With unemployment and recession fueling demand at food banks throughout the area, one group of military volunteers is hoping to double the amount it collects during its annual drive.

Navy personnel will collect canned food and dry goods -- donated by shoppers at the commissaries and food stores at Boca Chica Field and Sigsbee Annex -- for distribution to local United Way offices. It's an annual rite for the men and women of the Operations Maintenance/Search and Rescue Division.

"Last year, we collected 2,200 pounds of canned goods and other food items," said Petty Officer Xavier Dominguez, who is stationed at Boca Chica Field. "We're trying to double that this year -- it only took a little more than a month last year for us to collect more than a ton of food."

The division, which maintains the SH-60F Seahawk search-and-rescue helicopters at Naval Air Station Key West, collects the food as part of the national Feds Feeds Families program. The program, organized by the federal government, urges federal employees, including military personnel, to run food drives in their neighborhoods around the country.

The program's Web site, http://www.fedsfeedfamilies.gov/, lists the canned goods donors can bring to the Key West-area bases: proteins such as tuna, peanut butter, chicken, salmon; fruit juices, condiments, grains, low-sodium/no salt canned vegetables, beef stew, chili, turkey, rice -- anything in containers designed for long-term storage.

Petty Officer Mike Doehler said he and his colleagues will be outside base grocery stores at various times from Tuesday through Friday for the next several weeks.

"You'll see us standing outside the commissary on Sigsbee with grocery carts and fliers trying to bring in enough nonperishable food to feed those in need," he said.

Not only will Dominguez and his Navy colleagues collect food at the base stores, civilians in the area can bring food to the base for the Navy to distribute, said Matthew James, an aviation structural mechanic for the helicopters at Boca Chica.

"We also need people to donate their time to help collecting outside of the base, and if they want to bring the food to the base, they can do that, too," James said.

jguerra@keysnews.com