Community Services Consortium

Serving Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties in Oregon. Helping people. Changing lives.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Around the Network with Linn Benton Food Share


Around the Network – July 2015

Linn Benton Food Share


St Vincent de Paul volunteers demonstrate shopping in
the newly remodeled pantry (note the terrific new cart!).
Another shopping-style conversion.  Things are bustling at St Vincent de Paul Pantry in Corvallis!  The intrepid Pantry Board really, really wanted to convert to a shopping-style pantry, so they undertook an entire remodel of their current pantry space in order to accommodate their dream!  Their beautiful “new” pantry now boasts wide aisles with shopper- friendly, labeled shelving, spiffy easy-to-operate carts and an entire wall of commercial freezer and refrigerator units – obtained with help from a NSF Shopping Style Conversion grant!  Pantry Manager Olive Davis reports very happy clients and volunteers.  She urges her crew to “Err on the side of more food!” when assisting people as they shop.  

                                                                                                 

Bob, with Mid-Valley Gleaners,
proudly displays his prolific tomato plant.
Patio Project in 3rd Year.  When Susan James, Food Share’s Gleaning Program Coordinator, first had the idea for a Patio Project – providing containers with a few donated plants to housebound elderly and disabled gleaning program members – she thought she would be lucky to get donations of a few hundred bedraggled end-of-season plants.   Now in its 3rd year, program is a resounding hit with both nursery staff donors and recipients.  By the end of June, Susan had scored 4,565 beautiful donated veggie plants from area nurseries, secured discounted potted soil,  and  – with the help of Deb from Food For Lane County – came up with the 5 gallon pots to plant the veggies.  Food Share’s 14 non-profit gleaning groups went to work potting and distributing.  Soon, fresh home-grown veggies will be just a step away for many delighted people.





OFB Muesli, a key ingredient in Stephanie’s
Pie Cherry Muesli dessert  for June!
Food demos hit the spot in Jefferson.  The community of Jefferson straddles Linn and Marion counties and boasts a relatively new but thriving food pantry at the local Methodist Church.  The Jefferson Community Food Pantry has a Leadership Team that is always looking for better ways to assist the people they serve.  A couple of months ago, they started hosting food demos – cooked up by a pantry supporter who loves to make healthy meals from scratch for her 3 teenagers.   For each dinner demo, Stephanie uses ingredients available during that day’s distribution and these products are cleverly indicated on the pantry shelves for shoppers to easily find.

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