Letter Carriers to Collect Food in Drive

Letter carriers will be picking up cans of pork and beans and packages of rice, spaghetti and cereal across Ventura County on Saturday as part of a mailbox food drive.

Residents are encouraged to place nonperishable food next to their mailboxes. All donations will be delivered to a community food pantry.

It is the seventh year that letter carriers have organized the drive in Ventura County, said Jim Mangis, executive director of Food Share.

Food bank and community volunteers, plus “eight strong guys” from the Port Hueneme Seabee base will box the donations at local post offices and deliver them to food pantries, Mangis said. Last year, local food banks received 75 tons of donated goods, he said.

“Who but the post office could do this kind of food drive in one day?” Mangis said.

Organizers are looking for any type of canned food, such as tuna and canned beans, as well as packaged grains and cereals. Food in glass containers cannot be accepted because the bottles tend to break. Frozen and other perishable food does not qualify.

The annual drive is organized by the National Assn. of Letter Carriers. In Ventura County, recipients of the food include Food Share in Oxnard, the county’s largest food bank, and pantries in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Fillmore.

For more information, call Food Share at 983-7100.