DORENA – The UpRiver Pantry is on the banks of the Row River, 15 miles southeast of Cottage Grove. It is one of 20 pantries that partner with FOOD For Lane County to serve rural Lane County. Another 13 pantries serve Eugene and Springfield.
A year ago, pantry volunteers served, on average, 80 people in a busy month.
In December, they served twice that many.
Half a dozen tables are filled with food from FFLC – canned goods, dry beans, noodles, peanut butter, bread, and more. Three large coolers on the floor are filled with frozen meats, deli foods, and dairy.
Marty Pendergraft runs the pantry with the help of volunteers Chris and Margo. Sharing food with their neighbors makes them all feel good. Marty, Chris, and Margo also get groceries from the pantry during their shifts.
The food “lasts throughout the whole month until I get paid again,” Margo said.
Margo and Chris are friends who began volunteering together a little over a year ago. During the summer, Chris and her husband are park hosts. For now, they live in a trailer on Margo’s property.
‘Everything is just hard’
A young mom is there with her four children – an 11-year-old daughter, a 10-year-old son, and six-year-old twin boys. She asks that we not use her name. She and her husband recently moved in with her mom to save money. They don’t receive food stamps, so the groceries they get from the pantry help.
“We’ll get fruits and veggies. I get most of our meat from the pantry,” she said. “It helps supplement many things we would have to ration otherwise. There’s no way I can afford much on such a low budget.”
“I am grateful because we’re at a place where everything is just hard,” she adds. “This is just a little bit of relief and a little bit of extra food.”
‘I didn’t know that meant me’
June saw the sign for the pantry when she drove by a few years ago, but she didn’t know she could use it.
“I never knew what it meant,” she said. “I didn’t know that meant me. I was just using food stamps. I didn’t realize I could also access a food pantry.”
“We appreciate the support,” she adds. “Especially families with children. We need it. Especially now.”
June appreciates the protein and the variety of food she gets at the pantry.
“It helps me to stretch my food budget,” she says. “It gives me some extra things that I normally wouldn’t buy. Sometimes, there are some amazing cheeses. And butter! If we can get butter, it’s amazing.”
‘The food carries me through’
John does small jobs for his neighbors to pay his rent. He gets oats, cereal, canned goods, applesauce, and peanut butter that day. He gets food stamps; they don’t last all month, but they help.
“This place helps me, especially way out here. The food carries me through,” he said.
Hugh is 61 and lives in a camper on a friend’s property. In addition to groceries, he gets a few clothes and blankets when they have them.
“The pantry has helped me out so much,” he says. “I get what I need.”
‘More than food’
Almost all the food is gone when Marty closes the doors at 5:30 p.m. Only a few canned goods and some frozen foods remain.
Continued support ensures that the tables in this pantry will always have food on them when the doors open on the third Friday of the month.
To donate: foodforlanecounty.org/donate
This story first appeared in a Food for Lane County Newsletter. Sign up here.
