Linn Benton Food Share Receives Comcast Foundation Grant

Susan James, Food Share Gleaning and Volunteer Coordinator,(left) and Mike Gibson, Food Share Director(3rd from left) receive a grant for $1160 from Comcast Corvallis Technical Operations Manager, Mike Johnson, (2nd from left) and Bobbie Peebler, Comcast Administative Assistant for Corvallis/Salem (far right).

Linn Benton Food Share, a program of Community Services Consortium (CSC) received a grant of $1,160 from the Comcast Foundation. The grant came in addition to the help Comcast employees, their families and friends gave to Linn Benton Food Share as part of Comcast’s annual company-wide day of service last spring.

More than 80 volunteers assisted with projects at Linn Benton Food Share’s Tangent warehouse on Comcast Cares Day, April 25th. They repacked large bags of beans and rice into family sized servings, sorted thousands of pounds of canned goods from food drives, built a raised bed garden, donated a certificate for plant material, rebuilt a shed door, and replaced the old lock with a sturdier one.

“We really appreciate all the help the Comcast folks gave us and the grant will help us purchase staple goods,” said Mike Gibson, director of Linn Benton Food Share. “This is the second time we have been a recipient of Comcast Cares Day. They are all volunteers and it’s great to see them with their families and friends at the warehouse having a lot of fun while they are helping us out.”

“Linn Benton Food Share is really popular with our employees, said said Bobbie Peebler
They like to help in an area where they know they make a difference, giving back to the community is important to Comcast.”

Ryan McCambridge, Food Share Coordinator, said “We just don’t have to staff to complete all the projects and with the extra help from Comcast, it makes food distribution easier.”

Local businesses contributing to the Comcast Cares Day project, were XL Overhead Construction, Green & White Rock Products, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and U&D Nursery.

Linn Benton Food Share helps low-income people feed themselves and their families by soliciting, storing and distributing food through the warehouse to their 74 member agencies such as emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters for homeless persons, day care centers, senior centers and gleaning groups.

CSC Uses Stimulus Funds For Accelerated Training Course for Dislocated Workers

Community Services Consortium (CSC) is using stimulus money for an accelerated course in fabrication/welding designed by CSC staff to train dislocated workers in 20 weeks instead of the year and half normal course time. The goal is to get the 12 adult dislocated workers enrolled back in the workforce as soon as possible to resume their normal lives.

CSC’s Workforce and Education program designed the 20-week course by consulting the local community employers “We did a lot of research before we designed this class,” said Sue Mcguire-Thompson, Operations Manager for the CSC Workforce and Education Program. “By consulting local employers, we found the field that needed workers and we found what qualifications the workers needed to get jobs."

The dislocated workers, now half-way through the course, are learning to read blue prints, design work to specifications as well as other fabrication skills in addition to welding. “It is my dream come true,” said one participant. “This is just the training I need. And after being laid off from work, I realize an often heard saying is true – ‘When one door closes, another door opens’.”

Lake Cheadle, a Lasting Legacy for the Community

Getting kids outdoors and involved in creating an exciting and safe place of exploration was a major goal of the Lake Cheadle Youth Legacy Grant proposal submitted by the City of Lebanon. The Lake Cheadle project was awarded in the fall of 2008 and one of just 5 Youth Legacy Grants awarded in Oregon to celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday.

Community youths are clearly promenate stakeholders in the ongoing lake projects. CSC youths have been involved in the Cheadle Lake Project since the call for help was first given in 2008. Jennifer Costelow, Santiam Wilderness Academy crew leader and Katie Stubblefield, YouthBuild AmeriCorps crew leader took their crews of youth to join other community youth and volunteers in creating public access and parking to the lake, clearing invasive blackberries, building gravel and water trails, building boat and fishing docks, and evaluating fish and wildlife habitats.

Barbara Roberts, former Oregon governor joined several Lebanon city administrators July 8th in a ceremony to unveil a polished granite monument in the shape of Oregon honoring the volunteers and partners who worked on making the Lake Cheadle a reality in just 10 months. Community Services Consortium is prominently carved in the list of partners honored.

“Thanks to all the kids who were part of this project and will be part of it in the future , your community is going to use it for generations," said Roberts. “It will still be here long after Oregon’s next big birthday.”

Lebanon’s Youth Legacy Project includes a grant award of $37,175 for a total project cost of $94,905. The project includes in-kind match valued at $57,730.

Summer Youth Crews Video

Check out this great video of our 2008 summer youth crews. Who knew mud flats could be so inspirational? If the video's not working properly, watch here.

CSC accepts online donations!

Currently, you can submit donations online to the following CSC programs through the Network for Good website:

• To make an online donation to Linn Benton Food Share, visit Network for Good,LBFS


• For Housing, Employment and Learning Programs for Self-Sufficiency (HELPS) contributions, visit Network for Good: HELPS


• For Community Housing Services donations, visit Network for Good: HCS


• For donations to Head Start of Lincoln County visit Network for Good: Head Start