PORTLAND, Ore. — What helps run the Oregon Food Bank? A team of volunteers who donate their time, packing up boxes of food to help those who in need make sure they have a meal on their table.
“We are living through the worst rates of hunger since the Great Depression; it’s a hundred-year flood of hunger,” said Susannah Morgan, the president of the Oregon Food Bank.
Morgan said last year they saw nearly two million people looking for help.
“Last year, we had 1.9 million visits at food assistance sites across Oregon and Southwest Washington; that’s up 14% from the year prior,” said Morgan.
Morgan added that she sees a couple of reasons behind the rise in people needing help. One being the high cost of housing, and the other one is the rising cost of healthcare.
One person who knows that need firsthand is Celia Ferrer, the community philanthropy associate director of the Oregon Food Bank. At one point during the pandemic, she lost her job and had to turn to SNAP for assistance.
She admitted it wasn’t easy to ask for assistance, but today, she spends her time helping others.
“It’s very empowering and very fulfilling for me because here at the Oregon Food Bank. We believe people with lived experiences are the ones who are able to identify and also advance solutions,” said Ferrer.
Just walking through the warehouse in Northeast Portland, you really get an idea of how many lives they help every day.
“Here at this warehouse, we distribute one million pounds of food in the metro area, and over Oregon and Southwest Washington, we distribute 104 million pounds of food,” said Ferrer.
The KGW Great Food Drive is a major public service campaign that addresses hunger issues in communities throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. The goal is to collect enough donations to provide more than 1.2 million meals of food for local area residents. Find out how to help here.