Oregon Food Bank gets help from Google to feed hungry Oregonians

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV)—Days before Thanksgiving, the Oregon Food Bank is busy getting ready to feed thousands of food-insecure Oregonians and tech-giant Google is lending a helping hand.

Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, announced they’re donating $10 million to Feeding America, an organization the Oregon Food Bank is part of. The company is also donating advertising space: last year they launched search and map features to help food-insecure Americans find food banks. This all comes at a time when more and more people across the country, and here in Oregon, turn to food banks to feed their families. The Oregon Food Bank estimates about 1.5 million people in Oregon and Southwest Washington will need emergency food assistance.

On Monday, more than 30 Google employees spent the morning volunteering at the Oregon Food Bank, packing more than 4,500 pounds of pasta. Erika Radhansson is one of those volunteers and she said this is the first time she volunteered to give back to the Oregon community she just moved to.

“Getting out during the holidays to make sure our food banks are stocked is really important to me,” Radhansson said.

She said google searches with words like “food pantries” or “where to donate food near me” always skyrocket during the holidays, but the company has seen searches increase in general since the start of the pandemic.

“In the wake of the Pandemic, we saw people both turning to Google and turning to food banks for more food,” Radhansson said.

If you would like to help food-insecure Oregonians and Washingtonians, you can visit The Oregon Food Bank’s website by clicking here. You can also round up your next Fred Meyer bill to the nearest dollar as part of FOX 12′s Hunger Free Project.

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