Locals may have a sturdy green bag or two hanging around their pantries, waiting to be filled with foods for people in need. In 2015, those green bags began to circulate around Bend, destined for collection by volunteers with the Bend Food Project. The nonprofit gives the bags out, collect them—ideally full of non-perishable foods—again two months later for distribution to people in need. After seven years in operation, the Bend Food Project recently achieved a milestone of collecting 1 million pounds of food.
The Bend Food Project started in 2015 with a goal of alleviating food insecurity in Central Oregon. Its first collection garnered about 2,700 pounds of food. Now, the average collection is about 40,000 pounds, according to its website.
Hitting the 1-million-pound mark was a welcome turn of events for its founders, who estimate that 1 million pounds of foods equates to 800,000 meals.
“It’s an astonishing number,” remarked BFP’s Larry Marceaux. “We never dreamed we could hit the 1-million pound goal so soon. Central Oregonians have been quick to volunteer and donors have been very generous.”
Bend Food Project has a food collection event happening this Saturday, Oct. 8, when some 240 “Neighborhood Coordinators” will head out to collect food from the nonprofit’s 3,300 donors. Those interested in learning more or getting a bag to fill can visit bendfoodproject.com.
This article appears in Source Weekly October 6, 2022.
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They also have a collection on October 15.