http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061013/news_7m13bread.htmlHelping the hungry on base
Many military families rely on donated goods
By Rick Rogers
STAFF WRITER
October 13, 2006
The women and children who formed a line at Camp Pendleton last week could have been waiting for a child-care center to open or Disney on Ice tickets to go on sale.
EDUARDO CONTRERAS / Union Tribune
Volunteer Marisela Helgeson (left) and Military Outreach Ministry associate director Patty Dutra prepared to distribute food to Marine families at Camp Pendleton. Behind them, some family members waited to pick up the donated items.
Instead, they were waiting for day-old bread and frozen dinners packaged in slightly damaged boxes. These families are among a growing number of military households in San Diego County that regularly rely on donated food.
As the Iraq war marches toward its fourth anniversary, food lines operated by churches and other nonprofit groups are an increasingly valuable presence on military bases countywide. Leaders of the charitable groups say they're scrambling to fill a need not seen since World War II.
Too often, the supplies run out before the lines do, said Regina Hunter, who coordinates food distribution at one Camp Pendleton site.
“Here they are defending the country. . . . It is heartbreaking to see,†said Hunter, manager of the on-base Abby Reinke Community Center. “If we could find more sources of food, we would open the program up to more people. We believe anyone who stands in a line for food needs it and deserves it.â€
The base's list of recipients swells by 100 to 150 people a month as the food programs streamline their eligibility process, word spreads among residents and ever-proud Marines adjust to the idea of accepting donated goods.
At least 2,000 financially strapped people in North County qualify for food and other items given out at the center and a Camp Pendleton warehouse run by the Military Outreach Ministry.
Ways to help
People interested in donating food, furniture or money to help military families in San Diego County can call:
Military Outreach Ministry at Camp Pendleton: (760) 908-7043
Military Outreach Ministries at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station: (619) 843-8964
To the south, about 1,500 individuals pick up free food, diapers or furniture at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and several military-oriented distribution sites supported by churches and the San Diego Food Bank.
The numbers don't include military households that frequent other charities countywide to get enough to eat.
“I cry tears of joy every week,†said Patty Dutra of the Military Outreach Ministry. “You are looking at them and saying 'thank you' and they say, 'No, thank you.' â€
Some of the women in last week's food line at Camp Pendleton were newbies like Jennifer Stocker, 25. A friend told Stocker, the mother of 7-week-old Shylah and wife of Cpl. James Stocker, about the service. She arrived an hour early to get first picks.
“It looks good,†Jennifer Stocker said as she glanced at the tables stacked with loaves of French bread and doughnuts covered with red, white and blue sprinkles.
“It looks helpful,†Stocker added as Shylah gummed her mother's wrist. “I'm definitely going to start doing more of this.â€
Also present were food-line veterans trying to make ends meet. Michelle Rankins counts herself as a reluctant regular.
“I do this for the kids,†said Rankins, whose husband is a corporal deployed in Iraq. “They need the protein from the bread. For me and my family – for a lot of the families at Camp Pendleton – this (program) is a necessity. I come every week.â€
Barbara Chavez deals with many similarly challenged families in San Diego County. She is director of Military Outreach Ministries, which supplies bread and other staples to troops and their loved ones at the Miramar base, a Navy housing community in Lakeside and other locations.
“The bases are in the more expensive parts of the county and things like gas, food, insurance and rent are just higher here,†Chavez said. “I got a call last night from a lady in need. She ran out of baby formula and diapers. She's 22 with two kids under 3 and her husband is in Iraq. She was distraught and cried for 10 minutes. This happens more often than not.â€
On the Miramar base last week, Melissa Dixon came to receive diapers, paper plates and canned goods. Her husband, John, is a lance corporal stationed there.
“Believe it or not, there are a lot of military families struggling,†said Dixon, 22, as fighter jets flew overhead.
At the Navy housing complex in Lakeside, Nicole Purselley said she wouldn't know what to do without the donated food.
“One week we couldn't come to get food because we didn't have gas money,†said Purselley, a mother of three whose husband is a hull technician aboard the Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship based in San Diego.
Purselley's disabled mother, Kathy Frisbie, lives with the family. Frisbie said the gracious spirit in which the food is given makes taking it easier on their pride.
“They don't look down on us because we are here,†Frisbie said.
During World War II, the National Presbyterian Church started an outreach program for military families coast to coast. In 1968, the Presbytery of San Diego took responsibility for the local chapter.
The presbytery spun off its military food program this year, with oversight now divided between the Military Outreach Ministry in North County and Military Outreach Ministries in the rest of the region.
“(Service members) struggle because of our cost of living,†said Faye Bell, executive director for the Military Outreach Ministry. “The lower-ranking enlisted guys do all the hard work and still have the stress of not being able to take care of their families the way they wish they could.â€
Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com
