FOOD Share Mobil Pantry visits
‘Positive Place’ for Kids

Free Farmers Market, cooking lessons, physical workout and fun facts about the importance of nutrition are among the programs resulting from separate partnerships between the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Clara Valley, Santa Paula Unified School District and FOOD Share.

Friday FOOD Share brought its new, 28-foot long truck with a fully licensed and certified commercial kitchen to the Santa Paula clubhouse on East Harvard Boulevard.

During the visit FOOD Share staff members and volunteers gave the children frozen healthy treats as well as bags of fresh produce to take home and share with their families while promoting healthier diets.

With Santa Paula’s high rate of childhood obesity and diabetes, good eating habits must be established early.

“We’re really working on nutrition,” said Clubs Executive Director Jan Marholin, who noted “The different between us and a school site is although we’re the Positive Place for Kids to be we’re also a check-in and check-out club.”

And soon after Marholin was hired “It bothered me that the kids were crossing Harvard Boulevard,” to buy unhealthy snacks.

The solution was to install vending machines at the clubhouse with healthier options such as baked chips and lower sugar drinks to replace the fat and calories found in the snacks Club Kids had been purchasing in the past.

“I’m not a big fan of vending machines,” said Marholin, “but it was the lesser of two evils...”

The partnership with FOOD Share, Ventura County’s umbrella food bank serving more than 180 pantries and meal programs goes back about a decade but more and more programs are being added.

“At certain times we’ve had Farmers Markets with them and now we’re working on a collaborative grant,” that would establish a regular schedule of club activities.

Last year FOOD Share visited the club on a monthly basis providing nutrition classes to the kids among other programs.