PORTLAND, Oregon — A market-style food pantry at a Southeast Portland elementary school is feeding over 400 families every month. What started as a two-shelf food pantry 16 years ago has since blossomed to serve the underprivileged community at Kelly Elementary.
"Of course, providing food once a week we're not solving everyone's problems, but it does take one burden off their plates," said the director of the food pantry program at Kelly Elementary.
The need for the food assistance is constantly growing, nearly two million Oregonians visited an Oregon food bank last year — that's a 14% increase from 2022.
"All this money on the food that gets raised during the KGW Food Drive eventually benefits our pantries and adds a lot of choices for our clients."
About 80% of the families the Kelly pantry serves identify as Asian and are often seniors. Though the Hispanic and Latino communities are also in need, including people like Marena, a mother who has been coming to the pantry for six months.
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"Personally, it's a really big help. Because we go home with all the food they provide us here. Then we go to the store to buy whatever else we need. So, it's not the same as spending money on all groceries." said Marena.
The important work done at Kelly is done with the help of volunteers, many who understand food insecurity on a personal level. "It feels good because I know there are families that don't have resources. My family personally didn't have those resources before," said a Kelly pantry volunteer. "But now being able to be here and giving back to the community and having food distributions for families in need — it makes me feel extremely good."
The majority of the food at the Kelly pantry is locally sourced from farmers.
The KGW Great Food Drive is a major public service campaign that addresses hunger issues in communities throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. The goal is to collect enough donations to provide more than 1.2 million meals of food for local area residents. Find out how to help here.