PORTLAND, Ore. — Every Wednesday afternoon in North Portland friends and neighbors bring something nourishing to the table.
“It’s people taking care of each other,” Laura Purkey said.
At St. Johns Plaza, Purkey puts on a weekly potluck with a purpose.
“A phrase that’s really stuck with me is solidarity, not charity,” she said. “And that’s what I really see happening in this potluck.”
Purkey’s neighbor, with a big heart, started the weekly free meal in October 2019 to fill the hungry bellies of those living on the streets in her community.
“A lot of people would bring different dishes and my thing, I would usually bring a pot of soup,” Purkey said. “And then the pandemic hit and things changed.”
The woman who started it had to isolate for her health and safety. So, Purkey stepped up. Since March 2020, she has seen the need for the weekly free meal explode right before her eyes.
“Our service has grown, a lot,” she said.
They went from serving a couple dozen people a week to about 150 people every Wednesday between the potluck at St. Johns Plaza and a delivery to Delta Park.
“It’s very humbling,” Purkey said, “It’s really helped me understand what different people go through every day just to survive and get through that day.”
Since the start of the pandemic, the rate of hunger in Oregon has nearly doubled, according to research from Oregon State University.
“It just reminds me that we all have a responsibility to take care of one another,” Purkey said.
That’s why she loads up her family’s minivan each week with supplies and food; donations from neighbors, restaurants, and the Joint Office of Homeless Services. She relies on help from volunteers at Portsmouth Union Church in North Portland and meals from Burgerville and Addy’s Sandwich Bar.
“I’ve appreciated my family for being very patient with me. They’ve come to know now that our family car is just always fun of supplies,” she said.
However, the family minivan just isn’t cutting it anymore. As the need has grown, her trunk space has shrunk.
So, a friend started a GoFundMe to help get Laura a cargo van.
“It would help me fit enough supplies to bring out to folks. I pack my minivan to the gills and there’s always more that I would like to bring,” she said.
More room to bring more community care to the table.
“It’s not someone making soup or making burritos because they feel bad for somebody. It’s because they want to share something healthy and nourishing with other people,” Purkey said. “It’s a way of sharing love and it’s a way of standing in solidarity with our neighbors.”
To make a donation and help Purkey get a cargo van CLICK HERE.