Benny Westcott
Fliers have recently circulated through town warning that Fair Share Gleaners, a Sweet Home institution for 40 years, will close in November without more funding.
But coordinator Tracy Rowe has other ideas, even as the organization has fallen on hard times.
“We will not close,” she said. “We will scratch and dig our way out of this. It’s a lump in the road. We’ve been there before, and we’ve always managed to pick up our chins and move on.”
The pandemic, of course, played a significant role in its downturn. Donations fell as fewer people used Fair Share for food, and an inability to hold large events – where what Rowe described as “the best burgers in town; that’s what they tell us” were available for purchase – hindered cash flow. The Gleaners kept at it nonetheless.
“When COVID started, we did not stop,” she said. “We’ve been going strong since. But our people were kind of thinning out, because they were getting so many food stamps and they didn’t need the food that we had. We couldn’t make our burgers like we usually do through the county. That hit us hard. We could make $700 to $800 on a Friday night making burgers. The funding is just not coming like we need it to. But that’s happening with so many different groups.”
Then there’s the matter of the group’s space at 1040 Long St., where food is stored and distributed.
“If you don’t have funding, you can’t pay your rent,” Rowe said. There are also the utilities for the building, and gas to power vehicles to pick up food and deliver it to members that can’t pick it up at Fair Share’s building themselves.
Fortunately, fundraising is starting to come alive. Fair Share has hosted two yard sales and a burger event. Members have also launched a GoFundMe page at https://bit.ly/3TrL4u2.
“We’ve done three or four different activities to get that ball rolling again,” Rowe said. “We can’t just close. Linn Benton Food Share doesn’t allow that. You have to go through them and they have to disperse your assets.”
The organization’s seen its share of financial hardship in her 16 years. She recalled multiple transitions from one building to another and the payment of deposits and first month’s rent.
“All those little things hit you hard financially when you are a working gleaning group and a self-sufficient group, except for grants and things like that,” Rowe said. “Grants have been kind of tight lately too.”
Fair Share has occupied a number of locations in its lifespan, including what is now Epic Salon, space near the Tell & Sell, the Sunshine Industries building and a founding member’s garage on Pleasant Valley Road. Rowe hopes to find a more permanent spot.
“We’d like to come to our own building one day and have our own final home,” she said. “This one’s really small for us, and we just keep growing.”
Still, the price is right.
“We’ve always been blessed with a wonderful landlord,” Rowe said. “They charge us like $500, which is really awesome.”
Fair Share was born in 1982 as an offshoot of the Sweet Home Gleaners, which is currently at 3031 Santiam Hwy.
“Something happened with our forefathers, and there was a division, and they saw that [Fair Share] was needed,” Rowe explained. “So they started the secondary gleaning group, gave it a name and it has been going since then.”
The groups are the same in some ways and different in others.
“The policies and the bylaws are very closely similar,” Rowe said. “They have a store because they have the bigger building, and we don’t have a store. We work harder with the other side of it, being out in the community.”
As part of that outreach, Fair Share has worked with Sunshine Industries and Camp Attitude.
“Instead of just being here, we’ve spread out and done other things for other groups too,” Rowe said.
Fair Share provides food for more than 100 families and an estimated 460 individuals, according to Rowe. That includes 67 adoptee and 22 homebound families. The organization receives food from the Linn Benton Food Share at zero cost. It also obtains food from markets and produce from neighboring farms, with most of its food supply coming from Corvallis.
The organization distributes food every Monday “like clockwork,” she said.
In addition to its regular operations, volunteers – Fair Share boasts a regular core group of about 20 people – are gearing up for the winter season.
“We’re really pushing canned food if it’s a bad winter, for a lot of protein for our elders,” Rowe said, adding that the group plans to give Christmas boxes to each one of its families.
And Fair Share offers fulfillment to more than just its recipients.
“It has been an amazing place to volunteer,” she said. “There are times that you’re here for five hours, and there are times that you’re here for 55 hours. It just depends.”
Sometimes volunteers recruit even more help, but some of the fringe players struggle to fulfill the duties required for membership.
“Every so often we’ll be able to grab people from out of the core,” Rowe said. “But there’s a lot of people that think that they don’t have to do anything. And sadly enough, they’re going to end up getting suspension letters. You sign a contract that says you will volunteer eight hours and pick up food at least three times a month. If you neglect to do those two things and follow the rules, then we have no choice but to give you a warning that says you have 30 days to fix it.”
Board member Tamisha Schneider thinks Fair Share will be OK, but noted, “The only thing we have to worry about is getting the people to get off their behinds and actually coming in to help volunteer.”
Rowe said that when members do complete the volunteer requirements, they receive, in return, food and the satisfaction of working with fun people.
Satisfying or not, these days the work ahead seems anything but easygoing.
“Right now we’re just going to have to work our butts off,” she said. “We are working twice as hard.”
Still, she has plenty of hope for Fair Share’s future.
“With the people that we have working on things, I think that we’re going to be awesome,” Rowe said.
Those people include co-coordinator Doris Sparhawk, who pours her heart and soul into the cause.
“If this thing closes down, I’m done,” she said. “This is my life.”
Visit the Fair Share Gleaners’ GoFundMe page at https://bit.ly/3TrL4u2.