Creating Food Security at the Community Level: School Food Security Coalition
Community volunteers help harvest produce at FOOD for Lane County's Youth Farm during United Way's 2023 Days of Caring
You may be familiar with ALICE – those in our community who are Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed. Essentially “the working poor,” ALICE families are one paycheck away from being unable to make rent. According to United Way’s latest ALICE Report, 46% of households in Lane County can’t afford the basic cost of living. This is almost half of our community. When kids and families are teetering on this edge of instability at home, it can have devastating impacts on their ability to excel in school and life.
This instability is caused by complex challenges – low wages, the child care crisis, unaffordable housing, and more – so we must make change not just at the family level, but at the community level, for change to last.
Thankfully, that’s what United Way of Lane County does.
Your continued support will bolster a network of United Way funded programs providing ALICE families with free, healthy, culturally-specific food, so they don’t have to worry about choosing between rent and having food on the table.
Program Spotlight: School Food Security Coalition
“United Way is continuing to fund a coalition of partners including FOOD for Lane County, The Arc of Lane County and The 15th Night to work with Lane County school and districts to find ways to increase access to food for families and youth with the goal to partner with schools to create sustainable programs that support academic and family success, unique to each school’s needs and capacity. Each of these projects work to ensure Lane County kids get enough to eat, which ensures optimal growth, health, and development as FOOD for Lane County is seeing a steep increase in demand for our services among clients of all ages.”
One of these programs is the new School Food Security Coalition, a partnership between FOOD For Lane County, 15th Night, and The Arc of Lane County.
This new coalition aims to find long-term solutions to increase families’ access to food through schools, one of the best places to serve families. By collaborating with four high-needs schools in Lane County, this coalition plans to design and implement food assistance programming that will increase food security. Additionally, funds will be used to develop educational curricula that address the barrier of stigma uncovered during research conducted over the last year.
United Way help get this coalition off the ground, by granting them a $75,000 Community Change Coalition grant in 2022-23 when they first launched.
Now, United Way is investing another $70,000 annually through Transformation Grants over the next three years to support their efforts.
Investing in a wide network of programs
In addition to the School Food Security Coalition, many other United Way-funded organizations and programs are working to increase food access to local communities. Click on the “Funded Partners Providing Food Access” below to see a list of these organizations.
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• Bohemia Food Hub
• Community Sharing
• Florence Food Share
• FOOD for Lane County
• Junction City Local Aid
• King Silky’s Blessing Boxes
• Mapleton Food Share
• Oakridge Food Box
• School Food Security Coalition
Your donation to United Way’s Live United Fund is what enable us to invest in systems-level change, including programs like the Lane County Violence Prevention Coalition. When you give to United Way, your individual action is part of a powerful, collective movement - of people, programs, and coalitions - changing outcomes for kids and families.
Please join us in helping keep families safe this winter by making a gift today.
“I want to acknowledge the innovation and commitment of United Way to invest in collective impact... This is going to have huge impacts on our communities for years to come.”