ROTARY FIRST HARVEST of OREGON, Inc.

Non-profit Identification Number 68-0563248

Organization / Mission /  Founding

Rotary First Harvest of Oregon (RFHO) is a 2003 blooming project initiated by Rotary Foundation of Klamath County (established April 1976), 501(c)3 TIN 93-0670416, and the Klamath County Rotary Club (established May 1922), 501(c)4 TIN 93-6031803, working with farmers, food processors, local gardeners, and other public/private entities to produce and salvage food for Oregon food banks. Foods produced are those grown and harvested specifically for this purpose through a cooperative venture with the Master Gardeners, OSU Extension Office, and the Klamath County Jail. The salvaged foodstuffs are fruits and vegetables in excess or those, which cannot be sold due to size or minor imperfections. We transport this food to food bank distribution warehouses such as the Klamath-Lake Counties Food Bank and potentially to Oregon Food Bank centers throughout Oregon, to be distributed to hungry individuals and families and to the programs which help support them.

RFHO's Objectives

1.to provide an effective solution to the opposing problems of hunger and waste. Oregon has been designated the hungriest state in the nation. Yet the USDA estimates that nationally one billion pounds of food each year–25 per cent of all the food our country grows–either goes unharvested or is sent to landfills that are already bursting at the seams. This is food that could be used to feed hungry children and adults, but first it has to get to food banks. That is where RFHO comes in.

2.to nurture and enhance the lives of recipients, children and seniors in particular, through training in adequate nutrition and food preparation and preservation.

3.to avoid duplication of services or resources already available through collaboration with other agencies. Our role is to coordinate the resources needed to capture a donation. Our primary function will be to use the power and connections of Rotary to establish partnerships for the growing of produce and to work as brokers to find surplus food, arrange harvesting or packaging if needed, identify recipients, and set up transportation.

4.to facilitate community partnerships to maximize the success of objectives (1) and (2).

5.to expand RFHO to include others of the 66 Rotary clubs in Southern Oregon and Northern California .

Rotary First Harvest of Oregon is modeled after, and mentored by, Rotary First Harvest of Washington. This highly successful program, established in the Puget Sound Rotary District in 1982, is the only non-profit agency distributing surplus fruits, vegetables, and other items to all major food bank warehouses in Washington. Specifics of Rotary First Harvest, Washington, are professionally outlined on RFH website: w ww.firstharvest.org.

Issue Being Addressed

According to USDA studies of food insecurity and hunger, Oregon is the most “food insecure” state in the nation. The Oregon Center For Public Policy states that nearly one in four Oregon children, (22.7%), live in a food insecure household. Children and seniors make up a major portion of the Klamath and Lake County residents relying on the food bank and emergency meal programs.

Hunger and food insecurity, defined as not being sure where the next meal is coming from, are serious problems that can have long-term physical, mental and emotional effects on children and other vulnerable individuals. Results from a July 2001 study by Katherine Alaimo of the School of Public Health, University of Michigan, and Christine M. Olson and Edward A. Frongillo, Jr., of Cornell University, determined that negative academic and psychosocial outcomes are associated with family-level food insufficiency. According to the study, six to eleven year-old food-insufficient children had significantly lower arithmetic scores and were more likely than their peers to have repeated a grade, have seen a psychologist, and have had difficulty getting along with others. The results provide support for public health efforts to increase the food security of American families.

For children living in households that rely on assistance from hunger programs, highly nutritious food like the fruit and vegetables RFHO provides are essential to academic, physical and social development. Without a sufficient base for learning, economic independence can become an unreachable goal.

Hunger can be equally devastating for seniors. Hunger increases the risk for stroke, worsens existing medical problems, limits the efficacy of many prescription drugs, and may affect brain chemistry, increasing the incidence of depression and isolation. All this leads to a swift rise in medical expenses, trapping low-income seniors in a “catch-22” of saving money for rent and medical needs--or spending it for food.

Childhood malnutrition and senior hunger have a simple remedy: eating anti-oxidant, vitamin- and mineral-rich fruits and vegetables. All too often, though, our state’s food banks lack means to acquire the perishable, nutritious and often-expensive fruits and vegetables low-income children need most. RFHO brings healthy foods out of farmers’ fields and directs it to the people who need it.