PUMPKINS TRANSFORMED INTO GIFT FOR NEEDY.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

The early-morning sun stretched shadows long across the pumpkin field Thursday as the volunteers heaved their finds to the back of a farm truck.

The dozen or so workers are known as gleaners, scavengers who work on behalf of the FOOD Share food bank in Oxnard. Just down the road in another field near Ventura, a similar group picked broccoli.

Picking food right from the ground is superior to buying supermarket products, said Oxnard resident Marlene Campbell, a retired teacher who was picking pumpkins Thursday.

``These are the freshest vegetables that we've had in 30 years,'' Campbell said.

Sometimes farmers donate produce and gleaners pick alongside farm workers. Other times, gleaners get first crack at fields filled with leftover veggies that otherwise would be plowed under.

Small groups pick for FOOD Share once or twice a day, five days a week, said John VanBuskirk, the president of FOOD Share's board of directors who served as a truck driver Thursday.

``They've stocked all their distributors,'' said VanBuskirk, a retired Navy engineer who has been with FOOD Share for nine years. ``This is excess.''

FOOD Share has about 150 gleaners on record and uses about 40 of them on a regular basis, VanBuskirk said.

The work of the gleaners will be especially important in the coming weeks before Thanksgiving, said Jeff Dronkers, FOOD Share's food solicitor.

The fresh produce is needed to tide the food bank over until its holiday food drive kicks off Monday. The bank has almost no canned goods remaining on its shelves, and doesn't expect much more until the week before Thanksgiving, Dronkers said.

``Most people are apathetic the first two weeks of November,'' he said. ``There is food going out, but it is very minimal.''

The food drive relies on various businesses, schools and communities in Ventura County to raise food for FOOD Share.

``We go out and ask the community to hold a canned food drive for us,'' Dronkers said.

Last year the drive raised 65,000 pounds of food. This year, with more companies participating, Dronkers expects more than 100,000 pounds of food for the needy.

During November and December of last year, FOOD Share fed 38,000 people a month. All the food gathered goes to 50 Ventura County food pantries to make holiday food packages.

Thursday's pumpkin pick was a quick one. In 30 minutes, workers filled six bins with about 1,800 pounds of pumpkins, VanBuskirk said.

Volunteers show up for a variety of reasons.

``It's exercise,'' said John Pence, who has been helping gather produce once a week since his retirement 12 years ago. ``We're doing ourselves a tremendous good by getting out there.''

Group camaraderie also keeps people coming back, said Marie Ward of Oxnard, who brought her granddaughter to Thursday's pick.

``I come every day I can,'' Ward said. ``It's a good way to help people. You meet the nicest people.''

Being away from city life and close to the earth reminds Campbell of her childhood and her grandparents' farm in Michigan.

``It brings back a lot of good memories,'' she said.

Campbell especially likes to pick citrus fruit.

``I like the smell of the trees,'' she said. ``I like being in the trees, and they're so nutritious.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Senior volunteers glean pumpkins from a field Thursday to take to FOOD Share for distribution to the needy.

(2) Bob Baker of Camarillo, a volunteer for FOOD Share of Oxnard, loads a pumpkin onto a truck destined to fill food pantries.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News