Oregon Department of Human Services works to fill 1,500 food boxes for people in need

On Tuesday morning, November 18, 2025, at 8 o’clock, about a dozen staff from the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) gathered in a warehouse on the outskirts of Salem. The warehouse was at least the length of a football field with ceilings as high as a two-story barn. It was chilly and smelled like freshly unearthed potatoes. On nearby shelves were boxes and boxes of food. The job was clear: Fill 1,500 cardboard boxes with food in three days.

The day before, a large grocery truck had delivered hundreds of boxes of canned vegetables, tuna, salmon and chicken, and bags of staples such as rice, beans granola bars and flour. There were bottles of olive oil and containers of spices such as oregano and cumin – and so much more.

“It’s so exciting to see this,” Ed Flick, Director of the ODHS Office of Resilience and Emergency Management, said. He was working with a small pocket tool to tighten the screws of a box cutter he held in his hand.

The food boxes project grew out of the ODHS SNAP Federal Shutdown Response Incident Management Team’s work when the government was shut down and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food benefits were stopped in early November. The team was working to make sure people in Oregon would not go hungry during the shutdown. But even after the government opened back up and SNAP benefits were sent out, many food banks and pantries needed food.

“What happened was people were without food and they rushed to their local food pantries. And then there are the other people – not on SNAP -- who rely on food pantries. We need to stabilize the food availability in our communities and these food boxes can help.” Flick said.

The boxes will be sent to food pantries identified by OREM staff as having the most acute needs throughout Oregon. The money for the food and the boxes came from OREM’s stockpile funds which provide funding for disaster supplies. The food boxes project is also serving as a test run to learn lessons in case of a large-scale disaster when food would be needed.

Besides the food boxes there was also 85,000 pounds of potatoes from Hermiston donated by Farmers Ending Hunger. The potatoes are being delivered to different community organizations in Western Oregon in time for Thanksgiving. There is also $5 million allocated by the Governor’s Office to the Oregon Food Bank network and $1 million to the Nine Federally Recognized Tribes in Oregon for food resources.

The people filling the food boxes were from OREM, ODHS Employee Resource Groups (ERG), Santiam Hospital Service Integration Team and Corban University. One such box filler was April Barrett, chair of the Veterans Employee Resource Group and a member of the Trauma Aware ODHS team. She was putting cans of peas, carrots and raviolis in a 16-by-16-inch brown cardboard box. She wore a t-shirt with the word, ‘veteran’ on the front. She explained why she was doing this work.

“Why? Because I’m a human being. It’s important to not only care for yourself but also to care for your neighbor,” Barrett said.

Michelle Richards, OREM Mass Care Coordinator, was using a tape dispenser to seal up the 27-pound finished boxes.

“None of our families in Oregon should go hungry,” she said. She then lifted the box onto a nearby pallet.

Another worker, Andrea Morello, a B.E.S.T. ERG member (Black Employee Support Team) and a Child Welfare Office Specialist), was busy loading a box with Cream of Wheat cereal, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, peas, carrots and green beans.

“There’s a lot going on right now in the world. This feels like something tangible I can do to help people,” she said.

There are six different kinds of food boxes being prepared to address people’s needs and preferences: Standard; No-Cook (for people who may not have access to a kitchen); Micronesia/Asian; Latinx; Halal; Reduced Sodium/Diabetic.

By late morning the first pallets were wrapped and ready for shipment, with hundreds more boxes still to fill. Over the coming days the boxes will make their way to food pantries across Oregon, joining the donated potatoes and other community efforts already underway.

The shutdown created strain. The recovery will take time. But the people working in this warehouse show what it looks like when a community steps up together.