Letter Carriers Collect Food in Annual Drive

Hoping to top last year’s record haul of 75 tons of food, letter carriers across Ventura County collected canned, boxed and packaged food Saturday for the area’s needy.

The annual Letter Carriers Food Drive is a nationwide effort by federal postal workers to help those in need, said Ric Davis, supervisor of customer services at the Oxnard Main Post Office on C Street.

Carriers put in double duty, collecting bags of food while completing their rounds.

“We fill up trucks here,” Davis said. “It’s unbelievable how much food we get. The figures can astound.”

Food collected in the west part of the county goes to Food Share Inc., the county’s food bank. The agency helps feed 33,000 people each month through a network of 188 local agencies.

While carriers spent the day on the street, Davis, who has 23 years’ experience as a mail carrier, was overseeing the drop-off of donations at the C Street station. “We got all kinds of people coming in and leaving food at the counter,” he said.

Beverly Mattes, president of the local branch of the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, said she expected postal workers in Oxnard would exceed their 1996 total of 14 tons collected at the C Street and Saviers Road stations.

At 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Mary Flandez, a church official at St. Rose of Lima Church in Simi Valley, was waiting for the first of several trucks to arrive with food collected by mail carriers.

“This food drive means we can give out more food from our Simi Valley pantry,” Flandez said. “What’s nice about it is all of the food comes from the community.”

In 1996, Christian Service took in almost 10 tons of food during the one-day drive. Christian Service helps about 500 people each month, she said.

“A lot of people don’t realize we serve the entire community. They think that because we’re a Catholic church, we serve just the church. But 90% of the people coming through here are not Catholic,” Flandez said.