Seaside High School teacher David Lehigh began feeding students with one loaf of bread each month, and the occasional jars of peanut butter and jelly. "Kids can't be creative if they're hungry," says Lehigh, who teaches art.
Five years later, students eat their way through a monthly 50 loaves, 3 to 4 gallons of peanut butter and 8 or 9 quarts of strawberry jam, some packing sandwiches into backpacks to take with them after class.
It's difficult to gauge whether they haven't had enough to eat at home or they're simply hungry, growing teenagers. But Lehigh figured in Seaside - home to one of the state's most transient, high-poverty student populations - ensuring students have some food couldn't hurt.
Nutritious, inexpensive foods were Mary Catherine Muniz's priority for her book "Delectable Dishes For Less" Frederick D. Joe/The OregonianMary Catherine Muniz saw a need for a cookbook that uses food bank staples. So the 18-year-old spent 70 hours writing one as a Girl Scout project. Mary Catherine Muniz didn't have to go far to find a project worthy of a Gold Award, the Girl Scouts' top honor. Her West Linn kitchen offered all the ingredients. This summer, the 18-year-old spent close to 70 hours collecting and testing recipes built around canned tuna, beans, potatoes and other inexpensive staples distributed by her local food bank. She hopes her new recipe booklet, "Delectable Dishes for Less," now available at the West Linn Food Pantry, will help families solve a common dilemma: how to get dinner on the table quickly, using the most affordable, nutritious foods at their fingertips.
By Harrison Baker
Tidings correspondent
Rising food prices continue to take a toll on low-income families and the Ashland Emergency Food Bank acquired new grant funding this year to help meet the demand.
The all-volunteer food bank has never applied for a grant in more than 30 years of operation.
Vice president Ann Marie Hutson first sought grant funding in November as demand began to outstrip supply. In November of 2006, the food bank served 141 people. In November of 2007, that number jumped to 614.
"Our numbers are continuing to go up," Hutson said.
Posted by Steve Suo August 26, 2008 03:00AM
March 21, 2008
Six Oregon schools, including two elementary schools in Portland and the high school in Milton-Freewater, were named state champions at raising achievement among low-income and minority students Thursday.
It marks the fourth time that Oregon Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo has heralded schools that did the most in the state to close the achievement gap. Each winning school gets $3,000.
Boise-Eliot School, a kindergarten through seventh-grade school in North Portland, was heralded for strong reading scores. The school serves mainly low-income students and is 60 percent African American, and 90 percent of its students read at grade level.
Illinois Valley News
From our weekly issue dated August 27, 2008
By SCOTT JORGENSON
Special to IVN
Approximately 240 citizens from southern, central, western and eastern Oregon converged Thursday, Aug. 21 for the first Oregon Rural Congress (ORC), at the Port of Cascade Locks some 40 miles east of Portland.
Union County Commissioner Colleen MacLeod helped organize the event. In opening remarks, MacLeod said that the ORC aim is to devise solutions for the problems plaguing rural Oregon and forward them to Gov. Kulongoski and the Legislature.
The percentage of Americans without health insurance dropped nationwide in 2007, but Oregon's uninsured population remained about the same at 621,000, according to federal census data released today.
The Census Bureau figures also show Oregon's median household income climbed modestly between 2006 and 2007 while its poverty rate dropped slightly, mirroring national trends.
Median household income climbed in Oregon from $47,388 to $48,730 in 2007, still lagging below the national average of $50,740. The Census estimated 474,000 Oregonians lived in poverty in 2007, about 12.9 percent of the population. That's down from a rate of 13.3 percent in 2006, but not a statistically significant drop.
The state on Monday said it has awarded major federal grants to Cottage Grove for a new mental health center and to Coos Bay for a new food bank distribution center.
The awards are included in $2.6 million worth of federal community development block grants awarded by the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department for nine city and county projects.
“Community development block grants provide critical financing for Oregon communities that are working on infrastructure projects. Our partnerships enable communities to move forward with vital projects while leveraging funding to stretch dollars as far as possible,” Director Tim McCabe said.
Matthew Shea is headed to Oklahoma and hopes to be a youth pastor
Monday, August 18, 2008
MICHELLE COLE
The Oregonian Staff
Like a lot of 18-year-olds headed to college, Matthew Shea admits he's a bit nervous. But unlike most people his age, Shea starts classes this week knowing he's tackled tough challenges before.
Shea was born with a disability that affects his speech and physical coordination, and has spent nearly half his life in state foster care. When he told his caseworkers and foster mom that he intended to go to a university in Oklahoma, they suggested he instead consider a local community college. At least for the first year.
It's not that they don't believe in Shea. But the reality is, teens who leave foster care after they turn 18 often have a difficult transition to life on their own.
National statistics indicate they are less likely to earn a college degree and more likely to become homeless, single parents or need public assistance. The odds for a disabled teen leaving foster care are even more daunting.
Oregon has organizations to assist low-income families in breaking the cycle of homelessness
By Thelma Guerrero-Huston and Tracy Loew • Statesman Journal
August 18, 2008
Many local children grow up with little stability in their lives.
Marion County has more children in poverty than the state average. More children change schools here than in 32 other Oregon counties.
But local organizations are working to help break that cycle of poverty, homelessness and school transience.
Financial stability
Sometimes, just a little goes a long way.
Helping change or make life more bearable for individuals and low-income families with children younger than 18 is one of the premises for a number of state agencies and nonprofit groups in Marion and Polk counties.
For the past 40 years, the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency has been working to improve the lives and conditions of people in the two counties.
Last year, the nonprofit group assisted more than 26,000 individuals, families and households of all ages, ethnicities and races through the seven service programs that it offers.
While the homes at the Street of Dreams are all about luxury and big spaces, the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland recognizes that far too many people have no home at all. As a way of helping those in need, it has designated the Home Builders Foundation as its official charity for this year's event.
Donations to the foundation will come from vendors, subcontractors, real estate brokers and others involved with the building and sale of Sonoma, the Street of Dreams home built by Shelburne Development, headed by Greg Heinze.
The charitable arm of the HBA, the foundation was started in 1997 and is headed by Mel Tashima Duncan. One of its roles is awarding high school and college scholarships and supporting educational opportunities for young people seeking careers in the building industry.
Thousands of hours of work by volunteers, Christian and otherwise, lead up to CityFest
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
NANCY HAUGHT
The Oregonian Staff
Nathan Brown is 5 and pretty handy with a putty knife. Saturday he pried pounds of previously chewed gum that had been stuck under desks at Gresham's Sam Barlow High School for who knows how long.
Wearing blue plastic gloves, Nathan gathered up the sticky globs and dropped them in a trash can nearby. It's the kind of work that janitors used to do, before shrinking budgets and an endless list of higher priorities pulled them away.
But Saturday, Nathan and his mom, Christine Brown, were among 675 volunteers who helped clean, paint and landscape both Barlow and Sandy high schools. Across the Portland-Vancouver area, in at least a dozen places, volunteers racked up the last of 26,000 hours of community service in the last four months. Evangelist Luis Palau hopes to celebrate this Season of Service Friday and Saturday at Waterfront Park.
Four years ago, driving back to Hermiston from a meeting in Portland, agricultural consultant Fred Ziari couldn't stop thinking about what he'd just seen.
"I was just totally blown away by the fact that Oregon had been number one in the country in hunger for a decade," recalls Ziari. "People like me, who were involved in agriculture, were totally ignorant of that."
What he did know, after 26 years in agriculture in Hermiston, was that Oregon is a spectacular place for growing food. And he thought about the message that people brought back from Mother Teresa in India: "Do what is in front of you."
So he put together a PowerPoint presentation for some of the farmers he worked with, explaining the situation and asking them to help.
"Everyone said yes," he remembers, "and everyone said, 'Nobody'd asked us.' "
Cans Film Festival not canceled, may be held this spring
By Ron Cowan • Statesman Journal
August 9, 2008
The annual Cans Film Festival, a major fall fundraiser for Marion-Polk Food Share, has been postponed — but not canceled.
Apparently, many area food banks misunderstood a discussion at an Oregon Food Bank meeting last week: The Food Share told the Statesman Journal on Thursday that the festival had been canceled.
Barbara Peschiera, director of development at Oregon Food Bank, clarified on Friday.
At the meeting, she said, she had told the groups, "It's not going to happen this September."
Marcus Henderson, a former walk-on seeking the center's job, survived abuse from his father and loss of his home
Thursday, August 14, 2008
PAUL BUKER and RICK BELLA
The Oregonian Staff
CORVALLIS -- For the sixth-graders at Oak Creek Elementary in Lake Oswego, it was a jaw-dropping experience.
A huge man wearing an Oregon State football uniform bearing No. 65 -- a former student at their school -- was standing in front of the classroom in June, delivering an inspirational presentation about how he overcame an abusive childhood.
He spoke of trauma no child should experience, finding his mother, sister and himself practically homeless and going to bed hungry more nights than he could remember.
Teacher Jane Lierman's students were spellbound. They said afterward they couldn't believe someone who lived in Lake Oswego could fight so many battles as a child. Now, four years after walking on at Oregon State, Marcus Henderson has a new battle on his hands: competing to be the starting center when the Beavers open the season Aug. 28 at Stanford.
Mortgage relief act includes benefits for state, investors
By Peter Wong • Statesman Journal
August 4, 2008
Oregon home buyers and renters will have an expanded supply of housing as a result of federal legislation signed by President Bush last week.
Although attention has focused on the bill's much-debated mortgage relief for 400,000 U.S. homeowners and potential financial rescue of the nation's two largest home-mortgage insurers, Oregon's top housing official said the bill also will enable the state and private investors to pay for additional housing.
"We're most pleased to report that Oregonians will share in the benefits that Congress, including most members of the state's delegation, approved and the president signed," said Victor Merced, director of the Department of Housing and Community Services.
Derby collects nearly 4,000 pounds of tuna for food banks
By Alex Powers, Staff Photographer Monday, August 11, 2008
One fish, two fish. No, 3,886 pounds of fish.
That’s how much albacore tuna competitors donated to the South Coast Food Share, following the first-ever Charleston leg of the Oregon Tuna Classic sport fishing derby Saturday.
The Tuna Classic began four years ago as a fundraising event in Garibaldi. A few teams of anglers raced for the biggest albacore, and the proceeds — fish and money — went to the Oregon Food Bank.
Golf tournament at Stone Creek benefits food bank, children’s center
By Ellen Spitaleri
The Oregon City News, Aug 12, 2008
Tonia Hunt, executive director of the Children’s Center of Clackamas County, and left to right, Tim Nystrom and Larry and Nancy Carnahan invite golfers to play for a good cause at the John L. Scott Charity Golf Tournament on Aug. 22.
Golfers of Clackamas County – get ready to scramble!
The second annual John L. Scott charity golf tournament tees off on Friday, Aug. 22, and participants can enjoy a round of golf while playing for a good cause – proceeds will benefit the Children’s Center of Clackamas County and the Oregon Food Bank.
Organizers of the event include Larry and Nancy Carnahan, owners and principal brokers of Oregon City’s John L. Scott Real Estate, Tim Nystrom, senior loan officer for Response Mortgage Services and Ken Riley, also a principal broker for John L. Scott.
Rocky economy - Metro food demands are getting "more intense," officials say
Thursday, July 31, 2008
SARAH DUNLAP The Oregonian
The Oregonian
Last June, the Tualatin School House Pantry served 273 families, allotting them each about a week's worth of groceries.
This year, that number hit 414, making it the busiest June in the pantry's history, said Linda Moholt, the pantry's spokeswoman.
With the cost of living rising and wages stagnant, statistics such as those are a common occurrence among Oregon's metropolitan food pantries, said Rachel Bristol, chief executive of the Oregon Food Bank.
According to Bristol's numbers, Washington County food banks have seen a 12 percent increase in demand from last year.
"What I'm hearing from our families is, 'My hours were reduced' and 'I lost my job,' " Moholt said. "A lot of our folks have construction and service jobs, and people just aren't spending money. If you come in and take a picture of our shelves, you'll see huge empty spaces."
Oregon Food Bank's Learning Garden in Hillsboro seeks volunteers for its Dig In! program.
OFB Learning Gardens offer the Dig In! program to allow community members to help fight hunger by growing nutritious, organic produce to be distributed at hunger-relief agencies.
Volunteers help tend the garden. Typical activities include weeding, watering, planting, harvesting produce and more.
Individuals and groups are welcome. No prior gardening experience is necessary. All ages are welcome, but youth under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Dig In! volunteer shifts are from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
BREMERTON -- Among the record number of voters expected to cast ballots this fall may be an increase from an often-invisible population -- the homeless.
Advocacy groups and shelters across the country have stepped up efforts to register the 3.5 million people who drift in and out of homelessness in the United States.
"Just because we're homeless or low income doesn't mean we don't have an opinion," said Estelle Bearcub, who plans to vote for Barack Obama. "It's our right to vote. And it's our right to have our opinion count, too."
