May 2022 • The Ongoing Demand
Message from the Director
I WENT FOR A RUN at Glendover Golf Course recently and had to stop regularly to admire the beauty of the green foliage in bloom. Our state is a place of amazing beauty in the Spring. The hard truth suddenly set in that the ability to enjoy the simplicity of nature is robbed from many of our neighbors who are regularly dealing with food insecurity.
Your willingness to financially support our pantry allows so many families in our community to enjoy Springtime. Families like Angela’s, a single Native American mom of six, who works several jobs to support her children but never has enough at the end of the month. Our pantry has regularly helped her “make ends meet” and provide her with a sense of assurance that her kids will never have to go hungry.
Just when we thought we would see a decrease in the number of individuals utilizing our services, the rise in food and gas prices keeps the monthly number of people that we are serving right around 4,000 individuals per month. Our volunteers continue to provide food as well as encouraging words of comfort for those who are working hard to keep their families stable. We could not do any of what we do without them ..
We are thrilled to announce that this Saturday, May 14 we will be having our annual Plant Sale event. Sarah Camp and her group of extremely hard-working ladies have been busy since last October growing and cultivating seedlings. In addition, several nurseries have partnered with them and generously donated to this amazing event. We would like to invite you to enjoy the Plant Sale taking place at 2014 SE 59th in Portland, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The goal this year is to surpass the $5,000 the sale collected in 2021. It will be a joy-filled time as Sarah’s grandchildren will be awaiting your arrival with their beautiful lemonade stand! Among other things, your support will be felt!
Our pantry is in the process of developing a delivery program for the community of elderly and disabled housebound members of Multnomah County. When the pandemic hit, the number of these individuals became abundantly clear. We have partnered with Oregon Food Bank and are working to support this community of individuals. We have already been serving some of these families and plan to continue to scale those numbers up as more of the necessary pieces fall in place. Like our drive-thru pantry, individuals will choose the food that they want placed in their boxes in accordance with their ethnic preferences.
*We need volunteer drivers, people to assemble the boxes and other volunteers. If you would like to find out more about these volunteer opportunities, please visit pobcpantry.com and submit a volunteer application, or you can call 503-442-8228 and let us know you are interested in learning more about our delivery program.
Lastly, we want to highlight the Marquis Foundation. They recently provided the pantry with a $15,000 check to help with some much-needed equipment! We are very grateful for their generosity and trust. In addition, we want to thank so many of you who came out to our “Share the Love” Gala. It was such a “Cinderella” night because of you. The pantry brought in $55,000 from the event and we have already began planning for next year!
Your contributions bring hope and stability to the families of our community, and we cannot thank you enough.
Betty Brown
Executive Director POBC Pantry
