This season of giving, the Astoria Co-op will be taking a portion of the money you spend at the store in December, and donating it to local causes. Coming up on Sunday December 22, we will donate 10% of everything you spend to Clatsop Community Action’s Regional Food Bank.
A quarter of residents in Clatsop County qualify for emergency food assistance. In five years, the CCA Food Bank distributed twice as much food as it did five years ago. The need has increased dramatically but also the methods of gathering food has grown substantially, as the food bank is much more active in the community, working hard to procure food and funds to a greater degree than ever before.
We donate fresh food several times a week to the food bank, as well as our non-perishable food bin you’ve been filling this holiday season, but we wanted to help in an even bigger way. Marlin Martin, food program developer for the food bank says the food drives this time of year are great, but cash is king when it comes to leveraging loads of food.
“With money, we can procure 5 to 6 pounds of food for every dollar, whereas a can of vegetables might cost close to a dollar in a store. The other thing money is important for is we can procure products in bulk commodity, repackaging and labeling them at the food bank. We can get 10 to 20 pounds more food by buying in bulk,” Martin said.
Earlier this month your Co-op donated 10% of sales on December 8 to Astoria schools via parents clubs for extra supplies including books and activities such as field trips.
We like to do good things for the community (we are community-owned after all). In fact, this year the Co-op won Clatsop Economic Development Resources’ award for “Business Service to the Community”.
What & When:
Sunday December 22: Astoria Co-op donates 10% of sales to CCA’s Regional Food Bank
Where: The Astoria Co-op is located at 1355 Exchange St. in Astoria open 8-8 daily.