Thursday, Mar 31 2011 9:44AM
A Portland, Oregon nonprofit organization has created a mobile food pantry to serve rural communities.
Portland Adventist Community Services, one of Oregon's busiest food pantries, announced that it is creating a mobile food pantry that will allow it to expand its services to rural areas.
Executive director Paul Cole told KGW News the idea was originally proposed by a PASC volunteer who lives outside of the city. Another volunteer has made the venture possible by renovating an old snowmobile trailer into what will become the organization's mobile food pantry.
Cole said PASC has seen a jump in the amount of Portland-area families who are in need of emergency food boxes, reported the station. While the nonprofit organization usually provides about 6,000 meals a month, Cole said that number spiked to 7,000 in January.
Jean Kempe-Ware, a spokesperson for the Oregon Food Bank, told the source that mobile food pantry will act as a
rural community assistance program, since the state's outlying communities have few food pantries and have been hit hardest by the economic recession.
"It's going to go into remote areas, areas that are under-served or don't even have a pantry," she said.
Other groups have taken similar steps. A
Colorado nonprofit organization also recently created a mobile food pantry in a van to serve the state's rural areas. The Colorado Springs Gazette says it's expected to start up next month.