Mislabeled or slightly dented cans can't be sold in stores, but they are still filled with high-quality food. So, grocery stores often donate these items to Oregon Food Bank, where the food is sorted and inspected in the Food Recovery Center. Last year, 1.6-million pounds of food was sorted in the Food Recovery Center.

How can you help?

The Food Recovery Center needs 25 volunteers every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Volunteers must check each food item and sort food into one of 35 different categories. Volunteers must be at least 18 years-old and must be comfortable repeatedly lifting 30 to 50 pound boxes. OFB will provide training.

To register to volunteer in the Food Recovery Center, e-mail sbrockmeier@oregonfoodbank.org.

?A woman came into our food pantry with tears in her eyes. Her husband had been out of work for a long time and she had four young children to feed," says Kathleen Greene, supply coordinator at William Temple House North, a local member agency of the Oregon Food Bank Network. "When she saw all the fresh produce that we had available, her tears vanished and she smiled. She talked about all the healthy meals she could cook for her family with the produce. On her way out of the pantry, she turned to me and said that this had been the worst day of her whole life. 'But now I feel great,' she said."

This is just one example of how produce from Oregon Food Bank's Learning Garden touches people's lives.

Each week, William Temple House North receives fresh produce that was grown in Oregon Food Bank's Learning Garden. And Greene knows the difference that produce can make in the lives of her clients.

"Fruits and vegetables are important in a healthy diet and are sometimes hard to come by for those who must rely on emergency food," says Starr Farris, Oregon Food Bank's Learning Garden coordinator.

For the second year in a row, Kaiser Permanente employees celebrated the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by making his holiday a day of community service.

More than 300 Kaiser Permanente employes spent the day fighting hunger by sorting and repacking donated food at Oregon Food Bank.

By the end of the day, Kaiser Permanente employees had donated 1,246 volunteer hours, packed 57,400 pounds of rice and sorted 18,907 pounds of food donated by local grocery stores.
Photo by Jeff Lee

Food budgeting. Knowledge of nutrition. Meal planning. OFB?s Nutrition Education classes teach low-income individuals and families all of those skills and more. And now, in addition to traditional six-week nutrition education classes using Share Our Strength?s Operation Frontline Curriculum, OFB has created a new, single-session nutrition education and cooking class.

Oregon Food Bank developed the new class, titled Cooking for One or Two, in response to community requests. Single-session classes will allow OFB to reach more community members and to offer more flexibility to agencies.

Help OFB inform the public about hunger in Oregon and Clark County, Wash. Become a member of the Speakers? Bureau. Speakers? Bureau volunteers give presentations to businesses, churches, schools and community organizations. They inspire the public to get involved in the fight against hunger.

To Become a member of OFB's Speakers' Bureau, register to attend OFB's February training session. The training is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 8, 6:30 to 9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9, 6:30 to 9 p.m., and Thursday, Feb. 16, 6:30 to 9 p.m. You must attend all three sessions.

To reserve your spot for Speakers' Bureau training, e-mail astinson@oregonfoodbank.org

• Did you know that OFB must schedule all volunteers in advance before they can arrive for a shift?

Oregon Food Bank is an affilate of America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network.