PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Amid federal food aid cuts, a community-driven campaign is urging home gardeners and fruit tree owners to donate excess produce to local hunger relief groups to help feed food-insecure families.
Lift UP (Lift Urban Portland) serves more than 15,000 people annually through its food pantry, markets and delivery food boxes. But this spring, the organization says produce isn't arriving at their storage facility in the quantities they're used to.
"Historically, we would receive about 10,000 pounds of food in a single delivery, and now we're seeing that cut in half," said Stephanie Barr, executive director of Lift UP.
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a freeze on Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funding, which food banks use to purchase produce from local farms.
CCC programs make up about 18% of the food distributed through the Oregon Food Bank network of food banks and food assistance sites.
As Lift UP experiences a 60% increase in both the amount of food distributed and the number of people served, demand for their services continues to grow.
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"Now with the USDA cutting 20% of our food stream, we simply can't keep up," said Barr.
This sense of uncertainty is why a coalition of Portland-area nonprofits launched the "Grow to Donate" initiative.
It's a call to anyone with a home garden, farm plot, or fruit trees to donate leftover produce to organizations in need this summer.
"Sometimes in the spring [gardeners] make a lot of planting decisions, and then in the summer you think, 'What am I going to do with all of this?' And in that case, there are a ton of organizations that can do the distribution work," said Heather Keisler Fornes, director of the Portland Fruit Tree Project.
Since launching earlier this week, Grow to Donate already has 10 contributors on board.
Portland nonprofits including OHSU Student Pantry, Urban Gleaners, Community for Positive Aging and Lift UP will benefit from the produce donations.
And every tomato counts.
"We continue to watch hunger skyrocket, so those of us who have the luxury of having land that we can tend to, I think it's kind of an obligation that we do something to grow food for others," said Keisler Fornes.