Food Banks Brace for Post-Holiday Donation Slump

As Christmas trees are tossed away and holiday lights come down, food bank officials across the county are bracing for their least favorite post-holiday tradition: an end to the season of giving.

It’s a problem that surfaces every year, when people pack up their will to give and store it with their Christmas stockings. No matter how full the shelves become during holiday food drives, there is rarely enough to last until summer.

“I wish I could say this food was going to last a long time,” said Pauline Saterbo, who runs Manna, the Thousand Oaks food pantry.

Saterbo and other Manna workers are busy stocking their shelves with the 12 to 15 tons of canned goods collected during recent drives. During the holidays, donations come in at four times the normal rate. And thanks to the help of local school groups, this year was a record-breaker.

The holiday collections provided more than enough to feed needy families through the winter, Saterbo said. But not for much longer.

“This has been the absolute best Christmas and Thanksgiving we’ve ever had,” she said. “But it really goes very, very fast.”

Manna regularly feeds about 3,000 people each month.

Ventura County’s largest food bank, Food Share, collects about 3,500 tons of food annually, and only a small percentage of that is donated during the holidays.

The rest comes from agricultural surplus, restaurants and supermarket donations received throughout the year. “There are people in need in our county 12 months of the year,” said Jim Mangis, executive director of Food Share, which helps feed more than 30,000 each month.

Still, organizers had hoped to collect 50 tons of canned food during holiday donation drives so they could donate their surplus to other food pantries in the county.

They fell short by nearly half.

“A lot of people helped and we are really grateful,” Mangis said. “We were maybe a little ambitious in what we asked for.”

Officials from Care & Share, a Simi Valley food bank, said they usually start to run out of supplies from holiday donations about the beginning of September. But recent welfare cutbacks could result in the food bank coming up short even sooner this year.

“Right now it’s been minimal, but I see it coming more and more,” said Willa Dobbs, the group’s director for the past 30 years.

Those most affected by the cutbacks are senior citizens, she said. The organization once served 100 to 125 seniors each month. But last month there were 150, and she expects the numbers to keep rising.

“It’s very hard for them,” Dobbs said, explaining that many of the seniors feel awkward accepting free meals and holiday gifts. “They’ve worked hard all their lives. We try to make them feel very comfortable about it.”

One client, whom Dobbs described as a “gruff old man,” was given new shoes as a holiday gift from the organization. “Size 12 wingtips. They were beautiful,” she said.

On receiving the shoes, the man hugged Dobbs and cried. It was the first new pair of shoes he’d had in years, she said.

Although she is thankful for the donors who make such gifts possible during Christmas, Dobbs said people should remember the needy require their help all year long.

“We are ongoing all year,” she said.

FYI

To make off-season donations to local food banks, call Manna at 497-4959, Food Share at 983-7100 or Care & Share at 522-5676.