Money for food

Meeting the needs of food banks

By Kim Carlson

January 29, 2009

We’re living in an era of bank failures. But there’s one bank in each of our communities that must not be allowed to go under: the local food bank.

As unemployment increases across the United States, so has the need for donations at food banks. The new executive branch of the federal government is committed to decreasing hunger worldwide, but there’s plenty of hunger right here at home.

Help out your own community by donating food and money. Or, if you’d rather donate time and effort, volunteer to organize food drives or fundraisers.

Kathleen Bauer, left, and Tami Parr have teamed up to raise money for their local food bank.

Which is exactly what two bloggers here in Portland are doing. Kathleen Bauer, of the blog Good Stuff NW, and Tami Parr, of the Pacific Northwest Cheese Project, have teamed up to sponsor Blog for Food.

It’s a February-long fundraiser for the Oregon Food Bank (OFB), the hub of a network of 915 hunger-relief agencies throughout Oregon and Clark County, Washington.

As participants in Blog for Food, regional bloggers agree to post about the campaign and display a logo on their blog linking to the donation page at OFB. Check out my member-page blog on Culinate for more information.

For more about feeding the hungry, check out these links:

• Feeding America, which features a food-bank locator, among other resources.
• The Wikipedia entry for the Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which minimizes donor liability for food donations.

Many nonprofits use the words “Together, we can make a difference.” And as it’s been said so much lately, “Yes, we can.” Let’s get to work, folks.