FoodShare outlines hunger trends in Ventura County, says new Oxnard food‑bank is nearly funded

FoodShare CEO Monica White updated the Oxnard City Council on hunger across Ventura County and on FoodShare’s plan to build a new regional food‑bank campus in Oxnard.

White said FoodShare distributed “23,000,000 pounds of food” last year countywide and that the organization has secured roughly $45.5 million toward a $50,000,000 project to build a new facility at 1425 Mariner Drive. She told the council the agency serves a network of about 200 nonprofit partners countywide and distributed roughly 8.2 million pounds of food in the city of Oxnard last year, serving an estimated 130,000 unduplicated individuals locally.

Councilmembers asked how residents can volunteer and how pantry partners are tiered by need; White described the organization’s PantryTrack system and said volunteers (about 4,500 annually) and local partners are central to operations. She also noted FoodShare buys roughly $2.5 million in food annually to meet requests for culturally specific staples for farmworkers and other groups.

Councilmembers thanked FoodShare for its local presence and fundraising progress; the presentation closed with White inviting council and community members to support the paver fundraising campaign that will help close the remaining fundraising gap.