A4
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
The sugar and fl our aisle.
South County Food Bank meets the need
T
he need is ever growing, Darren
Gooch, executive director of the
Food Bank said on a recent tour of
the building in Seaside.
The food pantry’s mission is sim-
ple, Gooch said — to provide three to
fi ve days of nutritious emergency food
to low-income families living in Clatsop
County.
While guidelines suggest “low-in-
come,” anyone entering the Food Bank
is welcome, he said. “You don’t have to
provide ID, and we’ve never had to turn
anyone away.”
Gooch described a growing need, with
an average of 250 households served
monthly, and 618 individuals.
More than 40 homeless people were
served monthly by the food bank in 2018.
For those residents who may have not
experienced the need to visit the food
bank, Gooch said volunteers try to make
the experience inviting.
“Nobody wants to be here,” he said.
“I try to make it fun. I don’t want them to
feel bad about being here.
I’ve had a lot of people
shake my hand and say,
‘This has been a really
good experience. Thank
you!’ And they’re OK
with it.”
R.J.
The South County
MARX
Community Regional
Food Bank is one of sev-
eral partner agencies to
participate in Clatsop Community Action,
the regional food bank.
That in turn is affi liated with the Ore-
gon Food Bank and the United States
Department of Agriculture Emergency
Food Assistance Program. Other part-
ner agencies — about a dozen in Clatsop
County — include Helping Hands Re-en-
try Outreach Center, the Cannon Beach
Food Center and St. Vincent De Paul in
Gearhart.
Partners place their orders with Clat-
sop Community Action, but they also
help each other, Gooch said.
Cannon Beach Food Pantry serves cli-
ents on Wednesdays, and any leftover
food will be delivered to Seaside’s food
bank when they serve on Thursdays.
The South County Food Bank receives
food from individual donations, local
food drives and restaurants or bakeries.
Donations are accepted as long as they
come in the original packaging.
Big-box stores like Fred Meyer, Nat-
ural Grocers, Safeway and Walmart,
among others, participate in the food
bank’s Fresh Alliance Program.
When Gooch received a donation of
100 dozen eggs from Natural Foods in
Warrenton, he was unable to use them
all, so after his driver picked them up, he
called other local pantries to ask, “Does
anybody need eggs?” The food bank sub-
sequently delivered dozens of boxes to
partner agencies.
In January, the food bank received
almost 17,000 pounds of purchases or
donations — about 8½ tons of food.
Pick-ups take place every other week,
Gooch said.
Monday crews do shelf stocking and
product rotation.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Darren Gooch and Maureen Casterline at the South County Food Bank.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
The South County Food Bank in Seaside.
LIMITS ON WILD FISH, GAME
The regional food bank picks up any fi sh left at the hatchery or illegally caught after
processing. Elk and deer may only be delivered if processed to the stringent regulations
on game animals.
Everything is weighed as it comes in,
with volunteers supervised by site super-
visor Jenny Knight — the food bank’s
one paid employee — to maintain a run-
ning log of every donation.
Patrons can visit the food bank on
Tuesdays and Thursdays once a calen-
dar month. The food bank opens at 1,
although staff tend to open earlier.
A visit starts with a food distribution
booklet breaking down nutrition guide-
lines. Volunteers “err on the side of giv-
ing more” to customers than the guide-
lines suggest.
Gooch led me on a tour down the
aisles, from the breads and pastries from
Safeway to the fresh fruits and vegeta-
bles from Costco.
Among other items, the protein aisle
offers dried and canned beans, canned
fi sh and peanut butter.
“It’s an allergen for some, unfortu-
nately, but it’s a great source of protein,”
Gooch said. “It’s one of those things
especially among our homeless popula-
tion they can take a spoon and open it up
right up and start eating it in the park-
ing lot or where they’re traveling. It’s an
important staple.”
Grains, fl our, corn meal, pasta, rice
— even cultural items like masa fl our
— are available. Sugar is highly sought
after.
Cereal is a main component of most
visits, with an emphasis on nutrition and
variety.
Canned tuna, fi sh, sardines and clams
are “highly sought after.”
Take a turn to the next aisle and
you’ll fi nd what Gooch described as a
“very modest, small snack section.”
“We do provide snack foods to break
things up and give people extra,” Gooch
said. “Everybody likes a treat now and
then.”
The food pantry’s “other” category
includes soups, chili, ravioli, stuffi ng,
mashed potatoes and gravy packets.
While ramen and cup noodles are “not
super nutritional,” Gooch said, they are
foods important for those struggling to
fi nd the right appliances. “You can usu-
ally fi nd something that can get some
water boiled,” he said.
Dry powdered milk and fresh milk are
available; for those with a dairy intoler-
ance, rice, almond, coconut or cashew
milk is usually available.
Providence Seaside Hospital provides
nutritional supplements like Boost.
Juice is available and highly sought
after, either fresh, frozen or concentrate.
What about waste?
Dented or outdated cans are con-
sidered potentially dangerous and go
straight to the dumpster, Gooch said.
Post-dated breads and vegetables go
into recycling bins for chickens. “We go
through the produce with what’s called
‘gleaning,’” Gooch said. “We pull stuff
that’s bad. That goes into a barrel.”
Chicken farmers pick up the organic
debris.
“Everything has a life cycle,” Gooch
said. “Food is grown in a fi eld, pro-
cessed, to the store, and then back to the
earth via the chicken or the pigs.”
With the Roosevelt Drive building
fully paid off, the South County Food
Bank is in a “better place fi nancially”
than ever as an organization, he said.
Volunteers are always wanted, with a
need for stock people, driving and shop-
ping assistants to walk patrons through.
The No. 1 physical need now is
refrigeration, he added, with “geriatric”
chest storage cases and units subject to
breakdown or obsolescence.
“At holiday time I lose turkeys
because I have no place to store them.”
R.J. Marx is editor of the Seaside Sig-
nal and Cannon Beach Gazette, and cov-
ers South County for The Daily Astorian.