Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 150

Courtesy Sharon Thornberry

Sharon Thornberry of
the Oregon Food Bank
is shown here working
with a steering group
that has sought her
help to improve their
local food system.

140? Chapter 4

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head of cattle are shipped out of state and overseas from ranching communities, while people
living in those communities never see so much as a pound of ground beef. In some towns, the
emergency food pantry is the best place to look for healthy food, including fresh produce.
Oregon has long had a reputation for promoting a culture of sustainability, and more
recently has been associated with America’s growing population of “locavores,” people who
try to eat foods grown locally as much as possible. The trend is much easier to see flourishing
in Portland and other population centers along the I-5 corridor. The rest of the state has a food
system that looks like the one in the rest of the country. As the U.S. food system has become
concentrated in the hands of fewer producers, the distances from farm to intermediary stops
to table have widened. A food system is the sum of all the processes related to feeding people,
from growing, harvesting, processing (transforming or changing), packaging, marketing, distributing, consuming, and even reclaiming food that would otherwise be wasted.41
In rural communities in Oregon,
residents are trying to gain back
some control of their local food
systems, and they realize they need
help. There’s more to it than saving
money on gas, or a craving for
something grown by one of their
neighbors. People in these communities are worried about their
health and their children’s health.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 60
percent of the adult population
is overweight and 26 percent are
obese.42 Among children between
the ages of 2 and 5, 15 percent are
already obese.43 Obesity, diabetes,
and other diet-related illnesses are food system-related.
Sharon Thornberry, the Community Food Systems Manager with the Oregon Food Bank,
works with a team to organize communities that are looking for help in filling the gaps in
their food systems. In 2009, Thornberry was honored with the Billi Odegaard Public Health
Genius Award from the Community Health Systems of Oregon in recognition of her dedication in expanding access to healthy foods in underserved rural communities of the state.44 In
2013, the Oregon Food Bank was presented with Feeding America’s annual Innovation Award
in food banking, singling out Thornberry’s work as “empowering community members to
build healthier, more equitable, and more resilient food systems through a community organizing model.”45
When Thornberry begins to work with a new community, she first engages with a local
steering committee of five to 10 people to discuss how they want to address the gaps in
their food system. The steering committee is not passively waiting to be told what to do; its
members have already formed ideas about how they want to improve the food system. Over
time, others in the community join as their interests are piqued. Leaders emerge. People are

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