With each Tyson Foods truck delivery, we have asked our local partners to tell the story of hunger in their state and showcase the good work of volunteers and donors. On Thursday, July 29, we delivered a truckload to one of the food banks serving the Beaver State – Oregon Food Bank in Portland. Here is their story:
What is meal time like at your house? For many of us it’s a time of abundance and of sharing with family and friends. Now imagine that you’re unemployed and looking for work, or working at a low-paying job without benefits. Every day is a struggle to keep the bills paid and to put food on the table for your family.
For record numbers of people in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., meals are prepared with food from emergency food boxes. Rather than having abundance to share, meal times mean stretching a limited budget as far as possible and sometimes doing without.
Hundreds of new families are walking in the doors of local food pantries … people who have never asked for help before … people who had family-wage jobs, lost jobs and have run out of resources.
People like Bill, from Beaverton.
“Four years ago I was making $150,000 to $180,000 a year,” he says. “I have four kids, one was in college and one was about to go to college. We had a great house, nice cars, the life everyone was hoping for. Then my company shut down. I missed a few house payments. Last August, we lost our house and my car. I never thought that at the age of 54 I would have to move into my mother-in-law’s home.”
While many people are seeking emergency food for the first time, the struggle continues to get worse for our senior citizens on fixed incomes, the disabled and working poor.
Requests for emergency food have reached unprecedented levels throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash. Each month more than 240,000 people eat meals from emergency food boxes. Of those, households with children face greatest need. 36 percent of those eating meals from emergency food boxes each month are children 18 and under. Childhood hunger isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s dangerous. Children who are hungry have more trouble learning in school, and early childhood hunger and malnutrition can result in irreversible health problems, such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney and heart disease, later in life.
“You’re even more desperate when you have kids,” says Tammy, an emergency food box recipient from Beaver, Ore.
Rhonda describes her struggles as a single parent trying to make ends meet.
“I’ve found that you try to pay the monsters at the door, she says. “You pay the rent, you pay the car insurance. You pay all the other hands and then you pay the fridge. The fridge is always the last thing to be paid.”
Oregon Food Bank works to eliminate hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry. Oregon Food Bank serves as the hub of a statewide network of more than 20 regional food banks and 935 hunger-relief agencies throughout Oregon and Clark County, Wash. We also work to address hunger’s root causes through public policy advocacy, and nutrition and garden education programs.
OFB anticipates people in our service area will feel the effects of this recession for the next several years. It takes time for people to get back on their feet once they’ve lost their jobs, their health care and their homes. As we’ve seen in past recessions, some people never recover as the wage gap continues to grow.
That’s why all donations, big and small are so important. We especially appreciate donations of high-quality protein, like Tyson chicken. We thank each member of our community that participated in the WeCanEndThis Campaign, and we thank Tyson Foods for the generous food donation that will make a difference for so many hungry families in our area.
Hunger in Idaho
With each Tyson Foods truck delivery, we have asked our local partners to tell the story of hunger in their state and showcase the good work of volunteers and donors. On Thursday, August 26, we delivered a truckload to the Idaho Foodbank in Boise. Here is their story:
This is typical of the letters we receive at The Idaho Foodbank. Families overcome with medical problems, parents laid off work, people who work two and three jobs to try to make ends meet. Thousands of Idaho families need food assistance every year. And now, people who used to donate have become recipients.
These situations are what drives The Idaho Foodbank. As an independent nonprofit organization, the Foodbank has served Idaho families for 26 years. During that time, we have worked with a network of independent partner agencies to distribute more than 85 million pounds of free emergency food to individuals and families in need. This network of over 200 partner agencies consists of emergency food pantries, community kitchens, shelters and programs that collectively work together to relieve hunger in Idaho.
More than a statewide distribution system, The Idaho Foodbank provides important services like the Backpack Program, Mobile Pantry, Grocery Alliance, Picnic in the Park (summer feeding) and Idaho Community Gardens. These programs fill the gaps which are otherwise unmet in communities that may lack resources to assist families and children in need. Combined, our food distribution network feeds 119,000 people a month in a state with a population of 1.5 million.
The Idaho Foodbank is wholly dependent upon donations received by individuals, corporate sponsors, grants and partnerships with local, state, and national donors to raise the food and funds needed to provide food to the network. As a member of Feeding America, The Idaho Foodbank is able to leverage donations it receives to acquire food at a rate of four pounds for every dollar received and to provide two meals for each dollar. Similar to the Idaho Foodbank’s network, Feeding America acts as a hub to over more than 200 partner independent food banks throughout the United States.
In Hunger in Idaho 2010, the largest hunger study ever conducted in the state, the Foodbank found:
During these uncertain times, more and more Idahoans are seeking emergency food assistance, many for the first time. Some of these new recipients were donors just a short time ago. With financial hardships and a difficult economy, for some Idahoans The Idaho Foodbank network is their only option. Many of the individuals and families that utilize the network many of them have offered up some of their stories and shared how hunger has affected them and how.
Everything we do and all the lives we touch are made possible by individuals like you, and partnerships such as this one with Tyson and those within each community we serve. It takes a community coming together to make a real difference and lift up our friends one meal at a time. Wecanendthis and CauseShift have set a great example of how, when we unite, we can make a change and truly understand the meaning of how Hunger Affects Everyone!
Donations of nutritious food and protein are especially difficult for food banks to find. The Tyson truck load of beef, chicken and pork is a veritable goldmine for our partners. Think of how many people will enjoy a mouthwatering meal with meat as the main course! On behalf of these families, seniors, and children who will enjoy a delicious meal, ‘thank you’ for supporting the campaign. It’s proof that, together, “WeCanEndThis.”
The Idaho Foodbank,
Leading the effort to end hunger in Idaho