Fresh Fruits and Vegetables from Fields Near and Far Sourced to Support Increased Demand on Foodbanks
PORTLAND, Ore. – April 23, 2020 – To help meet the surge in demand for food assistance during the COVID-19 response, organic produce growers donated more than 46,000-lbs of nourishing fruits and vegetables for five Northwest-based hunger relief agencies. Organically Grown Company (OGC), based in Portland and Eugene, organized this mass donation.
In early April, OGC, an organic wholesale produce company, launched a giving initiative called “Project HOPE” (Healthy Organic Produce for Everyone) with 15 vendor-partners who quickly and generously responded with product donations. Project HOPE’s goal: to get fresh organic produce to the hundreds of thousands of Northwest residents facing food insecurity because of COVID-19 related job loss, school closures, and other hardships.
Soon after, pallets of freshly harvested citrus, berries, apples, mangos, greens, potatoes and more filled the company’s Portland warehouse. All donations were quickly dispatched by OGC to appreciative teams at Northwest Harvest, Oregon Food Bank, Portland Sunshine Division, Food for Lane County and the Relief Nursery. OGC also served Oregon Food Bank as a ready resource when the agency needed a logistics partner to quickly store and transport nearly 100 pallets of empty boxes destined for food boxes.
“OGC knew we could help by doing what we do best, and that is ‘bring organic produce to the people’ and, in this case, to communities who currently need it most,” said Kristi Yoder, senior sales manager at Organically Grown Company. “We are humbled by and extremely grateful for the outpouring of generosity from our grower-partners, and for the hard work being done by farm workers, foodbanks, grocery store clerks, truck drivers, health care professionals, public servants and many others who are on the front lines every day, keeping us all safe, healthy and nourished.”
OGC sees its farmer/vendor community as heroes for coming together to help during this crisis and for their rapid outpouring of support for Northwest communities. Donors included: Driscoll’s, Deardorff Family Farms, Crespo Organic Mangoes, Covilli Brand Organics, Wholesum Harvest, Grimmway Farms, Fruit World, Bridges Organic Produce, Agri-Star, Nunes-Foxy Organic, A&A Organic Farms, Jacobs Farm-Del Cabo, Braga Fresh Family Farms, Homegrown Organic Farms and Domex Superfresh Growers.
About Organically Grown Company
Organically Grown Company sources, aggregates and distributes fresh, organically grown produce to retailers and eaters across the Pacific Northwest. For more than 40 years, the company’s progressive and entrepreneurial spirit has fueled its mission and growth, meeting the demand for organics in the marketplace while supporting its community of farmers.