Food distribution event a trial run for future events - Ontario Argus Observer

ONTARIO — Friday’s Emergency Food Distribution event at Beck Kiwanis Park was a practice run for a larger event scheduled for June 19 at the same park and time, from 1 p.m. to 3. p.m.

Early in the first hour of Friday’s distribution, vehicles were lined up into the park driveway and on to Northwest Eighth Avenue, and there was a concern among the volunteers that the 200 boxes of food would run out quickly. But by the start of the second hour, traffic was down to a trickle and by 2:30 p.m. there was still plenty of boxes left, even though several people were picking up boxes for more than one family.

The box of non-perishable food contained such things as canned fruits and vegetables and beef stew, cereal and soup, Juan Rodriguez, with the Oregon Food Bank, said.

For the June 19 event there will also be frozen food and produce in addition to the non-perishable food and it is anticipated that at least 200 food boxes will be given away at that event.

The event is for Oregon residents only and people will be able to arrange for delivery of boxes if they are not able to reach the distribution site.

The distributions are a project of the Oregon Food Bank-Southeast Oregon Services, supported by the Ontario hub of the Nutrition Oregon Campaign, a program from Oregon Health & Science University.

The idea for Friday’s “pop-up” food distribution came during a presentation by Sheila Hiatt, local food distributor and manager, to the Ontario nutrition hub, according to a statement by hub coordinator Lindsay Grosvenor. Members of the hub had decided to focus on food insecurity in the local area, she said.

“The goal of the pop-up food distribution event is to get a feel for how much the current situation has increased food insecurity, as well as provide Malheur County an opportunity to be ‘proactive.’ A mass emergency food distribution event or something like this needs to be done in the future,” Grosvenor said. “We realized this was an ideal opportunity to join forces and see how we could tackle this together. It also provides an opportunity to, help our local food bank and bring the community together around our work with the Nutrition Oregon Campaign.”

Other participating Organizations include Friday’s event were Valley Family Health care, Oregon Department of Human Services, Malheur County Health Department, Malheur Council on Aging and Community Services, Malheur Education Service District, Oregon State University. Extension, Oregon Child Development Coalition and the city of Ontario.

“We’ve learned a lot today,” Grosvenor said, toward the end of the two hours. “There is a need.”