In January, Marion-Polk Food Share distributed 703,509 pounds of food to our network of 97 hunger-relief partners. That’s more than 175,000 pounds of food each week, a 17 percent increase over the previous month..

Those distributions were made possible in part by local donations from our retail food recovery program participants, food industry partners, and community food drives. Deliveries of USDA commodities totaling 83,007 pounds and Oregon Food Bank deliveries of 195,776 pounds completed January collections.

The breakdown of local donations looks like this:

Retail Food Recovery: Local grocer partners contributed 66,382 pounds of food in January, a 22 percent decrease from December donations. The retail food recovery program provides fresh produce, meats, deli and dairy items that MPFS distributes to its hunger-relief partners.

Donors included Walmart, 29,960 pounds; Roth’s Fresh Markets, 15,400 pounds; Trader Joe’s, 6,847 pounds; Fred Meyer, 6,092 pounds, Albertsons Food Center, 4,823 pounds and Food 4 Less, 3,260 pounds.

Local Donations: Nearly 158,000 pounds of food were donated locally from food industry partners and community food drives, a decrease of about 30 percent from the previous month. . The top nine donors for January included:

• WinCo Distribution Center — 28,925 lbs various produce and dry goods;
• Don Pancho — 25,833 lbs. tortillas, chips and pork rinds;
• EZ Orchards — 16,357 lbs. pears;
• Norpac Foods — 12,101 lbs. frozen veggies;
• Spring Valley Dairy — 9,698 lbs. milk, bread and eggs;
• Pepsi Bottling Group —8,638 lbs. soda, juice, tea, & energy drinks;
• Oregon School for the Deaf —7,831 lbs. produce & assort dry goods;
• Entenmann's Oroweat Foods Co. — 6,115 lbs. bread and pastries;
• Kettle Foods — 4,660 lbs. chips, nuts and potatoes.