This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, January 15, 2009
City Hall / Politics / Portland "Give Help, Give Help, Choose Local!" Council Launches Volunteering Program
Posted by Matt Davis on Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Mayor Sam Adams and all of City Council volunteered at the Oregon Food Bank this afternoon, to kick off the Better Together strategy, encouraging Portlanders to volunteer more during the recession, and choose local businesses, to support the city's economy. 
If you've never volunteered, now's the time to do it. Go to the website, portlandisbettertogether.com, for more information on places you can get involved.
Promotion of the program has been under-written by Umpqua Bank, whose CEO, Ray Davies, made a few remarks at this afternoon's 2:30 pm ceremony before driving off in his Hybrid Lexus at 3:05 pm. Still, his employees did volunteer for 20,000 hours in their communities last year, so I guess one can't exactly blame him. Meanwhile, council members stayed on to bag food to go out to the homeless for half an hour. Adams thanked Nike staff and PSU volunteers at the Food Bank before delivering his remarks..."my council colleagues and I understand the importance of having a strong support network in place at all times, but especially in times as challenging as these," he said.
Commissioner Nick Fish told the audience that Oregon ranks 3rd, nationally, out of the 50 states in terms of hunger. "600,000 of our brothers and sisters, statewide, will go to bed hungry," he said.
"The last time I was here I was bagging potatoes," said Commissioner Amanda Fritz. "I'm delighted that we're celebrating volunteers. Sometimes it takes a crisis to bring people together."
"We all know people do volunteer, but many people do show up for the first time," said Commissioner Dan Saltzman, encouraging people to check the website or call the information line and take the plunge.
"One way of combatting hunger and homelessness locally is to buy local—keep Portlanders working, who then go out and buy goods and services that keep businesses afloat," said Commissioner Randy Leonard.
The Oregon Food bank has seen a 50% increase in people seeking assistance over the past year, said its director, Rachel Bristol, having served 800,000 people a year for the last three years.
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Except I'm too busy working to pay the higher taxes and city fees to make up for the money I used to donate to the food bank, Mercy Corps, etc.
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