DRIVE AWAY HUNGER Oregon FFA, Les Schwab Raise More Than 633,872 pounds of Food

(Photo above: Adrian FFA Gleaning | courtesy of Oregon FFA Foundation)

As the Thanksgiving holiday nears our thoughts shift toward what will be for dinner, Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin Pie? But for many Oregonians, Thanksgiving may not be a traditional feast as many have to worry about how to even make it to their next meal. In fact, more Oregonians today are suffering from food insecurity and have to worry about where their next meal may come from.

Since 2008 the Oregon Food Bank has seen the demand for emergency food boxes increase by 40 percent. It is for that reason the Oregon FFA partnered with Les Schwab Tire Centers of Oregon to help Drive Away Hunger in Oregon. The initiative took place during the month of October. All month you could see FFA members across the state doing a variety of service activities in an effort to raise as much food as possible.

With the goal of raising 250,000 pounds of food, the nearly 6,000 FFA members from 103 FFA Chapters partnered with the 112 Les Schwab Stores and made a huge dent in helping supply the Oregon Food Bank and other local food pantries with much needed food. In all the Drive Away Hunger Event collected 633,872 pounds of food. More than double the original goal. That is enough food to provide 528,227 meals or feed 6,288 families for nearly a week.

The efforts to collect the food were as diverse as the number of communities in Oregon. In Sutherlin, FFA members went door to door dropping collection bags for people to fill and then came back to collect the filled bags, in Sherwood members also went door to door but businesses where greeted with a pig in their Pass the Pig fundraiser helping raise money that purchased more than 5,000 pounds of food. Some chapters focused on working with local farmers, gleaning farm fields, like the Adrian FFA Chapter.

They helped raise more than 80,000 pounds of fresh produce working with local farmers, and the Jefferson FFA Chapter partnered with Case Farms to donate several truckloads of spaghetti squash to the Oregon Food Bank. “We [the FFA]would like to thank all the farmers and everyone in the community that dropped food or gave to this effort.” remarked Kevin White, Executive Director of the Oregon FFA Foundation.

In addition to local chapter efforts people were encouraged to drop food off at any local Les Schwab Store and collection bags were distributed by the Capital Press to every Oregon subscriber. Most the food will be distributed by the Oregon Food bank network and end up back to help the communities where it was raised. This is a very special project for the Oregon FFA, where FFA members were able to live out their motto of “learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve. In this hunger initiative, FFA members truly set an example of living to serve”, said Kevin White. He went on to say “It was great to have a partner like Les Schwab, as they set an example to our members by how much they do to serve our communities and neighbors.”

The Oregon FFA is part of the National FFA Organization, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America, and is a national youth organization of 610,245 student members — all preparing for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture. There are 7,358 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Oregon FFA has nearly 6,000 members in 103 chapters throughout the state. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

To learn more, visit the Oregon FFA Facebook page and the #TIREdofhunger. To learn more about FFA visit www.oregonffa.com or www.ffa.org.