6A • COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
Food insecurity on the rise in Lane County
By Caitlyn May
cmay@cgsentinel.com
When Mike Fleck started
his tenure as Community
Sharing’s Executive Director
a little over seven years ago,
the food pantry was distrib-
uting an average of 450 to
500 boxes a month packed
with staples like bread and
other boxed foods. Four
years later, distribution
soared to 700 boxes, some-
times reaching
as high as 900.
It has nev-
er come back
down.
“It’s not un-
usual that we’ll
sometimes hit
as high as 800,
830 boxes a
month,” Fleck
said.
The
box-
es are aimed
at combating
food insecuri-
ty—one of the
many services
offered by community shar-
ing including housing assis-
tance. The most recent data
released earlier this year by
the Ford Family Founda-
tion, in conjunction with
Oregon State University
showed food insecurity on
the rise in Lane County but
defining it can be difficult.
“It’s anybody who is strug-
gling to keep basic food on
their table but I don’t know
that there is a metric for
that,” Fleck said.
Feeding
America,
a
non-profit that works with
food banks nationwide to
provide support and sup-
plies, cites the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture’s
(USDA) definition which
classifies an individual as
being food insecure if they
lack consistent access to
enough food to maintain an
active, healthy lifestyle.
While the definition could
span a wide spectrum, the
Oregon Center for Pub-
lic Policy can place a hard
number on the growing
population of those strug-
gling with food insecurity:
527,000 Oregonians in 2017
did not know where their
next meal was coming from.
as food stamps, for three
months in the span of three
years if they do not meet
certain work requirements
that have been in place since
the mid-1990s.
To receive assistance be-
yond that, individuals must
work at least 80 hours per
month, participate in quali-
fying education and training
activities for an additional
80 hours per month or com-
plete unpaid work through
dramatically. That doesn’t
necessarily mean there ar-
en’t problems because the
need can shift between de-
mographics,” Fleck said.
“It could be that one pop-
ulation’s need is increasing
while another’s is decreas-
ing.”
Community Sharing is the
only designated food pantry
in Cottage Grove but other
services also work to com-
bat food insecurity in town.
Each
week
there’s a list
of
communi-
ty dinners and
earlier
this
year, the local
Gleaners’ pro-
gram returned
after being shut
down by Food
for Lane County
— a non-profit
food bank that
serves all of
Lane County.
The most ob-
vious change to
the group is the dissolution
of several requirements for
“box night” when individu-
als can receive a box of food.
Now, box nights are open
to all individuals whose
self-declared income meets
requirements.
Meal sites throughout
the week include the first
and third Monday of the
month at the local Method-
ist church for a cost of $5.
Tuesdays hosts a meal at the
Trinity Lutheran Church
and Creswell hosts a friend-
ship dinner on Wednesday
at the New Hope Baptist
Church. On Sunday, the
community center in Cot-
tage Grove hosts Soup’s On.
For more meal sites, check
the monthly calendar in ev-
ery edition of The Sentinel.
“It’s anybody who is struggling
to keep basic food on their
table but I don’t know that
there is a metric for that.”
— Mike Fleck
Community Sharing Executive Director
The study, which was re-
leased last year and cites
Oregon as one of the states
lagging behind in the fight
against food insecurity, puts
14.6 percent of Oregon’s
households in a state of food
insecurity and 6.2 percent
of households were labeled
as experiencing hunger on a
regular basis.
And soon, it may get
harder to stay full.
“Typically, our clients are
also on the SNAP program
but new legislation, it’s the
ABAWD or Able-Bodied
Adults Without Dependents
is what is stands for, they’re
taken out of the SNAP pro-
gram,” Fleck said.
ABAWD individuals, ac-
cording to the USDA, can
receive SNAP, also known
an approved state program.
Community Sharing does
not have a background
check requirement for those
experiencing food insecu-
rity. According to Fleck,
the application process is
one of self-declaration and
includes a form that states
the recipient will not sell or
barter the food they receive
from the pantry.
In the seven-plus years
Fleck has been manning the
operation, he’s experienced
two cases of fraud.
And while Communi-
ty Sharing’s numbers have
gone up over the last four
years, it’s hard to tell if
they’re pace to becoming a
crisis.
“Our box numbers have
gone up but I wouldn’t say
Sheriff ’s office offers school bus safety tips
The Sheriff ’s Office would
like to remind drivers of their
responsibility to stop for
school buses displaying red
flashing lights. Because buses
are large vehicles, the level of
difficulty to see around them
increases.
The outcome of illegally
passing a stopped school bus
is potentially devastating for
children and drivers.
Law enforcement agencies
continue to receive reports
each year from bus driv-
ers and other citizens about
motorists failing to stop for
school buses.
With nearly 6,000 school
buses operating in the State
of Oregon, motorists need to
be alert.
Oregon law requires mo-
torists to stop whenever the
red lights on a school bus
are flashing, regardless of the
direction they are traveling.
The law applies to any road-
way with two or more lanes of
traffic, including multi-lane
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highways such as Highway
101.
The only exception to the
law is for divided highways
with two roads separated by
an unpaved median strip or
barrier.
In this case, only drivers on
the same side of the road as
the bus must stop. A painted
median strip or a center lane
used only for left turns does
not create two separate lanes.
Where this situation exists,
all lanes of traffic must stop.
When a bus is flashing am-
ber lights, motorists should
prepare to stop. When the red
lights begin to flash, motorists
traveling in both directions
must stop before reaching the
bus and must remain stopped
until the red lights are turned
off. The same rules apply
to church or worker buses
equipped with amber and red
flashing lights.
Please do your part to make
our roads safe. Be aware when
following any type of bus, that
it may be making frequent
stops.
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