Hazelbrook students garden for those in need

The seventh-graders grow produce for the Tualatin School House Food Pantry

By Christina Cooke

The Times, May 7, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jonathan House / The TImes

GROUP GARDEN — Hazelbrook Middle School seventh-graders Logan Myers (left) and Taylor Boos water the garden their class planted in early April.

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TUALATIN – The seventh graders at Hazelbrook Middle School hope their garden outside Eileen MacPherson’s classroom will help the local food pantry meet its increased demand for food – and balance out the bread, rice and pasta on its shelves.

The seventh-graders planted six rows of greens in a raised wooden planter last month, and they plan –sun providing – to deliver 7 pounds of produce to the Tualatin School House Pantry by the end of the school year.

“Now they can have healthy foods, rather than junk foods,” said Julianne Phillips, a 13-year-old in the class who recalls seeing lots of carbohydrate- and sugar-laden foods when she dropped off a donation at the pantry with her family.

Demand for food at the Tualatin food pantry has skyrocketed since the economy tanked and people started getting laid off from their jobs, according to Shirley Johnson, the food pantry shift coordinator working on Friday.

Last year, the food pantry was serving 300 to 400 families per month. This year, the number is more like 600, she said.

“We started picking up in the later part of October, and it’s just cycled up and up and up,” she said.

A middle-aged Tualatin resident named Kathleen, who declined to give her last name out of embarrassment, is one of the pantry’s newer patrons.

She was laid off 18 months ago after 30 years as the service manager for a heating company, and until her son encouraged her to visit the food pantry four months ago, she was having trouble affording milk for her cereal.

“I’m eating better now,” she said, waiting in line to get her ration of milk, bread, soup, peanut butter and eggs on Friday afternoon. “I don’t have to worry about food so much.”

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