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Everybody Eats!

In our member network, small acts of kindness happen

every day. Through the sharing of food our volunteers, staff

and you, our dedicated donors, are creating a place where

no one goes hungry and people can get back on their feet. It is

because of you and your support that these first steps happen.

In the following pages we report some of our community’s

responses to hunger and poverty. These interactions and

programs exist because of supporters like you. All the things

necessary to respond to and eliminate hunger – the millions

of pounds of food, our commitment to nutrition, the cooking

demo projects, and support of local agriculture – would not

exist without your support. Without you, 13,000 people

every month would not have food to put on the table, meal

sites would not have the resources to provide nearly 300,000

meals a year, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of good

food would wind up in the landfill or tilled under. And

without this infrastructure of emergency food box, meal site,

supplemental feeding programs and gleaning groups the life

altering interactions between one person and another would

fall away.

Through our network of agencies we not only deliver food

to those in need, but also celebrate the personal interactions

that can change lives.This is why your support matters.

This is how you make a difference.

Thank You!

Ryan McCambridge Director, Linn Benton Food Share

A program of Community Services

Consortium PO Box 1920 ● Corvallis OR 97339 ● 541-758-2609 ● www.linnbentonfoodshare.org ● info@linnbentonfoodshare.org

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Food Share Member Agencies

ALBANY Albany Gleaners

Albany Helping Hands

Chamberlin House

Community Gleaners Family Tree Relief Nursery

Fish of Albany Pantry

JSYSI/Albany Youth Shelter

Mid Valley Gleaners Presbyterian Child Care Center

Salvation Army Pantry

Signs of Victory Pantry

Signs of Victory Shelter St. Mary's Soup Kitchen

BROWNSVILLE Sharing Hands Food Pantry

HALSEY Pack Snack Backpack Program

Central Linn Gleaners

HARRISBURG Harrisburg Harvesters

JEFFERSON Jefferson Community Pantry

LEBANON Caring Team Pantry

Fish of Lebanon Pantry

Lebanon Gleaners

Lebanon Schools Foundation Lebanon Soup Kitchen

Real Bowls Real People

River Center Backpack Program

St Vincent de Paul Pantry The Lords Storehouse Pantry

MILL CITY Canyon Gleaners

SCIO

North Santiam Gleaners

SHEDD

PNW Adult & Teen Challenge

SWEET HOME

Fair Share Unlimited Gleaners Hope Center Inc Kids Food Pak Seventh Day Adventist Pantry SHEM Food Bank SHEM Manna Meal Program Sweet Home Assembly

of God Pantry Sweet Home Gleaners

ALSEA Alsea Community Effort

Jeni’s Place/Alsea Food Bank

Alsea Gleaners

BLODGETT

Coastal Range Food Bank

CORVALLIS CARDV Community Outreach Inc

Corvallis Family Table

Men’s Cold Weather Shelter

Grace Center Jackson St Youth Services Inc

Janus House

Mary's River Gleaners

OSU Emergency Food Pantry Room at the Inn Shelter

South Corvallis Food Bank

St Vincent de Paul Pantry

SVDP at Garfield School Stone Soup Corvallis Inc

Vina Moses

Weekend Power Pack Program

MONROE S Benton County Gleaners

S Benton Food Pantry

S Benton Nutrition Program

PHILOMATH Neighbor to Neighbor

Philomath Gleaners Philomath Food Bank

Strengthening Rural Families

Food Share Director Ryan McCambridge 541-758-2608

Volunteer & Gleaning Susan James 541-758-2645

Food Drives & Fundraisers Colleen Dyrud 541-758-2621

Visit us online at www.linnbentonfoodshare.org

Or like us on Facebook

Tax ID: 93-1099406

Mail: PO Box 1920 Corvallis OR 97339

Office: 545 SW 2nd St Ste A

Corvallis OR 97333

Local gleaning groups harvested over 20,000 pounds of pumpkins from Grays Farm in Millersburg this fall.

Your Financial Support Matters! 85% of our funding comes from

private individuals & organizations

Food

Funds

Recipients

Winter 2016

Linn Benton

Food Share

Regional Food Bank

serving Linn & Benton counties since 1981

Every day…

850 emergency meals are provided in Linn & Benton Counties

495 individuals will eat from an emergency food box

144 households receive an emergency food box

Food Pantries Provide a minimum 3-5 day supply of food

for preparation at home.

Meal Programs Provide free meals to individuals and families.

Gleaning Groups Membership groups comprised of low-income qualified

individuals and families that collect food from local grocery stores, harvest at farms and pick up food at LBFS warehouse.

CONTACT US!

You Make the Difference 541-758-2609 info@linnbentonfoodshare.org

Kisler Farm—Corvallis

Intentional Production

Food and Farms

Turpen Family Farm—Alsea

Jefferson Community Pantry—Jefferson

Tucked away on the Alsea-Deadwood Highway in rural Benton County is a blue and red sign for

Turpen Family Farm. Pam and Robert have been growing vegetables and raising chicken and

cattle on 72.5 acres since 1999. “Most of the property is timber and pasture for the cows, but we

do have 2 acres for growing vegetables,” said Robert. As the very first site location for Intentional

Production, Turpen Family Farm produced squash, tomatoes, rhubarb, peppers and tomatillos for

LBFS. All told, 3,481 pounds of fresh, first-rate produce was grown. Total cost for this first year pro-

ject was just under 15¢ per pound delivered. Comparable purchased canned food ranges from

49c—56¢ per pound.

Intentional production is a product of our commitment to healthy food, but also an acknowledgement

of the role regional food banks can play in community economic activity. We look to continue our

relationship with Turpen Family Farm and expand to 2-3 additional partners in 2016.

Tony Kisler, owner of Kisler Farm, one

of Corvallis’s few u-pick tomato and

pepper farms, has a day job in IT at

HP’s Corvallis campus. “I just wanted

to spend more time outdoors, doing

something that people appreciated.”

In his first year owning the farm – and every year since – he has

opened his fields to Linn Benton Food Share’s gleaners two times

a week during the summer so they can gather squash, cucum-

bers and tomatoes. In 2015, Kisler Farm donated 4,136 pounds of

fresh, local produce to the Linn Benton Food Share program.

“Members of our gleaning program enjoy nutritious vegetables

because of the generosity of donors such as Tony,” Susan James,

Gleaning and Volunteer Programs Coordinator, said. “The experi-

ence of harvesting produce for themselves as well as the elderly

and disabled adoptees of their gleaning group is very rewarding.”

And there’s more than just a rewarding feeling of giving back to the

community, it makes for good business: “If you let the fruit mature, it stops growing. So, they’re

helping me get a better harvest,” Tony added.

Linn Benton Food Share (LBFS) has long standing relationships with local farms in Linn and Benton counties. We also have a

commitment to providing fresh, healthy food to our member agency network and the clients we serve. These relationships also

have positive effects for the farmer in the form of the state Crop Donation Tax Credit and a better harvest overall due to strategic

gleaning. Moreover, it can lead to a stronger farm economy and increased community food security. And finally, this relationship

between farmers and Food Share helps farmers continue to do what they do best: grow great food to feed the community.

Real Bowls/Real People is a LBFS partner agency mobile

meal program serving lunch every Sunday at River Park

in Lebanon.

In September, Sean Casey and his volunteers celebrated

their 200th consecutive Sun-

day meal service. The 4th

anniversary of service was

November 15 and they will

continue to be there on

Sundays to come.

“I cannot imagine a Sunday without seeing my adopted

family members at the park,” remarked Sean. In the last

year, Real Bowls served 3,834 meals. “We’ll continue to

be here – rain or shine – as long as folks need help.”

The community of Jefferson straddles Linn and Marion counties

and boasts a relatively new food pantry at the United Methodist

Church, primarily serving rural Linn County residents. The

Jefferson Community Food Pantry is always looking for better

ways to assist the people they serve.

One of their clients, Stephanie, loves to cook

for her family. She regularly comes into

the pantry excited to share how she

used food received from the pantry

to make tasty meals for her kids.

The Pantry Team saw an op-

portunity and Stephanie was

invited to give monthly food

demonstrations.

For each dinner demo she uses ingredients available during that day’s food distribution to

create quick, healthy, delicious meals. Recipes and food items needed to make these

wholesome meals are then cleverly

featured on the pantry shelves for

clients to easily find.

Stephanie loves to share her joy of

cooking and her creativity with

others – but it’s more than just the

recipes at stake. “When I first came to

the pantry I was looking for help. I found not just help with the food my family received, but also

a way to share with others and give back what I can.”

More Than a Food Box

Cooking demo pro, Stephanie, with her daughter serving her noodle vegetable dinner.

Letters

From the Field

Lebanon Gleaners My name is Michele Martin. I am a single mother of an amazing

13 year old girl. My daughter’s name is Minta. Minta is severely

disabled and will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She

is unable to walk, talk, eat, or even do simple, everyday things we take for

granted, like brush her teeth on her own. I am Minta’s primary caregiver,

and the bulk of my time is devoted to Minta’s care, so I am unable to work.

Being part of Lebanon gleaners gives Minta and myself a much needed oppor-

tunity for social involvement with our community and a chance to give back

just a little of what has been given so generously to us. It also teaches Minta

that she is a valued member of the community – that there really are no lim-

its on her and her experience of life. The opportunity to help ourselves and

to help others is a unique gift.

Thank you for the opportunity to teach Minta the value of work,

of helping ourselves, and serving others.

Sincerely,

Michele Martin

Donate $10 for every family you would like to feed

Volunteer at the Community Open House at the Tangent Warehouse.

Workforce Education: Become a mentor in a young person’s life. Contact Armand at 541-758-2606

Link your Fred Meyer Rewards Card to support LBFS at www.fredmeyer.com/communityrewards

Make LBFS your Smile beneficiary at Amazon Smile program. Sign up and 0.5% of your total goes to LBFS

Food

“We’ve seen a real increase in the

number of young families joining us.”

- Sean Casey

Community

“When I first came to the pantry

I was looking for help. I found not just

help with the food my family received,

but also a way to share with others and

give back what I can.”

5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY

Over the last three years, 585,251

pounds of fresh produce has been grown

and donated to LBFS member agencies

from farms in Linn & Benton counties.

Meal Programs

Real Bowls/Real People—Lebanon

Turpen Family Farm

Harvesting at Kisler Farm

The Willamette Valley grows great food. LBFS believes all residents should have access to this fantastic resource. With our pilot Intentional Production

program, we take a small amount of our purchase dollars and invest in local farms to produce fresh fruits and vegetables just for the food bank. The

investment may be nothing more than helping repair a piece of equipment or covering the cost of fertilizer. But what this income means to the farmer

is that they can continue to do what they do best. Small farms are a vital component of community food security. Growing food locally creates

economic activity – especially in rural areas – and keeps more dollars circulating in our region.