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The Oregon
Food Bank Network to present Hunger Buster Awards
PORTLAND,
Ore.
– The Oregon Food Bank Network will honor people and groups, Thursday, April
21, for outstanding support to the statewide network of 20 regional food
banks.
2005 Hunger Buster Award recipients are Fred Meyer, Oregon State
University and its Extension Service, The Oregonian,
and Betsy Johnson and John Helm.
Jessica Chanay,
assistant director, FOOD for
Lane
County, will receive the Ron Cease
Award for regional food bank staff excellence.
Margaret Grant,
retired executive director of Marion-Polk Food Share in
Salem
will receive the Dennie Dustin Memorial Award for outstanding personal
service and leadership to the Oregon Food Bank Network.
“It is an honor to
recognize these wonderful individuals and organizations for their work and
dedication to the statewide network,” said Tracie Smith, director of
Columbia Pacific Food Bank in St. Helens and chair of the Oregon Food Bank
Network.
The Oregon Food Bank
Network is a cooperative statewide coalition of 20 regional food banks
working to eliminate hunger and its root causes by distributing donated food
to agencies serving low-income people and through advocacy and public
education about the underlying causes of hunger.
Hunger Buster Awards
- Fred Meyer
will receive the Hunger Buster Award for outstanding, innovative
corporate support of statewide food banking efforts in numerous ways
over many years.
Regional food banks praise Fred Meyer as a
major supporter of OFB’s Fresh Alliance program and for its efforts to
expand the program beyond the Portland metropolitan area to regional food
banks throughout the state. Fred Meyer stores successfully launched Fresh
Alliance programs in Redmond, Bend,
Medford, Grants Pass,
Roseburg and Eugene. Fresh Alliance is a program to increase retail
donations of high-quality, nutritious food such as dairy products, meat and
produce.
Moreover, each year for the past three
years, Fred Meyer has provided more than a million bags for the National
Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive and also has provided bags for the
Scouting for Food drive. Fred Meyer supported OFB’s Oregon Harvest Dinner.
Its employees volunteer to help fight hunger, and Mark Van Buskirk, senior
vice president, food group, contributes his time and expertise as a member
of OFB’s Board of Directors.
- Oregon State
University and OSU
Extension Service will receive the Hunger Buster Award for
outstanding support from an organization.
OSU has supported Linn Benton Food Share for
more than a decade. During the last five years, OSU has donated more than
$50,000 and more than 80,000 pounds of food and provided interns and
volunteers to help fight hunger in Linn and Benton counties. Most recently,
OSU has donated food from its kitchens and dining halls. OSU also supports
the OFB Network through public education about hunger issue, conducts and
analyzes hunger surveys and studies, publishes scholarly research on hunger
and organizes hunger awareness events.
OSU Extension Service has helped fight
hunger through numerous projects ranging from Life Skills classes in
McMinnville to nutrition education in Tillamook to Oregon Hunger Summit and
Community Food Assessment Workshop in southern Oregon. In addition, OSU
Extension nutrition coordinator has worked with OFB to develop and pilot OSU
Extension’s Family Food Education Program for low-income families.
- The Oregonian
will receive the Hunger
Buster Award for outstanding media support to the Oregon Food Bank
Network of regional food banks.
The Oregonian Publishing Co. has donated
more than $900,000 to OFB since 1989, including contributions through The
Oregonian’s Season of Sharing and gifts-in-kind and to OFB’s Capital
Campaign and Bridge Party. The Oregonian A&E has supported the A&E Front
Porch stage at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival for many years. And A&E
reporters, editors and critics create the essential Waterfront Blues program
and write advance stories and reviews that inform readers of this important
event. Moreover, The Oregonian’s reporters, writers, columnists – from the
editorial staff to FOODday writers to the A&E team to Season of Sharing
writers to feature writers and general assignment reporters – work to
provide accurate and timely information about hunger issues to a statewide
readership.
“We are fortunate to have a paper with so
many intelligent and thoughtful reporters who have the skills, talent and
journalistic judgment to describe complex hunger issues in words that
capture the interest of readers,” states the nomination.
Sen. Johnson and Helm and
their family’s Samuel Johnson Foundation have supported regional food banks
and pantries throughout Oregon in numerous ways. The couple supported OFB’s
capital campaign. Sen. Johnson not only hosted a Governor’s Harvest Dinner,
she donated funds to each participating hunger-relief agency. Foundation
grants have helped regional food banks and emergency food pantries purchase
food and equipment. And as a state legislator, Johnson advocates for people
living in poverty. She participated in the Walk A Mile program, attends
fund-raising and hunger awareness events, donates toys to Columbia Pacific
Food Bank and donates meat to regional food banks in
Columbia
and Clatsop counties.
Ron Cease Award
- Jessica Chanay
will receive the Ron Cease Award.
Chanay served as interim director of
FOOD for Lane County and helped the organization through a difficult
transition. She organized community meetings that led to the development of
Food Policy Council for Lane
County, developed and established funding
for a client advocacy position and integrated advocacy into FFLC’s mission.
She put FFLC’s gardens program on solid footing and secured HUD grants to
support Healthy Futures Program. She also serves on numerous community
boards and commissions.
Dennie Dustin Award
- Margaret Grant
will receive the Dennie Dustin Award.
Grant served as executive director of
Marion-Polk Food Share from the organization became an independent
organization in 1987 until retiring in 2004. She has been involved in food
and nutrition programs at the local and statewide level for many years.
Grant also serves as a board member of Oregon Food Bank and on the advisory
boards for Salem YMCA and St. Joseph’s Shelter in Mt.
Angel.
A California native, Grant attended
Dominican College in San Rafael. She also studied in Mexico and worked in
Colombia and Turkey with the overseas relief organization, CARE. In her
spare time, Grant enjoys gardening and working on her old house in north
Salem. Grant has two grown children, Abigail and Joseph, who live in
California. Marion-Polk Food Share is the regional food bank serving Marion
and Polk counties.
The Oregon Food Bank
Network of regional food banks includes: Oregon Food Bank-Metro Services
(Portland), Oregon Food Bank-Washington County Services (Hillsboro), Clatsop
Community Action (Astoria), South Coast Food Share (Coos Bay), Linn-Benton
Food Share (Corvallis), FOOD for Lane County (Eugene), Josephine County Food
Bank (Grants Pass), Klamath/Lake Counties Food Bank (Klamath Falls),
Community Connection (La Grande), Yamhill Community Action Partnership
(McMinnville), ACCESS, Inc. (Medford), Lincoln County Food Share (Newport),
Southeast Oregon Regional Food Bank (Ontario), CAPECO (Pendleton), Central
Oregon Community Action (Redmond), UCAN Food Share (Salem), Columbia Pacific
Food Bank (St. Helens), Mid-Columbia Community Action (The Dalles), CARE
Regional Food Bank (Tillamook).
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