In 2009, Montecucco Farms co-owners and brothers Brian and Jason Montecucco donated 25 tons of beets, or 5 percent of the annual yield; here, Brian holds a few pounds’ worth of a recent harvest. “It’s simple,” says Jason. “People need food. We have it
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In 2009, Montecucco Farms co-owners and brothers Brian and Jason Montecucco donated 25 tons of beets, or 5 percent of the annual yield; here, Brian holds a few pounds’ worth of a recent harvest. “It’s simple,” says Jason. “People need food. We have it
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Nina Diouf, kitchen co-manager at Sisters of the Road, stirs up the morning’s meals. Some customers pay the $1.25 the kitchen charges for a meal (25 cents more for a drink), but just as often they pitch in, emptying trash, cleaning tables, or doing wh
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Nina Diouf, kitchen co-manager at Sisters of the Road, stirs up the morning’s meals. Some customers pay the $1.25 the kitchen charges for a meal (25 cents more for a drink), but just as often they pitch in, emptying trash, cleaning tables, or doing wh
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Carlos Bebolla balances atop the air circulation pipes of Hale Farms’ potato storage shed in Boardman, Oregon. The farm is part of the Farmers Ending Hunger network, which will deliver two million pounds of fully processed crops and livestock to the O
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Carlos Bebolla balances atop the air circulation pipes of Hale Farms’ potato storage shed in Boardman, Oregon. The farm is part of the Farmers Ending Hunger network, which will deliver two million pounds of fully processed crops and livestock to the O
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Duane Ditchen (pictured) and his twin brother, Darrin, of Golden Valley East in Silverton, joined four other growers to launch Farmers Ending Hunger in 2006. Their first act as an organization was to donate 173,000 pounds of green peas to the Oregon F
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Duane Ditchen (pictured) and his twin brother, Darrin, of Golden Valley East in Silverton, joined four other growers to launch Farmers Ending Hunger in 2006. Their first act as an organization was to donate 173,000 pounds of green peas to the Oregon F
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Greg Satrum donates a pallet of eggs (720 dozen) to the Oregon Food Bank every week. They’re collected from chickens at Willamette Egg Farms, the farm his great-uncle and great-grandfather started in Canby 75 years ago.
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Greg Satrum donates a pallet of eggs (720 dozen) to the Oregon Food Bank every week. They’re collected from chickens at Willamette Egg Farms, the farm his great-uncle and great-grandfather started in Canby 75 years ago.
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In 2009, volunteers donated 93,000 hours of work at the Oregon Food Bank’s 108,000-square-foot North Portland warehouse—the equivalent of 45 full-time employees and $1.5 million in pay. In a typical year, Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, Washington, sell
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In 2009, volunteers donated 93,000 hours of work at the Oregon Food Bank’s 108,000-square-foot North Portland warehouse—the equivalent of 45 full-time employees and $1.5 million in pay. In a typical year, Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, Washington, sell
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Residents of downtown Portland’s Blanchet House can stay as long as four months if they “work the floor,” serving some 600 meals each day. They are typically joined by 10 volunteers at every meal. The Oregon Food Bank provides about 10 percent of the
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Residents of downtown Portland’s Blanchet House can stay as long as four months if they “work the floor,” serving some 600 meals each day. They are typically joined by 10 volunteers at every meal. The Oregon Food Bank provides about 10 percent of the
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For the past year, Bob and Michelle Betcone and their son, Brian, have been delivering food to the hungry through their church, All Saints Parish. Volunteer efforts like theirs are the final step in a chain that often begins in the fields of farms acr
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For the past year, Bob and Michelle Betcone and their son, Brian, have been delivering food to the hungry through their church, All Saints Parish. Volunteer efforts like theirs are the final step in a chain that often begins in the fields of farms acr
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About the photographers: Steven Scardina has long volunteered at St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantry, one of the 935 agencies that belong to the Oregon Food Bank’s network. So when he and Lincoln Barbour, Brian Lee, Stuart Mullenberg, a
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About the photographers: Steven Scardina has long volunteered at St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantry, one of the 935 agencies that belong to the Oregon Food Bank’s network. So when he and Lincoln Barbour, Brian Lee, Stuart Mullenberg, a
Brian Montecucco and Nina Diouf typically arrive at their jobs before the sun’s first rays appear. And though they live just 28 miles apart, they might as well be on different sides of the planet. Montecucco deploys the workers on his family farm on the Willamette River as Diouf stirs up the first of the 225 meals served each day at Sisters of the Road in Portland’s Old Town. Yet the two are linked by a sprawling statewide food chain designed and built by the Oregon Food Bank.
With its 108,000-square-foot North Portland warehouse serving as the command center, the Oregon Food Bank is a vast web of relationships: 935 hunger relief agencies and 20 regional food banks spread across the entire state, all supplied by supermarket chains, food wholesalers, and nearly 200 growers. In 2009, the bank delivered 785,569 food boxes (each includes enough food for 40 home-cooked meals) and provided most of the ingredients for 3.8 million emergency meals served in places like Sisters of the Road.
In many states, multiple food banks compete and overlap with one another, but the Oregon Food Bank is a streamlined delivery system that’s been able to respond to the region’s escalating need for food with stunning efficiency and breadth. Even though total cash donations shrank by 23 percent over 2009, the number of individual contributions grew by nearly 18 percent. Volunteer hours rose to 93,000—the equivalent of 45 full-time employees and $1.5 million in salaries.
So look around and give thanks. Although 6.6 percent of the state’s households regularly experience hunger (Oregon is second only to Mississippi in need), we are blessed with a dedicated network of farmers and volunteers who work with the Oregon Food Bank to ease some of that hunger.
