Poll Finds Local Food Bank Clients Rarely Homeless

People seeking assistance from food banks in Ventura County are not necessarily unemployed, and they are rarely homeless.

That is the conclusion of a survey released Tuesday by Ventura County Food Share, in what agency director Jim Mangis called the most comprehensive poll ever done of food bank clients in Ventura County.

A family whose income is below $15,000 in Ventura County--which has a median income of $63,000--often must choose among food, medicine and rent, Mangis told an audience of local officials and representatives of the 160 nonprofit agencies that help distribute food to the needy.

Too often, he said, a hungry person has to ask, “Do I eat or keep my apartment?”

Particularly hard-hit, survey coordinator Jewel Pedi said, are agricultural workers. Many of the county’s farm, orchard and field workers work part time--57% contrasted with 42% nationally.

“We’re worse off than other parts of the country,” Pedi said.

Pedi said the sporadic employment, plus phenomena such as El Nino, contribute to the figure of 66,742 county residents who get food from Food Share’s distributing agencies.

Mangis estimated Food Share had aided about 6% more people in 1997 than in 1996.

More often, local results paralleled national results, Mangis said. But not always. Among the county results:

* Hunger among children is apparently more prevalent in Ventura County than nationally. Of those who receive food bank assistance locally, 45% are younger than 17, contrasted with 38% nationwide.

* One in nine Ventura County residents is assisted by Food Share.

* Someone seeking aid from a Ventura County food bank is more than twice as likely to be female--69%--than male--31%.

* Two-thirds of recipients are younger than 17 or older than 65.

* Recipients are slightly more likely to be Latino--44%--than white--42%. Seven percent of the clients are African American. Those numbers compare with countywide totals of 66% white, 26% Latino and 2.2% African American.

* Fourteen percent of the county food recipients consider themselves homeless, contrasted with 16% nationwide.

* Nearly 85% of households that seek assistance in Ventura County have no health insurance; 30% of recipients are in poor health.

* More than 75% of food-bank clients have been Ventura County residents more than five years.

* The most frequent reason people apply to food banks is because of too little income--44%.

* Sixty percent of the food recipients are looking for work.

* More than 20% of the adult clients missed meals in the preceding month; 7% of the child clients missed meals.

* A total of 22% of the recipients have no stove for cooking, 37% have no telephone and 43% have no car.

* Nearly 85% of the clients on food stamps said the stamps do not last the month.

* Only about 3% of Ventura County households receive general public assistance contrasted with 16% nationwide.

* Nearly half of the older clients use local senior meal programs, contrasted with 25% nationally.

* More than 85% of all households served by Ventura County food banks have an annual income of less than $15,000.

* A total of 17% of Ventura County recipients hold jobs, contrasted with 21% nationally.

Pedi and Mangis will continue to study the newly released report to understand the human meaning behind the statistics.

“Behind every one of these statistics is a person,” Mangis said. “Information like this helps us understand who we are feeding and why.”

The study, titled “Hunger 1997: The Faces and Facts,” was conducted in conjunction with the national food bank Second Harvest.

Ventura County’s statistics were gathered by 75 volunteers, who interviewed 408 county residents in dozens of food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. The same 71-question survey was used locally and nationally.