Postal Workers to Collect Donated Food

Postal workers in the county will make a little extra room in their delivery trucks Saturday for donated food collected on their routes as part of the fifth annual Post Office Food Drive.

People may leave a bag of food near their mailbox and the letter carriers will whisk the donated goods back to their post offices where about 40 Food Share volunteers will pick up the food to feed the hungry, said Janice Olver, the food drive’s coordinator.

“I think it’s just an amazing event because there’s no other organization that reaches every home,” said Jim Mangis, executive director for Food Share, which is the county’s food bank. “Who else but the post office could . . . go to each house in the county and pick up food.”

Mangis added that Food Share prefers dried and canned foods, especially high-protein foods such as tuna, canned meat, beans, rice and whole grain cereal. All items must be non-perishable and in unopened containers, he said. Also, no glass containers, which could shatter.

“It’s important to recognize that it’s the postal carriers who started this,” Mangis said. “They put this together because they wanted to help. They see the need, since they’re out there in the neighborhoods.”

Moorpark Postmaster Doug Fenton said that his office, which serves about 27,000 people, collected three pickup trucks of food in last year’s effort.

“It’s great,” Fenton said of the food drive. “It’s good for people who need charity. . . . The routes might take a little longer, but it’s for a good cause.”

In its nationwide food drive last year, the U.S. Postal Service collected more than 32 million tons of food. In Ventura County, Mangis said the Postal Service collected about 120,000 pounds of food.

Food Share serves 127,000 people a month, 53% of them children. Mangis said one in five children in the county misses meals regularly.