FOX 12 teams with Fred Meyer for the Hunger Free Project

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - With a desperate and growing need across Oregon for families needing food assistance, FOX 12 is setting the table with a new campaign to help.

Teaming up with Fred Meyers stores, FOX 12 is introducing the Hunger Free Project to help non-profits providing Oregon families with food support.

One person helping how they can is Tim Hahn who picks up food boxes from Portland-based non-profit Sunshine Division. Hahn then takes the boxes to the Community for Positive Aging in the Hollywood District.

The Sunshine Division has provided emergency food to local people in need for 99 years – but the executive director says the need now is greater than ever.

“A little over a year ago was the greatest we’ve ever seen,” says Kyle Camberg, Executive Director of Sunshine Division. “Nearly 10 times as many households as we’ve ever served were coming to us on a weekly basis. I’m happy that things have sort of stabilized and have been better since last summer but currently today our new baseline is about four times as many households as we ever saw in 2019.”

From elderly shut-ins to families struggling to get back to work, Camberg says they anticipate this increased need for at least the next two to three years.

“Anytime there is a natural disaster or a stock market crash, things don’t right themselves for two or three years,” Camberg says. “What we all went through the past two years was far more traumatic and encompassed far more people of every walk of life -- more than anything we’ve ever seen. So, we know it’s going to take time.”

With FOX 12′s new partnership with Fred Meyers, we’ll be supporting non-profits like Sunshine Division and the Oregon Food Bank that work to make sure no matter what is happening in the world, people have access to food for themselves, and for their families.

“One of the biggest issues we see with hunger is a lack of awareness,” says Fred Meyer’s Director of Corporate Affairs Jeffrey Temple. “This is a great opportunity for us to get the message out and let people in the community see that we can all make a difference if we all do just a little bit.”

Since the pandemic, community food drives and volunteer work have been virtually no-existent meaning these non-profits have to spend more money to help people in need.

FOX 12′s Hunger Free Project will help these organizations get what they need so they can help others.

“The Sunshine Division has helped me so much,” says one recipient of assistance. “If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t know where I’d be.”

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