

“If you have children, put something in that they like,” she said. “Because chances are, [Manna recipients] will like it too.”

If Manna falls short in food basket donations, Saterbo said, the organization will have to draw from its regular pantry to help feed the needy for the holiday.

“We’ll always have soup and green beans and corn,” she said. “They just won’t have [turkey].”

FYI

Anyone who wants to donate money or food to the disadvantaged at Thanksgiving may deliver it to Manna Conejo Valley Food Bank, 3020 Crescent Way, in Thousand Oaks, or call the organization at 497-4959 to have the donation picked up. The deadline for providing Thanksgiving meals is 4 p.m. Nov. 26.