Eighty volunteers prepared and distributed approximately 300 meals on Thursday for the 10th annual Thanksgiving Community Peace Meal organized by Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice. This year’s gathering was the largest yet, with meal deliveries doubling compared to last year.
State employees packed boxes of food to be distributed throughout the state to help low-income Oregonians. But it’s not just to give out immediate food aid, it’s an exercise the Office of Resilience and Emergency Management will use to prepare agencies to help respond to major emergencies.
Oregon is co-leading a group of Democratic attorneys general in suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its leader Brooke Rollins over abrupt cuts to food assistance for refugees and asylum seekers. The cuts could affect up to 3,000 Oregonians who rely on SNAP.
This year marks the 10th annual Thanksgiving Community Peace Meal and the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland has offered to share their space with the community. SOJWJ is lining up volunteers and cooks, as well as those who can give financial support. They are expecting to feed more than 300 people.
What does community service mean to you? When Ashland Middle School Black Student Union Advisor Sessceal Reynolds asked her student club this question, the answer was “giving back” to the community by starting “where they were,” in the spirit of the famed Arthur Ashe quote: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
Two teams from Ashland High School ruled the Southern Oregon Kitchen Klash over the weekend, earning first and second place awards for their creative rendition of pork tenderloin, butternut squash and green beans in the inaugural cooking competition.
The Talent Artisans & Growers Holiday Market returns Thanksgiving weekend following a year-long hiatus, the Talent Business Alliance has announced.
As of Nov. 3, Ashland Community Food Bank has a new director at the reins. Catie Mahoney will serve in the role with guidance from outgoing director Amey Broeker, who will officially retire on Dec. 31 after serving in the food bank role since 2022.
Oregon distributed full SNAP payments to the state’s roughly 757,000 recipients overnight Thursday immediately after a judge ordered funding be released. Gov. Tina Kotek said President Donald Trump’s demands will have no impact on that funding and that SNAP recipients can continue to use their Oregon Trail cards as they normally would.
The Rogue Valley Transportation District and area grocery stores are hosting a local food drive to help hungry households across Jackson County. An RVTD bus and volunteer staff will be on hand at Safeway and Shop’n Kart grocery stores in Ashland on Thursday to collect food donations for families in need.
Rogue Valley Symphony tuba player Mike Knox is retiring this season after 55 years with the orchestra, a tenure that stretches back to the orchestra’s earliest days.
Talent Library employees and patrons are speaking out after multiple incidents at the Home Street branch within the past two weeks in which a man using a library computer station was observed watching what they believed to be child pornography.
Seventeen cannabis workers in the Rogue Valley were detained during federal drug investigations and transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on July 30, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, making it one of if not the largest such enforcement activities in Oregon since the Trump administration began its immigration enforcement push early this year.
Homes and businesses across Ashland are lighting up the season with creative holiday displays. Whether discovered by a reader tip or chance, these glowing scenes add warmth and joy to an ordinary drive through town.
The Ashland Orthopedic Surgery and Spine Care Clinic on Maple Street will close in March, Asante has confirmed.
Uncertainty hangs over the job status of Ashland Parks & Recreation Director Rocky Houston, as city officials refuse to confirm whether he has been suspended. Despite repeated inquiries, the city has declined to comment, citing personnel confidentiality, while Houston remains unresponsive, and an acting director has been named.
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