FOOD for Lane County - One man’s story

One man’s story

I met a man at a food pantry run by Catholic Community Services last week. He was getting a food box. He said to me, "This is the first time I’ve ever done this. I just didn’t plan." This man has a job. He has a home. He just needed a little extra help to make it to the next payday. What broke my heart was when he said, "It’s ok. I can go a week without food." He said it so matter of factly, I knew he’d gone without food before.

I’m glad Catholic Community Services was there for him. If that pantry, which gets its food from FOOD for Lane County, hadn’t been there, he might’ve had to go two or three days without food. There are only so many times you can tell the people at the bagel bakery that you want the day olds for the ducks. How long before he doesn’t pay his car insurance, home insurance or health insurance, if he even has any? And if he gets injured or sick and is out of work, he might lose his house.

Nearly one million Oregonians are in a similar financially precarious situation, trying to survive on incomes 200 percent below the federal poverty level ("The State of Hunger," Oregon Food Bank). But you might not know it if you saw them. Most recipients would rather not let anyone know that they are receiving assistance. On average most families only request a food box three or fewer times in a year.

Even with only three requests per family, FOOD for Lane County is still serving 20 percent of the population of Lane County every year. That’s one out of every five people. Of that, 32,000 are children. The people we serve are families with children, single adults, retired seniors, working and disabled. Forty-two percent of the households we serve have at least one working adult. More than half of the families with children have at least one working adult. Twenty-two percent are disabled.

We know that the people we serve appreciate the food they get from us through our countywide network of 100 programs and social service agencies. We know because they tell us or they tell someone at the agency where they got the help.

What recipients cannot always appreciate because they don't see it is the infrastructure that exists to get that food to them. They see the food box they get from their food pantry or the hot meal at the Dining Room or the Saturday morning breakfast. What they don’t see are the grocery stores that contribute 40 percent of the food we receive from local donors. They don’t see the wholesalers, fruit brokers, meat packers and dairies that donate thousands of pounds of food every year. They don’t see the gardens, farms, gleaners and co-ops that contribute fresh produce. They don’t see the thousands of people that organize hundreds of food drives throughout the year, adding food to the system and generating awareness around hunger and poverty.

They don’t see the more than 2,000 volunteers who make it possible for FOOD for Lane County to distribute 6 million pounds of food a year. Without them we couldn’t do what we do as efficiently as we do it. They don’t see that countywide network of 100 programs and agencies that partner with FOOD for LaneCounty to provide food. They don’t see the trucks and the warehouse and the staff and the kitchen and the cold food storage. But it’s there.

FOOD for Lane County is the hub of all of this with one mission: to eliminate hunger in our community by creating access to food. And we believe that as a community, working together, we are accomplishing that mission.