EOU Student-Athletes gather to eat before start of food drive.
LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University Athletic Department is participating in the campus food drive for the Oregon Food Bank from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28.
Mountaineer student-athletes gathered in Quinn Coliseum Wednesday morning for a kickoff to the campaign which included breakfast and separation into teams for the drive. Last year EOU athletes broke into teams captained by Eastern coaches and staff, and the athletic department will ride last year’s success to doing the same again this year. EOU Director of Athletics, Rob Cashell, and Sociology Professor, Dr. Bill Grigsby, are again the Co-Chairs for the campus wide event.
"We are committed to being a long term participant in the food drive," Cashell said. "Our staff and student athletes view community service as an important component of what we do and the fact that the effort benefits locally makes it very worthwhile."
The Mountaineers will be a part of the sixth annual EOU Food Drive from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28. Eastern's 10 intercollegiate sports have split up into 10 teams that include a mix of each sport on each team.
Each team will have a bucket for dropping off their perishables. Eastern Oregon Athletics is trying to reach its goal of 2,500 pounds of goods to donate to the Union County Food Bank. Last year Mountaineer Athletics had a goal of 1,000 pounds and received over 2,000 pounds.
Fans can help out on Feb. 2, Feb. 4, Feb. 11 and Feb. 12 at the Eastern home basketball games, or bringing by food donations to the athletic office located in the Quinn Building on the EOU campus.
Hunger Fact 2
Your $10 donation enables Oregon Food Bank (OFB) to move 50 pounds of food throughout the OFB network—that’s enough food for an emergency food box which will feed a family of four for 3-5 days.
Hunger Fact 3
Food donated during food drives is some of the most nutritious food that Oregon Food Bank receives.
Most Wanted Foods:
• canned fruits
• canned vegetables
• canned meats (tuna, chicken and salmon)
• canned and boxed meals (soup, macaroni and cheese, etc.)
• cooking oil
• canned or dried beans and peas (black, pinto and lentils)
• pasta, rice and cereal
• 100 percent fruit juice (canned, plastic or boxed).
Hunger Fact 4
Food and funds collected during food drives remains in the community where it was collected.
Oregon Food Bank distributes food to more than 935 hunger-relief agencies in Oregon and Clark County, Wash. These agencies distribute food in the form of meals or emergency food boxes. An emergency food box contains a three-to-five-day supply of food.
Hunger Fact 5
Families and children face the greatest need.
• 54 percent of households receiving emergency food are families with children.
• 36 percent of those who ate food from an emergency food box last year were children.
• An average of 86,400 children per month ate meals from an emergency food box in Oregon and Clark County, Wash., last year.
• Children who are hungry have more difficulty learning in school.
• Early childhood hunger and malnutrition can result in irreversible health problems, such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney and heart disease, later in life.
Hunger Fact 6
Most adult emergency food box recipients are working, retired or disabled.
46 percent of recipient households had at least one working adult. That’s up from 43 percent in 2004 and 37 percent in 1996.
Hunger Fact 7
Hunger is an income problem.
• People are hungry because they don’t make enough money to cover basic living costs.
• The high cost of housing, health care, childcare and fuel make it difficult for low-income individuals and families to have enough money to pay for food.
Hunger Fact 8
Oregon Food Bank is effective and efficient.
Less than 5 percent of the general fund goes to administration, including fund-raising.
Hunger Fact 9
Oregon Food Bank is a nonprofit, charitable organization. It is the hub of the Oregon Food
Bank Network, a statewide network of 20 regional food banks and 935 agencies and programs serving Oregon and Clark County, Wash.
Oregon Food Bank recovers food from farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, individuals and government sources. It then delivers that food to 20 regional food banks covering OFB’s service area.
Regional food banks distribute this food and additional resources from local donations to nonprofit programs serving low-income people in their communities.
OFB also works to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy, nutrition education, learning gardens and public education.
Oregon Food Bank’s mission is to eliminate hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry.
Hunger Fact 10
You can help in multiple ways.
• Donate food.
• Donate funds.
• Volunteer (i.e., Fresh Alliance, Volunteer Action Centers, Learning Gardens, Nutrition Education, office, events, Speakers’ Bureau, advocacy).
• Learn more. Visit www.oregonfoodbank.org
• Advocate. Educate others.