While the pandemic has disrupted services for the poor and hungry, a collaboration between Lane Community College and the Eugene Mission is making use of more than a ton of donated food.
Once the COVID-19 outbreak shuttered local businesses including Glory Bee Foods and Trader Joe’s, those retailers gave surplus food to the Mission. This culminated in hundreds of frozen turkeys, a thousand pounds of butter, and piles of dried fruit, peanut butter, and other items.
Beth Sheehan is Director of Philanthropy at the Mission, and a board member with the LCC Foundation. She says they’re working with LCC’s Center for Meeting and Learning, to best use its chefs and kitchen for helping at-risk populations affected by pandemic protocols.
“Daily meals prepared at the Mission were down by about 50 percent," says Sheehan. "And we might not have those families staying with us right now, but that doesn’t mean those families still don’t have that need, and so we can work with those agencies, have the food prepared and ready, and then transfer it to them.”
Social distancing will still be practiced, with masks, gloves, and scheduled deliveries.
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