Oregon Food Bank: Ending Hunger for Good

At Oregon Food Bank, we know that the best solutions to ending hunger come from the communities themselves. And for over ten years, OFB has focused on improving food security by mobilizing local community members to build more just and resilient food systems through FEAST (Food, Education, Agriculture, Solutions Together). FEAST events are a series of community meetings and include a panel of local leaders, an introduction to community food systems organizing, identification of food system priorities, and the creation of a project plan. This approach challenges communities to address the broad social, economic, and political forces that impact access to healthy, sustainable food sources. FEAST communities have identified and implemented a wide variety of solutions over the last several years such as farm-to-school partnerships, nutrition classes, community gardens, and farmers markets.

The overall goals of FEAST are to:

• Organize and move communities into action towards more just and resilient food system
• Build food security through community identified and implemented solutions
• Improve access to nutrient dense local foods for all community members
• Incorporate advocacy, community organizing, and political education into FEAST Leadership Team support and community conversations 

By focusing on community driven ideas for food systems improvements, FEAST participants can dive deeper and create more sophisticated food systems projects, while learning to sustain these efforts for long-term impacts. The first FEAST event occurred in 2009 and since then has grown to engage over 129 communities throughout Oregon. Panel members, attendees, organizers  come from a variety of backgrounds including farming and agriculture, education, health care, economic development, and the public sectors. 

The majority of FEAST events are held in rural communities with high numbers of food insecure residents and few places to access quality, healthy food. In 2022, FEAST projects included a Black and Brown Farmer Networking Fair, the creation of a shared seed library, culturally specific food distribution for community members, a garden education curriculum for middle school students in partnership with a local farm (Seed to Table), and access to garden space, garden education, and produce distribution to low-income households. Planning for upcoming FEAST events for 2023 is underway, and will take place in Tillamook, Tigard, Ontario, Eugene, Burns, Forest Grove, Madras, Talent, Corvallis, and the Portland Metro area. 

Links:

• More information and how to get involved!