Portland food recovery and redistribution nonprofit Milk Crate Kitchen is delivering more than 100 food items to an overflowing emergency shelter at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, Oregon, on Wednesday. The nonprofit’s founder, Michael Casper, said it could deliver food. in frigid situations in component thanks to its reliable red Subaru.
Courtesy of Sherielyn Gardner
During this week’s ice storm, Michael Casper’s food redistribution nonprofit won a call from a store in Northwest Portland that had about 30 extra pounds of bagels.
Michael Casper, founder and co-director of Milk Crate Kitchen, a nonprofit food rescue organization, prepares sandwiches for volunteers who ran last week’s ice typhoon in Portland, Oregon. The ingredients were donated through the northeast Portland women’s sports bar, The Sports Bra, which had been closed for several days because of the typhoon.
Courtesy of Sherielyn Gardner
It’s terrible weather for restaurants and stores, Niebes said, “but it’s wonderful that they can pay for it upfront and ship it to us. Then we can remove it so there’s no waste. “
Food collected through Urban Gleaners is sent to open markets set up primarily in schools, Niebes said. Since the typhoon closed schools across the state, staff and volunteers have been working with other nonprofits to bring food collected from Urban Gleaners to other locations. .
“The most vulnerable of our population are the most affected by those kinds of weather conditions,” Niebes said. “Being able to work with other organizations that can open and distribute food is incredibly crucial. »
During the storm, county government in the Portland metropolitan domain opened more emergency shelters in response to unprecedented needs. Shelters in Multnomah County saw record demand as temperatures remained below freezing for days. In Clackamas County, officials worked with the nonprofit The Father’s Heart and Clackamas Community College to open an emergency shelter on campus for up to 50 people.
Stephanie Coleman helped manage the overflow shelter of the network university by coordinating emergency plans and operations for Clackamas County Social Services. When the county opened more shelters, Coleman called promptly to get hot meals on site.
On Wednesday afternoon, Casper of Milk Crate Kitchen prepared more than a hundred meals in the area they contract in downtown Portland. He then used his trusty Subaru to drive down the icy roads and deliver food to the emergency shelter at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.
“They went all out,” Coleman said. They prepared more food because they said, ‘We’re not sure they had the staff, so we put more food here so everyone can participate and eat hot. ‘”The guests were very grateful to be in such a shelter. a condition, and the simple act of enjoying a great hot meal lifts the spirits of many people.
Restaurants and businesses interested in donating to food rescue organizations can attach them on their websites.
Milk Crate Kitchen is available in milkcratekitchen. org and Urban Gleaners is in urbangleaners. org. St. John’s Food Share, owned by its members and run by volunteers, can also accept and distribute food donations and can be reached at stjohnsfoodshare. org.