Oregon Food Bank: Ending Hunger for Good

Oregon Food Bank continues to reflect on a tumultuous year. The COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, and the movement for racial justice, all laid bare the vulnerabilities of our under-resourced communities and have necessitated the need for real, meaningful, systems change. Today, 1 in 6 of our neighbors face hunger — a dramatic increase driven by the economic fallout of the pandemic. Despite the challenges of 2020, our passionate commitment drives us onward still. Last year we distributed over 101 million meals through our Network of 21 Regional Food Banks and 1,400 food assistance sites, which include food pantries, congregate meal sites, shelters and mobile distributions. The OFB Network sourced and distributed food to meet the needs of 1.5 million household visits throughout Oregon and Clark County, Washington.

As we work to end hunger and its root causes, our momentum and drive have not faltered. OFB is actively improving services for people who are disproportionately at risk of food insecurity: communities of color, immigrants and refugees, single mothers, and people who are transgender and/or gender non-conforming. These constituencies face many, many more barriers to prosperity in every town, rural and urban. 

In order to cultivate systems change while also committing to distributing nourishing, culturally appropriate food, OFB is piloting new and innovative strategies and partnerships, including grocery gift cards; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Outreach; Free Food Markets (mobile distributions); School Pantries; Healthcare Partnerships; and Double Up Food Bucks, which maximizes SNAP benefits at local grocery stores and farmers markets.We are working to create equitable, sustainable food systems, and elevating BIPOC leadership through culturally-competent farming programs and small business development services. And we are amplifying community power and civic engagement by recognizing that those who have experienced hunger are they experts, and they must be the project planners, advocates, community organizers, food bank and agency staff, and volunteers moving this vision forward.

"As the saying goes, many hands make light work,” says community leader and Garden Ambassador Liban Satu. Liban is one of many leaders whose work demonstrates the power of community-led change, having worked alongside OFB staff to provide their communities with resources and knowledge during the challenges of last year. With your support, OFB will continue collaborating, advocating, innovating, and holding those who have experienced hunger at the center of our work. Just as Liban said to us: “there’s a lot of work to be done.”

Links:

• Link to Food Matters! Quarterly OFB Newsletter

Your support helped position Oregon Food Bank (OFB) to effectively address the spate of challenges our communities faced over the past year: COVID-19, economic devastation, racial injustice, wildfires, and a protracted spike in food insecurity. Before the pandemic, the Oregon Food Bank Network was serving an estimated 860,000 people annually. Since then we’ve witnessed a significant rising need.

Thanks to your support, we have not faltered. We have been delivering healthy, fresh, culturally-relevant food to communities impacted by COVID-19 – including through pop-up farmers market style food distributions, food support for migrant populations, purchase of culturally-specific foods, and direct-to-door deliveries for households at heightened risk of illness from COVID-19.

We have ensured that our food distribution system met social distancing and safe health practices at all levels. We have also redeployed our operations infrastructure to increase direct-to-agency food deliveries; redirecting resources provides food assistance with fewer people and less complexity in our food flow. Finally, while holding people experiencing food insecurity at the center, we pivoted toward solutions for reliable, community-based food access points that maintain the health of our community.

Our stories can best express the difference your support has made to so many. One employee (who started as a service recipient, and then became a volunteer) at an Oregon Food Bank food distribution partner stated that since the pandemic started, “Many people lost their jobs and we’ve seen that now instead of just a mother coming to pick up the food it’s the whole family...I think it’s important to have school pantries because that’s where our children are and we can distribute information about food banks...and there is also a big Latino community that sometimes doesn’t know where to access help...I think we should be united in everything. Our entire community should be more united."

Thank you so much for your investment in our communities!

Links:

• https://www.oregonfoodbank.org/