Local advocates promoting economic food assessment
By LARRY MEYER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, July 4, 2009 8:58 PM PDT
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| Jan Debore helps a family get food at the Next Chapter Food Pantry in Ontario recently. |
VALE — While many crops and processed products from those crops are shipped out of the area, there is a growing movement around the country to rely less on long-distance markets and supplies and to stay more local.
In this area, food advocates are promoting a detailed assessment of the county’s food resources to focus on how they can be used to improve the local economy and financial situations for those who use local food pantries.
“We’re still working against an 18 percent poverty rate,” Peter Lawson, branch coordinator of the Southeast Oregon Regional Food Bank, said, referring to Malheur County.
The child poverty rate is 25 percent, he said. That figure is partly based on the percentage of children in local schools who are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches.
The main food pantries served by the local food bank include the Next Chapter Food Pantry, which is located at St. Matthews Episcopal Church and First Christian Church, the Nyssa Community Food Pantry, Vale Emergency Pantry, Jordan Valley Food Pantry, Annex Community Food Pantry and Harney County Senior Center Food Pantry.
The bank also provides food for Harvest House Mission’s summer lunches for children, First Christian Church Community meals and Malheur Council on Aging senior meals. Other allied agencies are Project Dove, the Family Place, Four Rivers Gleaners Association, Freedom Spirit (inmate family lodging), UNIO alcohol recovery center and the Boys & Girls Club of the Western Treasure Valley.
Katie Weaver, a participant in the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments at the University of Oregon, has been working on a food access survey and will issue a report this month.
“We grow a lot of commodities,” she said. “A lot of food leaves the area.”
The focus behind her work and the proposed in-depth assessment is to identify ways to keep dollars local by opening up opportunities for producers to sell locally and giving consumers the chance to access local crops.
She cited the experience of the one farmer who grows 25 acres of pinto beans and sells them directly to local consumers. While his prices are lower than other markets, he is making money, Weaver said.
Weaver said local grocers and consumers have indicated they are interested in purchasing more local product if they could get it.
Lawson and Weaver said the idea is not to try and bring answers in from the outside, but to bring someone in to identify the local resources and suggest ways to utilize them to help improve the local economy. Lawson said he would like to see a number of small businesses created to provide several jobs for each.
The idea is not something new, Lawson said.
“It is going back to the old,” he said.
Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center who spoke at Treasure Valley Community College about localizing food production recently, would be the person to do the in-depth assessment and offer recommendations. Lawson said several other Oregon counties are getting involved and looking to do the same thing.
A symposium about local food production is being planned for this fall.
