VENTURA COUNTY, CA. – On the weekend of Dec. 7-9, Oxnard’s newest outdoor shopping and dining destination, The Collection, hosted a weekend full of camaraderie, goodwill and holiday cheer for the first annual Can Tree Collection drive in support of Ventura County FOOD Share’s Holiday Tackle Hunger campaign.

The sidewalks adjacent to the site where Ventura County’s first Whole Foods Market will be situated were adorned with almost 60 can trees – Christmas trees built with 800 cans of food – as well as a 14-foot can tree constructed with 10,000 cans of food, built and collected by local businesses, community leaders and attendees of the event. Wrapping up the event weekend, more than 57,000 pounds of food were collected, as well as $13,500 in monetary donations.

FOOD Share collects food year-round and through Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 3, the regional food bank that feeds more than 74,500 people per month is hosting its annual Holiday Tackle Hunger Campaign. During Tackle Hunger, FOOD Share hopes to collect more than $150,000 in monetary donations and 200,000 pounds of donated food to help restock the shelves of their Oxnard warehouse distribution center.

“We are very grateful to our friends at The Collection for hosting this incredible event that brought together many members of our community working together to support a great cause,” said Bonnie Weigel, president and CEO of FOOD Share. “Since our Tackle Hunger campaign kicked off this year, we have collected 157,000 pounds of food. We have made it far, but there is still more work to be done to ensure our friends in need do not go hungry this time of year.”

About FOOD Share
The food bank distributing millions of pounds of food each year to those in need throughout Ventura County, FOOD Share collects and receives food year-round, distributing through more than 150 pantry partner agencies throughout Ventura County, including Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Oak View, Ojai, Oxnard, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Somis, Thousand Oaks, and Ventura.

FOOD Share provides food to more than 74,500 people each month countywide through its partner agencies and multiple programs. Programs include the Senior Brown Bag that provides supplemental nutrition to nearly 2,000 low income seniors, home delivered meals and supplemental groceries through the Oxnard and Ventura Senior Nutrition Programs and, the Kids’ Farmers’ Markets, offering nutrition education, healthy recipe preparation and taste testing and a farmers’ market free fresh produce “shopping experience.”

In 2011, FOOD Share partnered with Ventura County’s Human Services Agency to provide expanded CalFresh enrollment assistance. CalFresh, formerly called food stamps, is the largest federal nutrition assistance program that provides supplemental nutrition assistance to eligible Ventura County residents.

For more information: call (805) 983-7100 or go to http://www.foodshare.com.