The Soldiers' Stories: Helping the hungry on base

The women and children who formed a line at Camp Pendleton last week could have been waiting for a child-care center to open or Disney on Ice tickets to go on sale.

Instead, they were waiting for day-old bread and frozen dinners packaged in slightly damaged boxes. These families are among a growing number of military households in San Diego County that regularly rely on donated food.

As the Iraq war marches toward its fourth anniversary, food lines operated by churches and other nonprofit groups are an increasingly valuable presence on military bases countywide. Leaders of the charitable groups say they're scrambling to fill a need not seen since World War II.

Too often, the supplies run out before the lines do, said Regina Hunter, who coordinates food distribution at one Camp Pendleton site.

“Here they are defending the country. . . . It is heartbreaking to see,” said Hunter, manager of the on-base Abby Reinke Community Center. “If we could find more sources of food, we would open the program up to more people. We believe anyone who stands in a line for food needs it and deserves it.”

The base's list of recipients swells by 100 to 150 people a month as the food programs streamline their eligibility process, word spreads among residents and ever-proud Marines adjust to the idea of accepting donated goods.

At least 2,000 financially strapped people in North County qualify for food and other items given out at the center and a Camp Pendleton warehouse run by the Military Outreach Ministry.

To the south, about 1,500 individuals pick up free food, diapers or furniture at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and several military-oriented distribution sites supported by churches and the San Diego Food Bank.

The numbers don't include military households that frequent other charities countywide to get enough to eat.

“I cry tears of joy every week,” said Patty Dutra of the Military Outreach Ministry. “You are looking at them and saying 'thank you' and they say, 'No, thank you.' ”

Some of the women in last week's food line at Camp Pendleton were newbies like Jennifer Stocker, 25. A friend told Stocker, the mother of 7-week-old Shylah and wife of Cpl. James Stocker, about the service. She arrived an hour early to get first picks.

“It looks good,” Jennifer Stocker said as she glanced at the tables stacked with loaves of French bread and doughnuts covered with red, white and blue sprinkles.

“It looks helpful,” Stocker added as Shylah gummed her mother's wrist. “I'm definitely going to start doing more of this.”

Also present were food-line veterans trying to make ends meet. Michelle Rankins counts herself as a reluctant regular.

“I do this for the kids,” said Rankins, whose husband is a corporal deployed in Iraq. “They need the protein from the bread. For me and my family – for a lot of the families at Camp Pendleton – this (program) is a necessity. I come every week.”

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