For Immediate Release

Easterseals Oregon Provides 250 Food Kits to Homeless Populations

Nutritional food kits funded by AmeriCares grant will feed Oregonians experiencing homelessness

November 9, 2021

Media Contact:
Ellen Catania
development@or.easterseals.com
503-228-5108

Housing Insecurity & Food Insecurity – A Vicious Cycle

One of the most common challenges faced by people facing homelessness is food insecurity. It can be a common occurrence for someone without stable housing to go several days without a warm meal, and the warm meal at the end of that wait is frequently low in nutritional value. This lack of nutrients in someone’s diet can leave them at higher risk for physical and mental health conditions that will become additional barriers to regaining stable housing and/or employment.

Helping to Break the Cycle

This deep need for quality food is why the grant we’ve received from Americares to distribute food to people experiencing homelessness is so impactful. With the funds granted to us, we have been able to purchase enough food for 250 kits to be provided to people without stable housing, just in time for the cold and wet winter ahead. Each kit includes high-protein items like tuna, beef jerky, and nuts, along with fruit juice, granola bars, and more positively nutritious foods that are in a drawstring bag for easy transportation and storage.

Orange drawstring bag reads "AmeriCares and Easterseals Oregon." The bag is surrounded by numerous food items neatly laid out on a table.

A Long-Time Easterseals Ally Steps In

As if the generosity of this grant wasn’t enough to fill our hearts with joy and gratitude, we were connected by long-time Easterseals Oregon ally, Jon Iverson (of Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm), to a wonderful group of volunteers from the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee.

A line of volunteers are surrounding a table, filling drawstring bags with various food.With the help of 8 volunteers, we were able to organize and separate the food into kits to be safely transported to those that desperately need it.

Filled With Gratitude

Our Executive Administrative Assistant, Pam, took part in the volunteer opportunity to prepare the food kits for distribution, and she followed with an uplifting testimony:

We are so grateful for Marty Tatman (Director of Member Engagement, American Farm Bureau Federation) and his Young Farmers and Ranchers team. With smiles on their faces and lots of energy for a Saturday morning, they jumped right in and filled all 250 bags in less than 90 minutes. WOW!! Such a great group of young men and women, and the impact they’re making is incredible. These bags will be distributed to homeless men, women, and children, during the winter months.
I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to work on this project. Talk about heart-warming. After all the bags were filled, they were loaded into the back of my truck. As I drove away, I became overwhelmed, with the feeling of one of the luckiest people to have the opportunity to not only work at Easterseals Oregon, but also be able to work with such a great group of people!

Thanks to Those Who Made This Possible

Easterseals Oregon would like to extend a special thank-you to Americares for this generous grant. These funds have empowered us to make a potentially life-changing difference to 250 individuals in need of a helping hand.

We would also like to thank to Jon Iverson, of Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, for connecting us to the volunteers from the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee. The Iverson family and the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm have been close allies to our organization for over 30 years, making our annual Bloomfest celebration possible, time and time again.

8 young men and women, holding some of the food kits they volunteered to put together. They are smiling and posing for the photograph, surrounded by numerous boxes filled with the food kits. Location: in a conference room.

To learn more about Easterseals Oregon and the people we serve, check out our
Stories of Hope page, by clicking here.
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