Harvest for the Hungry

When he lived in Peru, Tomas Cassia opened the doors of his cafe to poor families who, without his plates of leftover bread and pasta, would have starved on the streets.

On Wednesday, as he stooped to pluck a bunch of plump radishes from the soil in a field in Camarillo, he remembered the gaunt faces of those who formed a line each night outside his cafe.

Cassia was one of about 20 people who spent the morning rescuing the pungent fleshy roots that farmers would have otherwise plowed under to make way for a new crop. The vegetables gleaned from the fields will help feed hungry families throughout Ventura County.

Cassia joined a regular group of volunteers who spend their weekday mornings in jeans and T-shirts, picking ripe fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste.

The gleaners--volunteers for the Ventura County branch of Food Share--also pick lemons or other fruits from overloaded trees in the backyards of county residents.

Volunteers pack the salvaged carrots, onions, avocados, lettuce, corn, strawberries and walnuts they glean from the backyards and about 20 countywide farms for distribution to 200 shelters, agencies and food programs throughout the county.

On Wednesday, Food Share invited the community to join the regular cadre of gleaners as part of National Food Bank Week, which ends Saturday. Cassia, who usually helps the down and out as director of food preparations at the Rescue Mission in Oxnard, was a first-time volunteer.

Cassia recalled that when he fled his homeland as a political refugee 10 years ago and came to Simi Valley, the tables were turned. He found himself on foreign land without enough money to feed himself, his wife and their two small children.

“I came with some money but it went fast,” said Cassia, 46. “I spoke no English, had no friends, no relatives and no money. My wife was a medical doctor in Peru, but here, she had no license.”

He was amazed at the number of services available for the poor in the United States.

“I come from a place where people are really hungry,” said Cassia, as he hauled two buckets of radishes to a truck. “In my country, even if people have the money to buy, there is a lack of products on the shelves. Things like milk go to industries to make products like cheese and ice cream. You can’t find them in stores.”

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Saving the fruit and vegetables is not always easy for Food Share volunteers. Wednesday morning, the crew arrived at the field to find a plow noisily inching its way toward rows and rows of perfectly edible radishes.

Jim Mangis and other Food Share officials scrambled to beat the approaching tractor.

“We race with the plows all the time,” said Mangis, the organization’s executive director. “Here we are in the land of plenty. So why should people be hungry when there is food?”

The county gleaning program is one of the nation’s most active, accounting for one-fifth of the supplies at Food Share in Oxnard, which feeds 92,000 low-income residents each month.

Gleaning has been around at least since the Old Testament advised farmers to leave the crops on the outer edges of their fields for widows and wayward souls to till.

“The big difference now is that there is liability insurance,” said Mangis, who added that the organization’s policy would cover the cost of any accidents that might occur in the field. “So farmers are more comfortable about allowing gleaners onto their property.”

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In the program’s 20 years, the worst accident has been a twisted ankle or a car stuck in the mud, Mangis said.

Although he is 97, John Zauner isn’t worried about his health as he stoops to pick fruit and vegetables. He has gleaned five days a week since the program started.

In fact, he attributes his longevity to the gleaning. The Ojai resident, who migrated to the United States from Austria after World War I, toils in the fields mainly for the exercise.

“I retired 30 years ago and did nothing but play golf and fish,” said Zauner, a former hairdresser in Manhattan. “As I got older, I didn’t golf so well and I didn’t fish so well. I wanted to do something I could still do. The exercise is just as good as golf. It’s better. It keeps me alive.”