Ashland Food Co-op awards its first-ever Twin Pines grant to the food bank
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
The receipt of a $4,000 grant will support the Ashland Community Food Bank in four programs designed to alleviate food insecurity for children and families in Ashland, according to Amey Broeker, executive director of the food bank.
The food bank — in conjunction with the Ashland Rotary Club — supports ACCESS’s Rogue Powerpack program for Ashland residents, creates meal-kits for over a dozen families in Ashland’s Head Start program, donates around 600 pounds to the Southern Oregon University food pantry and supplies “non-stigmatizing foods” to Ashland schools.
Non-stigmatizing foods are those that are not easily identified as free or inexpensive food with the intention to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to a child given food by school staff. Administrators, counselors or teachers can use the donated food at their discretion for kids that might arrive at the nurse’s office with a headache or weak and shaky due to low blood sugar or other related issues with food insecurity, she said.
The food bank also often supplies fresh fruit for the ACCESS backpack program, an element not typically provided by ACCESS.
The Twin Pines grant has come to the Ashland Food Co-op for the first time from the Cooperative Community Fund of The Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation, in Davis, California, according to a release from the Ashland Community Food Bank.
The foundation is a “tax-free endowment that allows a participating co-op to donate its share of the income to nonprofits in the community,” according to the release.
As the new year begins, Broeker said she was “running statistics” on the old and found the demand spike following the elimination of pandemic era relief programs has held steady and climbed a little. Last March the food bank saw a 140% spike in demand when Supplemental Nutritional Aid Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) benefits were reduced at about the same time many COVID protection programs such as eviction protection ended.
“It’s an upward climb. … It still keeps climbing,” she said.
The demand increase reflects itself across all the food bank’s programs, but winning the Twin Pines award was in response to a request to specifically support programs for children’s food insecurity, Broeker said.
The food bank is supported by the community for free and dignified use by anyone in the community, she said. Because the organization is not supported by government funds, any information about who uses the food bank is not shared with the government.
“The only question we ask is proof of residency,” Broeker said.
The addition of a new bus stop at Clover Lane and Ashland street last fall has increased accessibility for the food bank, but those who can’t make it for any reason can use the satellite pantries at the Ashland Senior Center or the Ashland Public Library, she said.
The grant comes from the Cooperative Community Fund at Twin Pines. It’s a tax-free endowment that allows a participating co-op to donate its share of the income to nonprofits in the community.
The Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation supports and helps develop food co-ops, as well as other types, such as credit unions, and co-ops for cable television, health care and housing.
The Ashland Community Food Bank is open from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the same hours the third Saturday of the month. To learn more, visit the nonprofit’s website.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].
