Loretta Walker can remember when she first became involved in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

“We used to do everything by hand,” she said.

That was 21 years ago and much has changed, including number-crunching being conducted fast and efficiently thanks to e-file. Walker, who is the site coordinator at the Manteca Branch Library, had do go about the tax-filing work alone during most of those early years.

But what hasn’t changed is the service that she and her Internal Revenue Service-trained staff – included is her son, John Lane III, Yajaira Vazquez and Kiran Kaur, who is a business and accounting student at the University of the Pacific – provide for those in need of tax-filing assistance.

For their part in offering free service given the available space at the public location while in an underserved area during the past tax-filing season, the VITA folks along with the Manteca Branch Library were awarded the IRS Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication perpetual “Site of the Year” trophy.

Manteca was the third site to receive such honor by SPEC, which is the outreach and education function of IRS’s Wage and Investment Division.

On Thursday, IRS relationship manager Sabrina Cunningham recognized Walker and her staff along with library branch head Anne Stevens, at Straw Hat on North Main Street, Manteca.

VITA is a nationwide program.

Information for those interested in becoming involved can be obtained by calling (916) 974-5501.