By 2 p.m., the line of cars stretched more than a quarter mile at Oxnard’s College Park, each carrying passengers eager to partake in Food Share’s weekly emergency food box distribution program.
The need is great and it takes a lot of work to meet it, but on this Wednesday afternoon a small but mighty group of Ojai Valley School volunteers were up to the task. For more than two hours, they loaded box-after-box of dried goods and perishables into car trunks and truck beds, sending each driver away with a thumbs up and a thank you.
By the end of their shift, the OVS students and teachers had handed out more than 1,000 emergency food boxes to needy families from throughout the region.
“You guys made a lot of people happy today,” Food Share’s Kevin Herold, the nonprofit’s food sourcing supervisor, told the OVS volunteers. “It should do your hearts good to feed this many families.”
The volunteer effort this past Wednesday is part of a larger push at the Upper Campus to strengthen and formalize its relationship with Food Share of Ventura County, which provides hunger relief to hundreds of thousands of local residents each year through food pantries and other initiatives such as the weekly distribution program.
Earlier this school year, Head of OVS Upper Campus Craig Floyd launched a campaign to ensure that all freshmen have an opportunity to volunteer at Food Share. He then double-downed on that commitment, devising a plan to have sports teams fill what Food Share has described as a critical need to help distribute emergency food boxes each week.
“As I’ve learned more about Food Share, and all that we’re doing and helping with, it just really resonated with me as being a way to get into different community service work,” Mr. Floyd said. “The idea of going down to the base level and having to provide for those who can’t I think is very special, and it’s a great opportunity for our students to see that to some degree.”
The first freshman group visited Food Share on Feb. 12, taking part in the nonprofit’s work to fill boxes with non-perishable items, most of them donated by local businesses,
Freshmen Delaney Hanson and Celeste Ayala were a part of that first group, and both said they were happy and eager to contribute to the program, which was held at Food Share’s main facility in Oxnard.
Delaney said she enjoyed participating in helping Food Share and was glad to assist the community, especially since her mother also volunteers for the organization. She said the volunteer work has inspired her to find more appreciation for the act of helping others in need.
“I liked that I got to go with my friends and help the community,” Delaney said. “I think it’s a good thing because my mom also does Food Share.”
Celeste became so inspired by her experience that she soon hopes to create an H-block regarding Food Share service work.
“It was really interesting to see and cool to learn about how to give support to our community,” she said excitedly.
Many more freshmen are going to soon have the phenomenal experience of working with their classmates to help contribute, as Mr. Floyd has scheduled three Food Share freshman work dates in April.
Jenny Gamez, Food Share’s volunteer coordinator, said the nonprofit could simply not do its work without the help of volunteers like those that come from OVS. Gamez said she believes it’s particularly beneficial for young students to participate in Food Share because they can continue volunteering with the nonprofit as they age and they get to learn the importance of giving to others struggling.
“We don’t know what anybody else in life is going through…so it’s great for the young people to see that people in all walks of life need help,” Gamez said. “They also get to know…that there are wonderful organizations that can help them if they are ever in need as well.”
Throughout Ventura County, the need is rising.
According to Food share, 1-in-4 people suffer from food insecurity. Annually, Food Share provides approximately 16 million meals to those struggling. Their warehouses are provided with an average of 36,000 pounds of food each day, and in the past month, the organization has provided more than 1.5-million meals.
OVS finds many ways to give back to the community, doing community service such as planting vegetation, removing invasive species and picking up trash. However, Food Share provides a program that is particularly significant, as students are able to assist others by volunteering while also learning how privileged they are coming from a school community where they are provided three meals a day, plus snacks.
Mr. Floyd believes that students at OVS are very fortunate and that as they help with Food Share, they will realize how lucky they are.
“I think it’s very special to give back to the community,” he said. “Many Ojai Valley School students, I believe, take for granted food and how we have and how we get it.”
On Wednesday afternoon, out at Oxnard’s College Park, that lesson was evident for all students to see.
Thirty members of the OVS track and golf teams – including three coaches – helped distribute emergency food boxes as part of a program that has been in operation each Wednesday, rain or shine, for the past four years.
Students filled various roles as part of the drive-through food giveaway, which runs like a well-oiled machine thanks to the Food Share workers who oversee it. There are brightly colored tags placed on each vehicle as they line up, which designates what those in each vehicle will receive.
Some students worked traffic control to keep the lines moving. Most did distribution, opening up car trunks and doors to provide cheese, blueberries, peaches and a box filled with nonperishables such as beans and pasta
OVS track team captain Karin Hahn said she didn’t understand initially exactly what the event entailed, or even its true purpose. But after giving up a practice to take part, she said it was a Wednesday afternoon well spent.
“Hearing that we fed more than 1,000 families put everything in perspective,” said Karin, noting that the event provided her team a good bonding experience. “Knowing how much a difference those couple of hours made to the community, it was definitely worth it.”
