Castro Looks Outside the Box for New Ways to Feed the Hungry

Pam Castro is a lifelong resident of Moorpark. She grew up here and graduated from Moorpark High School. For 30 years, she owned and operated a local preschool. Her father-in-law, Ruben Castro, ran a small grocery story in the old downtown area.

Castro is also a volunteer with the Moorpark Food Pantry and a member of the Morning Rotary Club. Safe to say, she loves living in Moorpark.

When the recession hit four years ago, many of her close friends suffered from job loss, home foreclosure and extreme financial stress.

Even worse, Castro saw how these friends were left with little if any safety net to help them. Then, Pam learned about a nonprofit program call The Treasure Box (link: www.thetreasurebox.org).

“My son’s girlfriend’s friend told me about it when they were visiting at our house,” said Castro. “My curiosity was up. I thought ‘I know plenty of families who were struggling, plenty of families who could benefit.’ ”

Castro thought it was such a good idea, she wondered if it was really too good to be true.

“I personally went on the website,” she said, “and found the nearest delivery site. At that time it was Porter Ranch. I ordered a box. My first box, I was very surprised, very excited, because I didn’t know what to expect. All the different meats, lasagna, meatloaf, packages of frozen soups. It was delicious so I said ‘I want to keep doing this.’ ”

After four months, Castro was convinced it was legitimate and decided to bring Treasure Box meals to Moorpark.

The Treasure Box actually started in Carlsbad in north San Diego County. Its mission was to serve as a source for reasonably priced meals to any family who needed them, no strings attached, no qualifications. Each box had meals estimated to be worth $75-$100. All a family had to do was go online, order and pick it up at the nearest delivery site. The cost for ordering? Just $32 per box.

Castro picked up the phone and called the office in Carlsbad.

“I asked them to bring it to Moorpark,” she said.

She then worked to secure volunteers.

“I called the mayor, the school board president and the director of the Boys & Girls Club,” said Castro, “because I needed a centrally located site for food delivery. Then I met with members of the Treasure Box and answered all their questions. We took a poll and showed them that the interest was there and they were willing to pay.”

Castro also received some help from the daily newspaper.

“Someone did an extensive article about The Treasure Box in the (Ventura County Star),” she said. “That set up interest throughout Ventura County. I started getting requests: How can we bring this to our cities?”

Finally, in May 2009, delivery day arrived. It was a smashing success.

“On opening day, 1,000 boxes were sold,” Castro recalled. “We had traffic backed up down Highway 118. That in itself made the statement that there was need.”

Castro oversaw the program for two years. In her mind, it was extremely successful and served an important purpose.

“There’s been no lack of orders” she said. “We’ve been averaging at least 380 boxes. And that’s only for Moorpark. That’s not counting the larger cities like Oxnard, Ventura and the other cities.”

And when it came to finding volunteers to help the program, she had no shortage of help.

“It got to the point where there were so many volunteers, it was really simple,” Castro explained. “It was very streamlined. We had some volunteers who have never missed a Saturday. It ran very smoothly. It became more of a social kind of thing.”

Then recently Castro received some bad news. The Treasure Box was closing its doors. It all came down to simple math. The increased distance of delivery to areas like Ventura County and the rising cost of gas put Treasure Box in the red.

“They couldn’t keep their prices low enough to match up with the cost of gas and transportation,” said Castro. “The food warehousing and boxing are all done in the San Diego area. The only option was to raise the cost of the box, but by doing that you’re not getting a deal. You could basically pay the same in a grocery store. That just negated the whole point.”

While Castro mourns the loss of Treasure Box, she hasn’t given up on the idea of providing reasonably priced meals to local families.

“There’s a concept that we put across to Albertsons,” she said.

Castro explained that for the grand opening of the Ruben Castro Human Services Center next spring, the store has agreed to print up grocery bags with a list of the most common items that the food pantry needs on the back.

Volunteers from the Food Pantry are going to churches in Moorpark and passing out the bags. Then the churches are going to take that list and try to fill up each bag with the listed items and will bring those to the grand opening to donate to the Food Pantry so the shelves are immediately full.

In addition, Albertsons will be filling 1,000 of those bags with every item on the list and selling them at cost to the churches who wish to purchase and donate them to the Food Pantry, Castro said.

In the meantime, Castro continues to be concerned for the families who are losing their Treasure Boxes.

“It keeps us up at night,” she said. “We’re losing a reasonably priced option for groceries for middle class families. But we can’t just say, ‘Oh well, too bad.’ We have to ask: Now what can we do?”

Castro is determined to find solutions. The closing of Treasure Box means she and others in Moorpark will have to put on their thinking caps and find solutions. One door closes, another must be opened.

“You have to think out of the box,” she said. “People are well aware that the need is here and it needs to be dealt with—not as a government program, but as a community responsibility.”