New Food Bank to Come to Oxnard
OXNARD, Calif.—Food Share of Ventura County says demand for food assistance has tripled since 2019.
“We’ve been hearing for from a lot of the families about a lot of food anxiety. It's really real,” said EP Foster Expanded Learning Site Director Daniel Flores.
From rising cost of goods to Cal Fresh benefits being placed on hold every story is different.
“Someone lost their job. Someone is just not making a living wage or has to pay rent, or has a senior member of their family. A grandmother that they have to support,” said Chair of Food Share’s Board of Directors Drew West.
Current facilities are at capacity.
Foodshare has launched “Feeding our Future”— a project to build an 85,000 square foot food bank that will significantly expand storage capacity.
It will replace their 3 smaller warehouses, which will in turn improve distribution efficiency.
“A big thing is that we can accept more trucks. So today we have one in-ground loading dock that our trucks have to back up into to the next new building will have six of those bays,” said Foodshare CEO Monica White.
Right now, Foodshare of Ventura County has had to turn away nearly 8 million pounds of donated food due to a lack of space.
They say the new facility will double their annual distribution capacity from 21 million pounds to 40 million pounds of food.
It will also expand volunteer space.
“Not only will our volunteers all be in the same spot, but all of our staff will be under the same roof as well,” said Monica White.
Foodshare of Ventura County sees roughly 4,500 volunteers each year. Now, the work includes everything from packing produce to helping out at their food distribution centers.
“For a typical day, we have 24 volunteers, two shifts, the 12 each, and we do an average of anywhere from 7000 to 10,000 pounds of shift,” said Volunteer Coordinator Charlie Bertok.
Food Share has already raised $32 million dollars out of their $50 million dollar goal.
They say they plan to have the warehouse up and running in 3 years.
