Kitchen
When FOOD for Lane County started food rescue operations in 1994, the agency rented kitchen space from the Eugene school district. Today, more than 1,000 volunteers work in our 3,000-square-foot industrial kitchen every year in support of the following programs:
Food Rescue Express
Summer Food Program
Family Dinner Program
Gardens Programs
Warehouse
With 26,000 square feet of warehouse space, we are able to receive millions of pounds of food every year from generous donors. Donated food comes from food drives, farmers, gleaners, retailers, individual and business donors, community gardens, wholesalers, restaurants,
Oregon Food Bank,
America’s Second Harvest and the
USDA.
In 1998, before moving into our new facility in 1999, FOOD for Lane County had to turn away 400,000 pounds of donated food, due in large part to inadequate freezer space. Our 27,000 cubic foot freezer helps us store and distribute nearly 6 million pounds of wholesome and nutritious food every year.
At the west end of our warehouse is our agency loading area. Representatives from a diverse network of agencies and programs, including food pantries, emergency shelters, supplemental food programs, community meal sites and social services agencies, come to pick up their food orders five days a week.
Murals
Gracing our entryway and lobby wall are murals by local artists Alison McNair and Jamie King. The murals, depicting a Willamette Valley street scene and community garden, feature a
poem by the celebrated Chilean poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature Pablo Neruda. The themes from this poem are woven into the signs depicted on our entryway donor mural. The lettering of the poem and the donor names on the mural were painted by local artist Lari Kilolani. A friend of FOOD for Lane County passed this poem on to us several years ago and its central theme, that eating is a human right and hunger and poverty are social injustices, has earned a place in our shared philosophy.
A mural that covers the east wall of FFLC’s dining room in downtown Eugene was also created by Alison McNair and painted with the help of volunteers, dining room patrons, FFLC staff and the community. The project was made possible in part by a grant by Lane Arts Council with support from the City of Eugene Cultural Services Division and in-kind donations from Sunbelt Rentals, Jerry’s Home Improvement, Forrest Paint and Eugene True Value Hardware.
