LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Wallowa County food bank not
touched by infl ation, for now
By JACK PARRY
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — As try-
ing economic times stretch
across the country, it is
important to remember that
some of the government’s
essential services, like food
banks, are going through
similar struggles.
Surprisingly, those strug-
gles haven’t had a noticeable
eff ect on Community Con-
nection of Wallowa County,
a food distribution center in
Enterprise.
Danielle Brockamp, the
manager of the center, said
that eff ects of recent infl a-
tion and rising gas prices
aren’t having that much of an
impact on the branch.
“I went back the past cou-
ple months, and there really
hasn’t been anything out of
the ordinary,” she said.
Brockamp, who started
at Community Connections
in April, only noticed that
ground beef was becoming
harder to obtain and hasn’t
seen a huge increase in peo-
ple served at the moment.
“We have not seen that,
yet,” She said. “We have
not seen a whole lot of an
increase in our food bank
usage yet.”
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Danielle Brockamp, the manager of Community Connection
of Wallowa County in Enterprise, shows the well-stocked
freezers of the food bank Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
Even though Wallowa
County seems fi ne, the
Northeast Oregon Regional
Food Bank Manager at Com-
munity Connection Audrey
Smith has seen a change in
her region as a whole, which
includes Baker, Grant, Union,
and Wallowa counties.
She reported a 7.5%
increase in food boxes,
which are given out once a
month. Also, the food bank
has had a 23% increase in
produce, bread and gro-
cery rescue boxes. Produce
boxes are given out mul-
tiple times a month, so the
data tends to vary more.
“You have a few extra
people coming in to get food
boxes, and you have a lot
of people that are using our
produce and grocery rescue
program more often,” she
said.
So why is Wallowa Coun-
ty’s food bank not experi-
encing similar trends? Smith
believes that’s because it’s a
lot smaller than other loca-
tions with just two pantries in
Enterprise and Wallowa. The
economic impacts may be
harder to notice in Enterprise
than they are in the region.
“From January through
April, we had an average of
124 people come to the pan-
try, in May we had 155,” she
said. “That is a little bit of an
increase.”
Brockamp believes that
the eff ects on produce boxes
in Wallowa County may not
be apparent because of the
supply they get from large
outside sources.
“Our Harvest Share and
our Fresh Alliance that we
get from Safeway helps to
supplement our food bank
... that helps to sustain our
fresher foods, the meat and
the salads and stuff like that,”
she said.
While
Brockamp
said transportation costs
aren’t aff ecting the Enter-
prise-based center, Smith
said that the region has been
renting a U-Haul truck two
times a week to transport
produce across Eastern Ore-
gon. They are still waiting
for a refrigerated truck that
they received a grant for in
December of last year.
With gas prices exceed-
ing expectations for grants
that they received, the cost
of renting a U-Haul is really
hurting the produce program.
“We’ll continue to do it as
long as we can,” Smith said.
A3
JOSEPH CITY COUNCIL
Joseph to hear public
on Iwetemlaykin, UGB
Chieftain staff
JOSEPH — A public
hearing to consider mod-
ifying the city of Joseph’s
urban growth bound-
ary will take place Thurs-
day, July 7, during the
City Council’s monthly
meeting.
The meeting begins at
7 p.m. at the Joseph Com-
munity Events Center. The
public is welcome to attend
in person or via Zoom.
Under the city’s Com-
prehensive Land Use
Plan, the city is required to
maintain an adequate sup-
ply of land for residential
use within its UGB to meet
housing needs. The city
intends to accomplish this
through a UGB swap by
including new lands within
the UGB (73.4 acres cur-
rently zoned Wallowa
County rural residential) to
be rezoned city of Joseph
Urban-Growth Residen-
tial to replace approxi-
mately 69.9 acres of land
currently in the UGB that
comprise the Oregon State
Park known as the Iwetem-
laykin State Heritage Site,
which will be removed
from the UGB currently
zoned UG-R, to be rezoned
R-1.
The city’s plan currently
identifi es the Iwetemlay-
kin State Heritage Site as
zoned for residential use;
however, the site is no lon-
ger available to meet the
city’s housing needs due to
the site’s establishment as
a state park.
Public opposition put
a stop to a planned “hos-
pitality project” on a par-
cel adjacent to Iwetemlay-
kin in March when more
than 70 people showed
up at the events center on
a requested change for a
zoning request. Only two
of the public comments
were in favor of the proj-
ect, the rest being opposed.
Also at Thursday’s
meeting, a request for a
zoning change from com-
mercial to residential and a
conditional use permit for
a recreational vehicle park
at the same address will be
considered.
The zone change and
conditional use permit
have been requested by
John Zurita for 709 N.
Main St. Zurita is listed as
the property owner on the
application.
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
Entries taken for 40th annual Festival of Arts
Chieftain staff
JOSEPH — Entries are
now being taken for the
40th annual Wallowa Valley
Festival of Arts by Josephy
Center for Arts and Culture,
according to a press release.
The
deadline
is
10:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31.
The festival is the larg-
est juried fi ne-art exhibi-
tion in Eastern Oregon, fea-
turing representational and
traditional realism from
the Pacifi c Northwest and
beyond, as well as contem-
porary art, according to a
IN BRIEF
Fast-Track Grants
awarded to three
organizations
WALLOWA COUNTY
— The Lewis-Clark Val-
ley Healthcare Organiza-
tion announced on Thursday,
June 23 that organizations
in its service area that have
received the third round of
Fast-Track Grants, three of
them are based in Wallowa
County.
These grants are between
$2,500 and $10,000, and are
meant to provide a quick
turnaround for small non-
profi ts who focus on health,
wellness or disease preven-
tion. A total of $165,050 was
awarded to 23 nonprofi ts.
The
three
Wallowa
County organizations that
received these grants include
the Rotary Foundation of
Wallowa County in Enter-
prise, which intends to use the
funds for the Imnaha Found-
ers Program and the recruit-
ment of new responders. The
other organizations are the
Wallowa Mountains Bicy-
press release. The festival
refl ects the beauty, culture
and traditions of the region
through its arts and artists.
Consistent with that
intent, any subject, style, or
medium within the catego-
ries listed below will be con-
sidered by our jury. The cat-
egories are as follows:
• Sculpture: Any three-di-
mensional work in wood,
clay, stone, bronze or other
metal.
• Painting: Oil, acrylic or
watercolor.
• Drawing: Pastel, pen-
cil, graphite, charcoal, ink or
any combination thereof.
• Printmaking: Wood-
block, engraving, etching,
monoprint, aquatint, lino-
type, lithography, silkscreen
or digital art prints.
• Photography: Any
image captured, either on
light-sensitive fi lm or elec-
tronically in digital form,
including digitally or other-
wise altered prints.
• Other: Glass, jewelry,
fi ber arts, ceramics or mixed
media.
Copies, kits, reproduc-
tions or work done under the
supervision of an instructor
cle Club in Joseph, which
will use it on a bikes for kids
initiative, and the County of
Wallowa in Enterprise. It will
fund the Wallowa County Air
Room Air Purifi er Distribu-
tion Program.
The center is located at
403 N. Main St. in Joseph.
For more information, call
541-432-0505 or email artdi-
rector@josephy.org.
Wood-carving
workshop planned
Family Crafty
Friday taking place at Josephy Center
at Josephy Center
JOSEPH — A two-day
JOSEPH — A recurring
event at the Josephy Center
for Arts and Culture in Joseph
began Friday, June 29, where
families can gather to enjoy
and learn arts and crafts,
according to a press release.
The free Family Crafty
Friday takes place from
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout
the summer.
Families can drop in to
enjoy a free craft-making
experience together. Make
what you’d like or follow one
of the center’s ready-made
project ideas with help from
the craft assistant.
The center will supply
all the materials and some
inspiration.
Those under 12 must be
accompanied by an adult or
an older pal.
relief wood-carving work-
shop will take place at the
Josephy Center for Arts and
Culture in Joseph taught by
local legend Steve Arment,
according to a press release.
The workshop will be
held July 9-10 from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. each day. A lunch
break will be held.
Interested wood carv-
ers are urged to bring their
ideas and come learn from
Arment the basics of relief
woodcarving.
This workshop is in
honor of his current Josephy
exhibit, Heartwood.
Cost for the workshop is
$195.
The center is located at
403 N. Main St. in Joseph.
For more information, call
541-432-0505 or email art-
director@josephy.org.
are not eligible.
Accepted artists will be
invited to participate in our
quick draw and plein air
painting events and pro-
vided with one complemen-
tary ticket to the opening
reception. Additional tickets
can be purchased through
the Josephy Center in person
and online.
For more information
and instructions to apply,
visit the website josephy.
org or https://josephy.org/
event/40th-annual-wal-
lowa-valley-festi-
val-of-arts-application.
Native Sport Raffl e
to support Josephy
library, exhibits
JOSEPH — A raffl e for
a chance to win one of two
items related to American
Indian will be held Friday,
July 29, at the Josephy Cen-
ter for Arts and Culture in
Joseph, according to a press
release.
The Native Sport Raffl e
will take place from 4-5 p.m.
Tickets cost from $10-$25.
The prizes are a beaded
bag made by Roger Amer-
man or a framed Indian relay
race photograph by Dallas
Dick.
Purchase tickets online or
at the center.
Proceeds go to sup-
port the Josephy Library of
Western History and Culture
Exhibits there.
For more information,
call 541-432-0505 or email
artdirector@josephy.org.
— Chieftain staff
www.Wallowa.com
This week’s featured book
Woman of
Light
by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
107 E. Main St. Enterprise OR
541-426-3351
manager@bookloft.org • bookloft.org
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