I'm a big fan of Oregon Food Bank. I began volunteering for Oregon Food Bank after I took the Organic Gardening Certification Program in fall of 2008. There's a volunteer component for that program and for mine I volunteered at Oregon Food Bank's Eastside Learning Garden as well as planted a row of veggies in my backyard for its Plant a Row for the Hungry program.
Now, thanks to Tami Parr of Pacific Northwest Cheese Project I'm participating in the annual event that Parr founded -- Blog For Food! -- a big, beautiful blog project geared toward raising money for OFB.
Mid-March harvest of collard greens from OFB Eastside Learning Garden
From February 15th until March 15th Oregon bloggers are blogging it up in an effort to raise dough for OFB.
According to Tami Parr:
The reality is that the economy has tanked over the past few months. That's not news. And as I'm sure you're already aware, joblessness is increasing rapidly. Unemployment rates all over the country are skyrocketing. What that means is that there are a lot of people in need...the Oregon Food Bank set a record for food distribution in 2008-09; according to CEO Rachel Bristol, OFB distributed more food last year than it ever has in its history. That's pretty incredible. (see the full news release here).
If you're able to donate go here and/or click the link on the logo at the top of this post. When donating be sure to add the note "blog for food" in the "In Honor of" section on the Food Bank donation page, so that the totals can be tracked.
If you're a blogger and want to participate head here.
A friend's wife just started a new position at Oregon Food Bank and I'm looking forward to keeping up with the organization more through her. A little trivia: guess where Portland Farmers Market executive director Ann Forsthoefel first worked when she moved to Portland? You got it -- Oregon Food Bank.
Oregon Food Bank 7900 NE 33rd Dr., Portland 503.282.0922 www.oregonfoodbank.org