Posted: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:00 am
We've always been a little leery of llamas - it seems to us that they're harboring a secret agenda, the way cats do - but our suspicions were eased considerably by the sight this week of three llamas carrying 150 pounds of donated food to Stone Soup for this year's free Thanksgiving dinner.
Even better was that the llamas were working to transport food that had been purchased by a kindergarten class at Zion Lutheran School. Kudos to teacher LaVaun Messer, who each year asks her students to raise money to buy food for the less fortunate. Kudos as well to Julie Koenig, who donates the use of her llamas every year for the effort, and who obviously does not share our misgivings about the beasts.
Now that the students and the llamas have done their share to help feed the mid-valley's hungry this season, it's time for the rest of us to step forward.
We know many of you donated food earlier this month as part of the annual food drive to help Linn-Benton Food Share. Thanks for that.
But the need is greater this year than it has been in years past. And the need will not go away when the holidays are over.
For its part, Linn-Benton Food Share estimates that one out of every six families in Linn or Benton counties depends on emergency food assistance at least once each year. More than 40 percent of the people receiving emergency food assistance are children. Mike Gibson, executive director of Food Share, said that the number of people accessing emergency food pantries was up 40 percent in October, a statistic that was underlined by the increase in food boxes handed out in this year's Community Holiday Food Drive.
It gets worse: A report last week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture listed Oregon as one of the hungriest states in the country. The department said the hunger rate in Oregon is comparable to states like Georgia, Mississippi, Maine and South Carolina.
For Oregon, according to Oregon State University sociologist Mark Edwards, that translates into "78,000 Oregon households that, at some point during the year, skipped meals, shrunk portions and worried about making it to the end of the month."
You can help. You can start by bringing a donation of food to Friday evening's Christmas parade in downtown Corvallis. Donations will go to the South Corvallis Food Bank. Drop your donation into one of the tan "Drill Team Recycle Roll Carts" bearing "Share Our Food" placards as the carts make their way along the parade route, or use the large food barrel at the northwest corner of Fourth and Monroe by the courthouse drinking fountain.
And you can continue to help all year long. If you can, make a practice of contributing regularly to any of the organizations that help provide food to the hungry. Don't forget about the organizations that work in Philomath and throughout rural Benton County as well.
You don't need to enlist the help of llamas - or cats, for that matter. We can vow to fight hunger all year long in Corvallis and Benton County. Every donation makes a difference to someone.