Oregon Food Bank

Our mission
To eliminate hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry.

Thank you blues fans!
The Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival not only brings the best blues artists to Portland, Ore., it is a major benefit for Oregon Food Bank. Last year, blues fans donated $545,000 and 103,500 pounds of food to fight hunger and its root causes.

What is Oregon Food Bank?
Oregon Food Bank is the hub of a statewide network of close to 919 hunger-relief agencies and programs serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash. Oregon Food Bank recovers food from farms, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, individuals and government sources.

It distributes that food to 20 regional food banks across Oregon. Sixteen of those regional food banks are independent, nonprofit agencies. Oregon Food Bank directly operates the four regional food banks serving the Portland metro area, southeast Oregon and Tillamook. Those four centers distribute food to 340 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs helping low-income individuals in Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Clark, Harney, Malheur and Tillamook.

Oregon Food Bank also works to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy and public education.

Who’s hungry?

• Families and chilren face the greatest need. In an average month, 72,000 children in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., eat meals from an emergency food box. Children who are hungry have more trouble learning. Early childhood hunger and malnutrition can result in irreversible health problems, such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney and heart disease, later in life.
• Most adults who receive emergency food are working, retired or disabled.
• Hunger is an income problem. The high cost of housing, health care, childcare and fuel make it difficult for low-income individuals and families to have enough money to pay for food.

Each month, Oregon Food Bank Network’s 357 food pantries distributes emergency food boxes to an estimated 194,000 people -- 37 percent of whom are children --in Oregon and Clark County, Wash. A typical food box provides a three-to-five-day supply of groceries.

In addition 181 soup kitchens and shelters provided 3.9-million emergency meals and 346 other agencies helped more than 80,000 people.

Last year, Oregon Food Bank collected and distributed 34.3-million pounds of food. In total, the Oregon Food Bank Network of 884 programs and agencies distributed 57.9-million pounds of food to people in need.