This is Rotary. Where together people Unite, take action to create lasting change across the globe in our communities. And in ourselves come along with me, District Governor Cindy new O’Neil, as I travel District 5110 exploring all the great things we do for our communities.

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Today we join District Governor Cindy O’Neill as she meets with President Don Welsh from the Rogue Gateway Rotary Club and the team from the greater Grants Pass Rotary Club on their visit to the Josephine County Food Bank. This project is a collaboration between the Grants Pass clubs; some very compelling stories.

Kim Collins, with the Josephine County Food Bank. We serve anywhere between eleven and twelve thousand people a month. But just for some better understanding people don’t understand that we’re not a food pantry, that were actually the food distribution center for Josephine County. So what we do is we get all of our food from the Oregon food bank out of Oregon or through donations, and then we distribute the food to those 25 partner Pantry partners that we have and then they serve the community.

We have a program called Fresh Alliance where a driver goes to stores like WinCo, Safeway and Albertson. These are the five stores that we go to Monday through Friday and we pick up the produce and the meat and the bread that’s about ready to expire. It’s still perfectly good for human consumption, but not good enough to sit on the shelves. And so we pick that up.

Don Welch

Well rotary is always certainly a big partner in the community and we knew that this was an important project and there were some Rotarians who are real Community leaders who said we need to make a difference. They were on the board at the time and we knew that we wanted land to be able to grow produce to add that to the food bank project. There was a big building out there that Rotarians worked to tear down to create some space.

Well, one thing that we have that’s different from a lot of the other food distribution centers throughout Oregon, we have a farm and our farm produces many vegetables throughout the year. We’ve actually been only a seasonal Farm but I recently hired two new staff so we can do a year-round farming. So part of that is going to be in the future to put it more greenhouses and to be able to grow fruit and vegetables all year long so that we were providing that for the community 365 days out of the Year.

Kale carrots radishes lettuce, a variety of things watermelon, Peas. I believe they’ve grown corn in the past. I’m not sure how successful that was. But a variety of things. Our farm manager, Christian Smith, tries really hard to create vegetables that will create a meal like a salad or a nice side to a meal so that’s what she focuses on

I’m going to say my first time going out to Wolf Creek to do a pop-up Pantry there. I had to take about 10 minutes to pull myself together before I could go back into the building because the need and the community there is so devastated.

They don’t even have a grocery store there. So even if they did get SNAP benefits, what could they really buy? They have a little convenience store where you’re going to pay six seven dollars for a gallon of milk, but you’re not going to get any good fruits and vegetables or anything like that. You’re going to get candy bars and donuts and stuff.

When you see the community, they don’t have shoes or socks. They don’t get to take showers or baths for weeks on end. They’re missing half their wardrobe. You can tell that there is a huge need for medical down there.

And even last Saturday when I did one of the pantries in Wolf Creek a young man, it took him forever to get down the street because he had no shoes or socks and the ground was hot and there were rocks everywhere. So that’s why

Going to Wolf Creek or spending time in Selma is an example of some of the things that have been done that are maybe a little thinking outside the box. You know that sort of understanding that there are a lot of people in need and we need to make a difference. This is also a very rural area. So if you think that the population of Josephine County is somewhere around 80,000 people, but it’s a big area so to try and help people who probably don’t have transportation and many other things we’ve had to come up with ideas like this. So yeah.

Oh, there’s so many stories. I don’t know why I just know the Illinois Valley is one area, that there’s a huge need there too as well Selma and Cave Junction and I hear that’s a very very poor area. But Josephine County is one of the poorest counties in, Oregon.

Just the whole area alone, the income level and poverty is just it doesn’t match.

Four Way Community Foundation, which was a foundation started by Rotarians but is not Rotary at this point, but they still provide services because it’s about the four-way test.

For me, I’m going to get down to the nitty-gritty. I’ve always been a volunteer. I mean since I was 14 years old serving communities has always been extremely important to me and I even left a really good career to come here because nonprofit was who I am as a person.

So we give about three-hundred thousand dollars a year to not-for-profits. Obviously. This is an organization that has received some of those funds.

As District Governor I could not be more proud of the Grants Pass Regional Rotary clubs who initiated a broad collaborative effort to create the Josephine County Food Bank. This is a sustainable model that could be recreated in any Oregon Community. Dependable passionate leadership provided by Food Bank director Kim Collins gleaning and growing food on site year-round for a stable supply and Rotary committed funding through the Local 4 Way Community Foundation.

This is a sustainable project. This is a project that can weather disruptive event like the covid pandemic we face now.

Thank you for listening. Please join us again. For more stories that inspire Rotary volunteer service connections and experiences in rotary District 5110.