When Ranea Staley, executive director at The Giving Plate in Bend, opened the nonprofit’s first brick-and-mortar grocery program for those in need, she expected the organization would experience growth. But the number of visitors since this year’s April opening has far exceeded her careful predictions.
On Thursday, the store served 226 families in just six hours – a record for the 14-year-old organization. It shattered the previous record of 158, set just the day before. October was also a record-setting month with nearly 2,000 families served, a 35% increase from the busiest month last year.
In Deschutes County, 10.5% of families with children under 18 years old are experiencing poverty, according to the most recent 12-month estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Every month feels like a record this year,” Staley said Friday. Coupled with the rising need is a downturn in donations, making it harder each month for The Giving Plate to provide for everyone who comes through the doors. And, now with the busiest season just getting underway, the problem of sustainability is front of mind for Staley. Late on Thursday, in a move she said doesn’t happen often, Staley took to Facebook to share her worries on the nonprofit’s page.
“We have never had to turn anyone away, yet, for groceries,” she said. “But we have had to tell people ‘no, and we’ve run out of holiday meals.’ Right now, we’re getting a lot of those requests [for holiday meals] and we just don’t have them to give out anymore.”
In addition to the ability to provide for all who come to The Giving Plate, Staley worries about the people she meets that seem to be carrying around hopelessness on top of hard times.
“That’s what I really feel a passion about. We don’t want to just exchange food with people who need food. We want to champion hope and let them know, ‘Don’t let your circumstances define what you think is possible for your future or your value or worth,’ because when people get into that mindset they’re never going to rise out of their hard,” she said.
Providing food for people and kindling hope are twin tenets at The Giving Plate, so much so that it’s the motto: Fight Hunger. Feed Hope. It was also the impetus behind opening the storefront in southeast Bend near the corner of Third Street and Reed Lane, where people can come pick up free groceries twice a month. Staley said that 65% of the people served are children, and nearly all of them are housed. While the organization is open to anyone in need, on the honor system, she said that, by and large, most of the people who come through are struggling families.
The pantry is a unique space laid out like a boutique market with a special ‘Kids’ Korner’ where children can come and shop the kid-sized shelves once a month and play in a whimsically designed fort with a large slide and reading and game nook. The intention behind the children’s area and the pantry’s layout as a grocery store is to combat the shame that Staley says people express for needing free food.
“We have children who run in with joy, and they’re like, ‘Hey, we’re going to my store,’ she said. “You know when someone’s looking forward to going to a food pantry that you’re doing something right.”
Next month, The Giving Plate will also launch its annual ‘Jingle Store’ at the River House for 945 children to experience a winter wonderland-type shop where they can use $10 in jingle bucks to buy gifts for a family member or friend.
In addition to highlighting the need for donations of food and money, Staley said they’re also asking for new toys to stock the Jingle Store’s shelves and hundreds of volunteers to help set up and operate it. She estimates that the organization needs between $350,000 to $400,000 more to break even this year.
This article appears in Source Weekly November 21, 2024.
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