Funding Rural | Episode #9 | Season 3: Carly Auten “Food is Medicine”
More than 50 million Americans face food insecurity. And in the U.S., 9 out of the 10 counties with the highest rate of food insecurity are rural. To offset this disparity, Roundhouse Foundation recently launched a 6 million dollar investment which will support local food purchase over the next three years. Carly Auten is food program director at NeighborImpact, a grant recipient that distributes more than 4 million pounds of food every year and feeds 80,000 people across Central Oregon every month.
“When we look at our rural areas, they are much more heavily impacted when we have changes in the economy, when we have federal disruptions, or cuts to food and funding—those are the areas that feel it the hardest.” –Carly Auten
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About Carly Auten
Carly Auten (she/her) is the Food Program Director at NeighborImpact, former Vice Chair of the Oregon Food Bank Network and currently sits on the Oregon Food Bank board as a statewide representative. She has worked in hunger-relief programs, including school nutrition programs, for over 15 years in Central Oregon and has held advisory roles with High Desert Food and Farm Alliance and Deschutes County OSU Extension Services. With a dedication to supporting our neighbors in Central Oregon, Carly believes no one should be hungry.
“You can’t be a productive person if you’re hungry. How do you do anything more if you’re just always looking for your next meal?” –Carly Auten
Discussion Questions
- Carly mentions costs are rising across the board, but wages are not keeping up. If this trend continues, what resources or support could your organization provide?
- Carly talked about ensuring people feel dignified while visiting the food bank, and the importance of overcoming stigmas when seeking help. Imagine if you were in a situation where you needed food support services. What conditions would make you feel comfortable?
- Having a full belly ensures employees can get to work and children can be successful in school. How can your organization help raise the awareness of the benefits that food banks bring to local economies?
Resources
- NeighborImpact
- New warehouse improves access to food for Central Oregon’s hungry | The Bulletin
- How is Central Oregon helping its hungry children? | The Bulletin
- Rural Oregon Food Bank Support | Roundhouse Foundation
- NeighborImpact Expands Food Distribution Center – Roundhouse Foundation
“Many times it’s assumed that food banks provide food mostly to the houseless and unemployed communities, and that is part of the core of our mission, but it’s also working families, our senior community, veterans and children.”–Carly Auten
Transcript: Episode #9 | Season 3: Carly Auten “Food is Medicine”
Erin Borla 0:00
Erin, welcome back to funding rural, a show that explores how philanthropy can better serve rural and indigenous communities. I’m Erin Borla with the Sisters, Oregon based roundhouse Foundation, more than 50 million Americans face food insecurity, and in the US, nine out of the 10 counties with the highest rate of food insecurity are rural. Change starts with a full belly, positive systemic change is impossible in any community if people are hungry at roundhouse, we have supported rural food banks and pantries over the years. In fact, just this year, we launched a $6 million investment over the next three years for local food purchase to regional and local food banks and food pantries. One of those regional food banks is neighbor impact. They distribute more than 4 million pounds of food every year and feed 80,000 people across Central Oregon every month. They’re based in Redmond, Oregon, and partner with 57 smaller agencies across the region in three counties, including the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Carly Otten is the Food Program Director at neighbor impact. She’s been with the organization for 10 years, and it’s been such a pleasure to get to know her and her team. I even get a chance to volunteer with them every once in a while, neighbor impact recently built a huge new warehouse, and Carly told me it’s been a game changer.
Carly Auten 1:28
It is a gorgeous place. Even my 10 year old son wanted to come on Monday, the full day, because he said he just loves to spend time here. So that was and that’s wonderful, and then that’s actually the culture we’re trying to cultivate here at the at the warehouse, we have a beautiful, what we call demonstration kitchen that where we’re welcoming our partners, or partner organizations if they want to Do test recipes or teach a class with their clients to you know, if there’s a unique ingredient out there in the food banking world, like right now, rutabagas, they’re really they’re in high supply. So what do you do with the rutabaga? So we have this, this beautiful Test Kitchen, lots of you know, light and in this big welcoming space, we have a beautiful space for our volunteers to do repacking events. We sort parachutable food. So a lot of times we’ll get in four field bins of loose apples, and because it’s donated product, maybe not all of it is amazing. So we have volunteers that come in and we’ll call through that product, produce and bag it for our families. And then we also have, when we get a food drive in, which is typically non perishable items. We have volunteer groups that come in, and we’ll sort that product based the expiration date or the Best Buy day based on type. So then and box that up so that we can get that out to our partner agencies. And then we have finally a very adequate space to store our cooler product. I mean, over 40% of what we resource and distribute is actually fresh produce, which often comes as a surprise to a lot of people. Because I think for a long time, the the reality and was that food banking was was non perishable food, and that is true, but we’ve really shifted and leaned into fresh produce. So we have Costco signs, beautiful, cooler now, really nice freezer and lots of extra racking space so that we can really say yes to pretty much anything that comes our way that makes sense for the food bank.
Erin Borla 4:09
Talk about what I think people think the food bank is, you we talked a little bit about it’s not all perishable food. It’s, you know, we now, it’s a lot of fresh produce. It’s a lot of what are the number one items that you distribute that people are requesting?
Carly Auten 4:24
Yeah, so definitely the number one item, if we’re going to just talk you know, General Product Categories right now, is definitely produce. So we’ve done client surveys with our with our partner agencies, and through our mobile pantry and across the state, and so we know that there are five items that are high in demand. Number one is meat, number two is dairy, number three is eggs, number four is produce, and number five are. Meal, staple items, and if you’ve been, anybody’s been to the grocery store recently, we know how expensive meat, dairy and eggs are, and so produce, while expensive at the grocery store, is actually in the growing world in bulk is actually can be a really affordable product for us to lean into, mainly because there’s often surplus. So if a farmer or producer meets a contract with their buyer, and there’s produce left in the field, it is an opportunity for us to work with them on how we can, what we call glean that product. And there are a couple of different options. Sometimes that farmer or producer will donate, and they get a they get a tax write off, or a tax incentive. And actually, right now in the legislation, it’s proposed for that to get an increase next year to encourage that. But there’s also a program called pick and pack up, which we call PPO, where the farmer, the grower, donates the product so they get the tax incentive, and then the food bank will pay a very affordable rate for the picking of the product, and then the packing out or so that, so the transportation of it, so we are able to lean really heavily into produce, and because we know it is a high demand item, and because we know at the grocery store level it is very expensive, And because we know it is so healthy and meet so many different dietary and cultural needs. It’s what we lean really heavily into. And you know, we do have other programs. We have some houseless outreach programs. So we do try to resource food that provides calories that can be eaten with very little resources. So there’s that another layer of food resourcing. And then we also tried to resource food for our meal sites. So if we come across an opportunity for like recently, we got a donation of five gallon buckets of peanut butter. That doesn’t make sense for family, but that goes so well for you know, our meal sites that are serving hundreds of meals a day that can stretch really far. So when it comes to what we lean into it is really thinking mostly in Priority about nutrition. But I will also say we accepted nine pallets of Girl Scout cookies because we could, and everyone deserves a little treat too. So every day is a little bit different. It depends on what comes through. But yes, overall, we try to really lean into those five top items that we know clients are really hoping to see when they come to their food pantries.
Erin Borla 8:36
Talk about the mobile pantry that you have.
Carly Auten 8:39
Oh, that’s my little pride and joy. So that our mobile pantry is a beautiful, large refrigerated truck. We go to 12 different sites throughout the month. We usually have about 10 or so products on the mobile pantry, usually six of them are produce items. The name of the mobile pantry is called Fresh to you, so there’s a really heavy emphasis that we are going to provide fresh produce. So about six items or so, depending on our inventory will be produce items, and then the remaining are going to be our meal staple items. We were having some concerns about food access in Cook County, very few affordable grocery stores, a lot of convenience stores. So the idea was, how can we bring this food there and again, really, have, you know, focusing on produce, because that was, that is our largest inventory. So I, I worked pretty closely with high desert Food and Farm Alliance, and we. We kind of came up with a with an idea for this mobile pantry. And I reached out to mosaic medical at the time and said, we really want to try and bring fresh food in. There’s a big need for food is medicine. There’s a big need for fresh food, healthy access to get into working with healthcare providers. And Mosaic was amazing, and so we wrote up a few grants and got some money to buy this beautiful truck, and we retrofitted it so that folks can shop right from the truck, especially in our smaller distributions. And so the first grant we wrote, My expectation was that 45 individuals would be served out of the truck, and we’re about 190 individuals every time we come out there. And we’ve grown from one location to now there’s 12 locations, 14 distributions. And the idea is we want to meet folks where they’re already at. So we look at so our partnerships are with schools, and we try and time those with when the bell gets out, so folks can either come before they pick up their kiddos from school or after. We have a distribution with Latino community association in Bend and work with them on the menu that they would like to see. We work with libraries. We work with the senior center. So each time with you know, each partner is really in location is really well thought out. And so we look for service gaps and food desert areas and where we can be, where folks are already at so they don’t need to make an extra trip, or they can get multiple services in Redmond, the sheets, Public Library comes and gives out free books and helps folks sign up for library cards if they want. We’ve talked to DHS about having their mobile unit come to do snap outreach. OSU Extension comes and does cooking demonstrations at some of our Redmond so we’re really looking at this as a way to be where folks already are. Provide other resources. We hand out a lot of resources, even internally with neighbor impact, again, as a CAP agency, we will oftentimes have a head start person come out to do some Head Start outreach and recruitment, if in that area, we will pass out energy assistance applications when there’s funding available. So the idea is, you, you you’re already there, you’re going to receive food, and maybe there are some other wraparound services where folks didn’t even know about it. We’re piloting a program right now where we’re going to work with a pediatric dental outreach fan that will provide free services for for kids, for with dental needs, so they can come get their apples and then also get a checkup with their for their their dental health.
Erin Borla 13:50
Talk a little bit about how food insecurity looks different in rural places than urban ones. Are there different challenges in in rural places than than more urban centers,
Carly Auten 14:02
yes, definitely, and it’s often just a it’s access to resources, so our highest need food insecurity rates are in our rural areas, and a lot of times it’s because there aren’t as many jobs. There’s lack of transportation, and we often see in the food banking world when it comes to food insecurity, there is we have the tfat program, our USDA program, and in our rural areas, they are partner agencies rely really heavily on that that food to come in. And recently, we’ve had some pretty significant cuts to our federal food and so. So in our area bend, right? We have a pretty dense, pretty dense population compared to our outlying areas. There’s a fair amount of wealth, a lot of resources in Bend. So oftentimes, our partner agencies, when we talk about the federal food supply, that’s about 20% maybe 25 or 30% of what they’re offering. But they have many donors in the area that are paying attention. They have grocery stores that might donate. They have businesses that might donate. So then they’re able to get a lot of community and local support to then make up the difference. If there are federal cuts in rural areas, federal food is going to make up closer to like 60% and then most of our partner agencies get the remainder of their food in rural areas from our food bank, and we’ve been working really hard to try and make grocery store connections with our partner agencies. Similar to what we do, we’ve gone out. We have a staff member that will go out and make an introduction from the grocery store to the rural area. But oftentimes, if you know, we look at Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, there is no real grocery store there, so they are much more reliant on what is coming through federal food programs and what we have in our food bank than what maybe the community or the local businesses can help lift up in the food bank so our when, when we look at our rural areas, they are much more heavily impacted when we have changes in the economy, when we have federal disruptions or cuts to food and funding, those are the areas that feel it the hardest, and then to add a layer to it, they have fewer accesses to other social services. And so when we talk about food insecurity in rural areas, it is more impactful because there are just fewer resources that anybody can even access unless they come into a more into our, you Know, urban bend space,
Erin Borla 17:38
yeah, and what’s the demographic around the number of young people? Or you mentioned families? You use the word families a lot like, we’re serving you’re serving a lot of kids, right? Yeah.
Carly Auten 17:52
And I think I’ve been having this conversation, it’s been coming up a lot.
Carly Auten 18:00
I think the face of food security, which surprises a lot of people. I mean, many times it’s assumed that food banks provide food mostly to the houseless and unemployed communities, and that is part of the core of our mission, but it’s also working families, our senior community, veterans and children, and 36% of the individuals that receive food at a food pantry or through our food banks are children, and 35% of folks that come to a food pantry are employed, and 13% are seniors that are already out of the workforce. So in reality, that only leaves about 16% of people unemployed seeking out food assistance. But I do talk a lot about our working families, because that is really become the reality in Central Oregon, and our service numbers have changed drastically since pre covid, and what we’re seeing are folks that are experiencing really high housing costs, exponentially growing grocery store prices that don’t seem to be leveling off childcare costs, transportation costs, fuel I mean, everything seems to be going up, except maybe wages and so that is just not keeping pace with the Cost of living in Central Oregon these days, and probably, I mean, I’m speaking for through the lens of Central Oregon, but I don’t think that is just specific to Central Oregon. And we’re hearing that across the state, across the country, people are really feeling that crunch. And so I do speak. A lot about families, because that is a huge, a huge population that has grown even from the time that I started. Yeah,
Erin Borla 20:12
so a lot of philanthropic funders are based in bigger cities. What would you say to folks that wanted to expand their work to try and reach some of these harder to reach communities that maybe don’t see those same resources?
Carly Auten 20:29
Yeah, that’s a great it’s a great question, because a lot of times you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, because there are rural partners may not even have the volunteer capacity to really submit a grant application, or be able to even know that there are resources out there. So through the lens of food banking, you know, specifically with these more rural partner agencies that tend to have much less capacity, fewer resources, fewer volunteers, oftentimes an aging out volunteer base. That’s a big role that regional food banks can play for funders, is a lot of our regional food banks will have urban and rural areas, and because we service both of those areas, regional food banks can be a really great conduit to other nonprofits, to other partner agencies in these rural areas that we know don’t have access to the resources, don’t have the people capacity to be able to find the extra funding or be able to do fundraising in their communities. So I think working with regional food banks can be really helpful to understand those communities and be a conduit to understanding what that funder might really want to lean into,
Erin Borla 22:02
yeah. So if you we talk about stigma a lot in the world of hunger and what that looks like, what people’s fear from showing up, particularly in a rural space, right? Everybody knows everybody. So they see you show up at the food pantry, you know something’s going on. If you see your neighbor at the food pantry, oh, what’s happening with them? How do we how do we talk about stigma? How do we remove the stigma? Or what? How can foundations help serving in that role of battling that stigma?
Carly Auten 22:34
Yeah, the stigma piece is an uphill battle, for sure, and you’re right, in rural areas, that can be the most challenging part of it. I mean, I know that in Crook County, SNAP benefits are underutilized because folks, they don’t want to even go in to apply for fear of the stigma of the judgment. I think as much as we can continuing these conversations about who’s really coming, normalizing that it is not folks fault that wages are not keeping up with the cost of living right now, I think it’s also really important that funders find organizations that are very mindful about the way they deliver services, so it is dignified. We know with based on some client survey that folks are more apt to come to a food distribution if it is outside and if there are wrap around services, and that’s a reinforcement of our mobile pantry, and we see really high numbers, even in our rural areas, of folks coming out. And so I think for funders, it’s spending some time understanding the organizations that are paying attention to being inclusive, making sure folks are treated with dignity, because it is the stigma. I don’t know that stigma will ever go away. I don’t know that will I think, I mean, I think a lot of times it’s even just internal stigma, because oftentimes folks will come to a mobile pantry and say, I cannot believe I’m here. I never expected I would be here. I have a friend that is a middle school science teacher and her husband, who is who is also a teacher. Their school did cuts, and she’s got two littles and. And a mortgage, and she regularly now comes to the mobile pantry, and you know, she’ll text me and be like, mobile pantry was amazing today. She’s like, the food was awesome. She’s like, the kiddos love the grapes on the mobile pantry. And you know, we’ve had conversations. She’s like, I’ve never, never, ever expected to go to need to go to a mobile pantry, but it is such a huge hell. It’s like, and everyone is so friendly, and the food is quality, and we get to pick what we want and see you
Speaker 1 25:40
again next time,
Carly Auten 25:42
and she’s like, I look around, and there are a lot of people just like me, and I think there’s a part of that, but I do think at the end of the day, there’s just a lot of internal folks feel that ashamed or stigmatized because that was never, never on their bingo card that they were gonna they were gonna need to access some food. And so I think a lot of that is looking to see what organizations are really leaning into providing services that are dignified, and that, you know, provide these services to folks without the shame that may come from, you know, a lot of barriers or a lot of limitations, and sometimes, you know, that’s, That’s the program that’s a federal requirements that are that are state requirements that are slapped on them, and but I think there’s always a way we can deliver services in a dignified and trusting, safe environment.
Erin Borla 26:59
Yeah, and I feel like, just like we’ve talked about all throughout today, that it’s something that all the volunteer time that I’ve done feels like that’s always the the place it’s comes from a place of love and a place of support, and nobody knows anybody else’s situation. It’s just, we’re here to help and and here to provide these services. So so your kids can eat, so you can eat so your grandma can eat, so your neighbor can eat, because we are at our best selves when we have a full belly,
Carly Auten 27:27
yeah, and I think exactly I mean, you you can’t be of a productive person if you’re hungry. And so how do you do anything more if you’re just always looking for your next meal. And it is foundational. Food is foundational. Everybody needs food in order to survive. And you know, we want folks, first and foremost, to be housed. We want them to keep their lights on. We want them to be able to pay their bills. We want them to put gas in their car so they can go to work, and so typically, at the end of the month, what’s left is that grocery bill, and there is food out there. I mean, we were talking about produce. We know that there are millions of pounds of food throughout the country that go to waste in those fields. And I think food banks lean try are trying to lean into that ecosystem and also say, we have food. You deserve food. Everyone deserves food. Come get this. Make sure you you fill your belly, you feed your family. You know you again. You feed your neighbor whatever it takes, so that you can focus on the other things to alleviate whatever crisis you’re in. Hopefully move move in. You pivot to a place where you’re more comfortable or you’re more stable, whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1 29:04
But let us feed you. Let us feed you. No questions asked. Come. Let us feed you, please. It
Carly Auten 29:12
is a it’s a human right.
Erin Borla 29:15
I love it. It is good for my soul, for sure. Thank you for spending time today and sharing about all the great work that you’re doing. I know we’re in a time of turmoil and a time of chaos where it feels like the ground doesn’t ever settle under your feet. So appreciate you taking some time and sharing all the things that you’re going through in this difficult time and all the work that you all are doing to ensure that that folks are getting resources and access to food.
Carly Auten 29:41
And I’d want to take a minute to thank you and the entire roundhouse Foundation team through the hard times and the good times. You’re always there for us, and you make it really you make it really accessible, you make it really low barrier for us. We really feel so appreciative. Of because whenever we have have a crisis come up, or we have something a problem, we can just have this one on one conversation. And sometimes it’s just a brainstorming, sometimes it’s a it’s a funding request, but there is no other foundation that we work with that cares as much, checks in as much, and really spends time dirt on boots doing work for our community. So I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all of your support and how you’re always there in our corner. So thank you.
Erin Borla 30:53
It was so great to get a chance to talk to Carly and learn all about the ins and outs of food banking. It’s such a complex system, and I think oftentimes we think just about the food bank, just feeding people, just getting food out the door, but there are so many other components and so many opportunities for funders to connect with our food banking system, right? They keep folks fed, which keeps kids in school, which keeps folks employed, which keeps folks showing up every day for their community, it also supports the economics of those regions, right? How do we support our farmers and ranchers and our local grocers? By creating those partnerships, and there are so many avenues for funders like us to get involved with our regional and local food banks. Not only do we show up and help provide funding for food, we also help provide support for volunteers and opportunities for strategic development. Neighbor impact has done such a great job developing their new facility, which has that test kitchen, it has the pack room, and has opportunities for volunteers to show up, for different community organizations to participate and partner. They’re such a great example. We’ll certainly link to their website in our show notes, and you can go and sign up to volunteer. You can volunteer at neighbor impact, or you can choose to volunteer at your local food bank or food pantry. There are so many opportunities to get involved. Thanks so much for listening. Today, head over to funding rural.com for more You. You.
Transcribed by AI. Please excuse any mistakes.
