Wherever you live in Oregon, finding up-to-date information about local food resources will be a lot easier with the introduction of “Food for Oregon,” an online database just launched by the Oregon State University Extension Service in cooperation with the Oregon Food Bank.

Food for Oregon fulfills a recommendation by the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force’s Act to End Hunger to develop a database to provide information and to help coordinate community food security efforts across the state. Community food security means reliable access to nutritious, affordable and culturally appropriate food resources for all citizens.

“The Food for Oregon database will include a broad range of locally available food outlets, including community gardens, farmers’ markets, community kitchens and gleaning organizations, faith-based food providers and other local food producers and processors,” said Sally Bowman, OSU Extension family and community development specialist.

The main feature of the Web site is a searchable database of non-emergency food resources throughout Oregon, along with many links to other food resource Web sites.

“Oregonians in need of emergency food will find links to those resources on this site,” said Bowman. “However, our plan is that Food for Oregon will become the most current and complete collection of community food resources in the state.”

To help reach that objective the database features registration and e-mail templates that provide an easy-to-use pathway for food resource providers to add and update listings.

“In a broader sense, we hope that the communication tools built into the Food for Oregon database will serve as a gateway for citizen involvement in community food policy and volunteer efforts to expand public access to community food resources,” said Shawn DeCarlo, Oregon Food Bank agency relations coordinator.

At a glance

For more information about Food for Oregon, see http://foodfororegon.oregonstate.edu.