Kelly Kenoyer
As ash rained down on Sweet Home Wednesday, Sept. 9, leaders of the Sweet Home Gleaners started wondering how to respond to the growing crisis. Sweet Home was at evacuation Level 1, and the fire seemed to be getting closer.
All the food carefully gleaned from area farms and grocery stores was now under threat from a wildfire, and of the 40 families who normally pick up boxes each week, only three had shown up. “There’s probably going to be nobody picking up this week because of the fires,” said Executive Director Lisa Pye.
The non-profit had an empty truck to fill with food, but no one to move boxes, Pye said. In desperation, she put out a call for help on local Facebook groups. And Sweet Home showed up to help.
Ten or twelve volunteers converged on the Gleaners’ thrift shop on Main, including two from a Gleaners organization in Philomath. They spent two hours filling a truck with food as emergency alerts came through cell phones and as thick smoke and ash filled the air.
Volunteers packed boxes of shelf-stable milk and canned vegetables, oil, potatoes, and cereals. They formed a chain to pass boxes up to the truck, carefully stacking them on pallets. Volunteers on the scene said they just wanted to do something to help – and they did.
The truck is now in Albany at the county fairgrounds, where the gleaned food will be made accessible to evacuees, Pye said last week.