Food Security United States Project #2567

Increase Food Security in Oregon

by Oregon Food Bank, Inc.

Project Report | Dec 23, 2014
Together we can alleviate hunger

By Sarah Schirmer | Project Leader

April

Greetings,

Thank you for your support and dedication to hunger relief. During the holidays Oregon Food Bank is abuzz with activity. Volunteers packing, inventory specialists picking orders for partner agencies and everyone thanking the community for the year-round support.

We could not do what we do without donors like you. $10 allows us to acquire and distribute a food box. One food box feeds a family of four for three to five days.

Our intention is to acquire and distribute more produce; improving the nutritional content of an emergency food box. Our efforts are paying off and statewide we are seeing an uptick of healthy choices being offered throughout the Network.

Let me share April's story, just one individual of the over 900,000 people we serve in Oregon and Clark County, Wash.

Many people are struggling from payday to payday, turning to resources such as SNAP and food banks to get by.

I haven’t been to a food pantry before this. I put myself through college. I’ve had two jobs and worked 50 hours a week on many occasions. But the school I worked for restructured, so right now I’m unemployed. I can’t even find a minimum wage job. My budget has been cut in half and the cost of food has gone up, so that’s what brought us to the food pantry.

I think cutting funding to SNAP is the worst thing we could do. My son and I get $100 a month for food from SNAP. A healthy nation is one with healthy people, healthy communities and a healthy economy. Cutting people’s access to nutrition forces people to eat less nutritious food and increases health problems in the long run. And our children’s growing brains need those nutrients.

Thank you for caring and sharing.

Back to all project reports

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.