Partner Agency COVID Updates Read about important updates & opportunities for OFB partners. Sign up others to receive the newsletter. |
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Don't forget - ballots are due by 8pm on Tuesday!
You'll need to drop off at a designated drop site if you haven't already mailed in your ballot. Remember to turn over you ballot to vote yes on 26-210 to support homeless services in the metro region.
Your Regional Network Team,
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Oregon was approved to provide new Pandemic EBT benefits to families with school aged children.
Pandemic EBT provides families financial support to cover the cost of groceries while your children are home during school closures. This benefit is provided to ALL families whose children receive free and reduced-price school meals in Oregon, including those who attend Community Eligibility Provision schools. Immigration status does not matter for Pandemic EBT. Pandemic EBT will not count in a public charge test.
Benefits will be issued to families with children enrolled in Kindergarten through 12th grade. For each month that school is closed a family will receive $5.70 per day per student in Kindergarten through 12th grade. This does not affect a families ability to access “grab and go” meals through school districts and other organizations during the pandemic.
Click here for a FAQ page to print and display for clients.
You can find all materials on the Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon COVID-19 response website ( oregonhunger.org/covid-19) under "Pandemic EBT."
PHFO is working on a multi-language toolkit that will include all the materials in the following languages: Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Russian and Arabic. The translations will be ready early the week of May 18th and will be uploaded at that time. |
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Farmers to Families Food Boxes |
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As part of the Coronavirus Farm Assistance Program, Secretary Perdue announced on April 17 that the USDA is exercising authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to purchase and distribute up to $3 billion of agricultural products to those in need.
USDA will partner with regional and local distributors, whose workforce has been significantly impacted by the closure of many restaurants, hotels, and other food service entities, to purchase fresh produce, dairy, and meat.
The distributors and wholesalers will then provide a pre-approved box of fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and other non-profits serving Americans in need.
The OFB team is working closely with the distributors awarded these contracts locally, and both the Metro and West warehouses will receive a portion of these boxes. We are still working out the details of when and how agencies will receive them, but you'll hear from us as soon as we have more information! More information about the program can be found here. |
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You've likely heard about the $1,200 stimulus checks being issued by the Treasury Department. The government is struggling to get the word to tens of millions of taxpayers, the majority of whom likely have very low or no incomes, about their eligibility to receive their stimulus checks through the Family First Coronavirus Response Act.
Feeding America hopes you can be an important part of this outreach to help lower income individuals and families understand they are entitled to receive these payments and understand the process for accessing them.
Below are two resources from the Internal Revenue Service that we encourage you to print and distribute to your clients.
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Portland Children's Levy is introducing the Small Grants Program which includes $10-$60,000 for organizations that have never received PCL funding for Hunger Relief activities and serve children in Portland city limits.
The purpose of the fund is to increase equity by investing in programs of small organizations arising from marginalized communities.
Click here to learn more and click here to forward the information to someone who may be interested in applying. |
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OFB Link2Feed Staff Need Your Help |
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If you are a Metro Partner Agency currently using Link2Feed for client intake, please take a few minutes to complete this brief survey to help us understand the challenges of doing intake during the COVID pandemic.
The L2F team has been noticing a drop off in intake during COVID (not surprisingly!) and is attempting to collect some feedback from PAs before trying to come up with solutions. |
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This training will discuss mapping the relationships in our lives that we trust to support our food security during this pandemic, and in future times of crisis.
About this Event Based on the work of Mia Mingus and the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective, this workshop will utilize 'pods' and pod mapping techniques to begin to map the relationships in our lives that can support our food security and food justice needs during periods of crisis. The workshop will be focused on people, groups, and organizations in the Portland Metro area, but the techniques are applicable in many regions. To read more about pod mapping before the workshop, please check out this link.
A Zoom link will be emailed out to all attendees by 12pm the day of the workshop..
This workshop will be an interactive, peer learning space with breakout groups, and group discussion. All activities and discussions are optional, but your participation, and perspectives are greatly appreciated.
Please let us know how we can best meet your accessibility needs; we realize the many limitations to online workshops, and hope to make them as accessible as possible..
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The Movement Building Manager cultivates and sustains relationships with communities and organizations so that we can both lead and support movement building and systems change. The position ensures that Oregon Food Bank is advancing our 10 year vision to build a movement to end hunger in partnership with communities who share values of eliminating the root causes of hunger. This position supervises two statewide organizer positions. This position is open until filled. The rate of pay is $65,000-$75,000 DOE, plus benefits. Please include a cover letter when applying. Will work remotely in accordance with government stay-at-home and/or public health orders until further notice.
Please feel free to share this information with your networks, and click here to see the full job description. |
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- Are you in need of additional volunteer support? Oregon Food Bank is offering to pair our available volunteers with partners in the Metro area.These requests can be ongoing or one time opportunities. Please fill out this form to make a request and an OFB staff member will follow up with you!
- Updates to hours/operations: What service are you offering and when next week? Please fill out our form again to let us know of what your hours are/will be and any changes to the type of service you're able to offer. Click here to fill out the form.
- Agency Contact Info Center - This is where you can check to see that we have all the correct contact information for your program, and update it as staffing changes and volunteers rotate in/out. If we can't contact you, we can't help you!
- All other announcements, updates, dock changes, etc are located on our main Coronavirus page, here.
Most importantly, thank you for your continued work and dedication in this uncertain moment. Whether your site is remaining open or has closed, we know neither is a decision you've taken lightly. We're in this together, and together we know we will all Emerge Stronger!
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