Annual OB Food & Toy Drive helps families and seniors

It’s that time of year again when schools, churches, and a host of community volunteers pool their resources to conduct the annual OB Food & Toy Drive benefiting needy families and seniors throughout the Peninsula during the week of Dec. 12-17.

“It’s sort of all hands on deck, like past years,” said Cameron Reid, co-chair along with Stacie Woehrle, of charitable food and gift giving sponsored each year by Ocean Beach Town Council. OBTC works with community groups and volunteers to package a week’s worth of groceries, care packages, and new gifts and toys for the needy during the holidays.
“We typically start about July thinking about logistics and sponsorships,” said Woehrle of planning for the annual event. “Thankfully, this year we have Shelly Parks, who works for the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, join our committee. She has really brought a lot to the table as far as resources and the ability to procure food.”

Reid noted the annual drive is back again this year at the Masonic Center at 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd. He said they have a “lofty” goal again this year of “helping at least 150 families and seniors.”

That is accomplished, Reid said, via dialogue with and access to local schools and churches. “Over the last two weeks, we’ve been rolling out toy collection boxes across the Peninsula, along with collecting on our website, for people who want to participate,” he said.

Woehrle said honorable mention goes to Stasi McAteer, who has been helping her on the toy side of the drive to “get the word out that there are families that need assistance, as well as a need for people donating.”

Due to COVID, Woehrle pointed out that “we only take new, unwrapped toys to pass on to people. We look at the (donated) items and decide which families, which children, they should go to.”

To stage the food and toy distribution, Reid noted OB Kiwanis distributes fliers and grocery sacks door-to-door throughout the Peninsula.

“They (Kiwanians) tag 3,000 to 5,000 houses the first week of December,” he said starting the day after the parade (Dec. 3) and returning a week later on Dec. 10 to collect bags of food left on front porches. “It makes it easy for everyone to donate,” Reid said adding, “We also get food from the San Diego Food Bank and Grocery Outlet.”

Of how they find needy families and seniors, Reid noted: “We work closely with local schools, churches, and the YMCA to sign up people. We don’t turn away anyone as long as they sign up.”

Woehrle said the week of Dec. 12-17 sees donated items, food and toys, flowing into the Masonic Lodge “from various churches, schools, and private people. We (volunteers) form a sort of triage for food and toys that come in, get everything ready to start packing it up into care packages. That happens on Monday through Thursday. But the real meat-and-potatoes is on Friday, where we package everything and get ready for it to be delivered on Saturday, Dec. 17.”

“The morning of Dec. 17 from 8-10 a.m. is when volunteers pretty much deliver everything, all of the care packages, to families,” added Reid. “People come in with their cars, we load them up, give them an address and send them to the other side of the hill. Families living out of their cars, drive to us and pick it up themselves. Unfortunately, there are a lot of those people – more than ever before.”

Woehrle said people can donate by going to www.obtowncouncil.org and clicking on food and toy drive. The website also lists the locations of all toy collection boxes.

The best thing about OBTC’s annual Food & Toy Drive is that it is all homegrown, noted Woehrle. “Over the past 20 years, it has been locals assisting people on the Peninsula,” she said. “So it’s a real grassroots effort with no corporate sponsors. It’s boots on the ground, everyone giving what they can to make sure families and seniors, our neighbors and neighborhoods, are remembered and cared for and thought about for the holidays.”

OB FOOD & TOY DRIVE

The OB Tree Committee annually sponsors the OB Food and Toy Drive that serves local families and seniors in need each year during the holiday season. The group assembles care packages and new gifts and toys for those in need of help. Volunteers spend a week meeting to sort toys and food and get them all delivered. If you’d like to donate to the OB Food and Toy Drive or volunteer your time, contact the OB Town Council through their website.

Designated Toy Donation Stations:

- Pruett Realty (1845 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.);
- Diane Sullivan Realty/Anne Herrin Compass (1021 Rosecrans St.);
- Newbreak Church (2069 Ebers St.);
- Water’s Edge Faith Community (1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.);
- Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore (3555 Rosecrans St Suite 107);
- Ocean Beach Business Center (4876 Santa Monica Ave.);
- Matt Kalla Insurance (4148 Voltaire St.);
- OB MainStreet Association (1868 Bacon St.);
- CrossFit OB (1811 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.)