The district Food Pantry is open to the community

Posted Jan. 18, 2023

By Long Le

Sports Editor

The district Food Pantry is open to the community at the old pool building parking lot every Thursday from 3:30-5pm.

Students have the benefit of shopping an hour early, the benefit of arriving sooner is the abundance of food, and treats. Such as cakes, pastries, chips, and candies. 

Be sure to check  the expiration dates on every item as some are near their expiration date. With that it is recommended to not go too overboard with bagging the goods, only take what is needed to prevent further food waste and to share with those around. On top of that some items are limited per person, the staff will tell what are limited. 

The Scots Pantry isn’t a solo charity it is a subcontractor to the Metropolitan Family Service. A non profit organization that has 60 years of experience. Their goal is to support the Portland community, through providing companionship, food, and education. The Metropolitan Family does not discriminate against families or individuals as they stated this on their website. They’ll appoint any families or individuals to vital resources. Discriminatory practice will not be tolerated in any of their services.

There are multiple sources of how Scots Pantry gets their foodstuff. However it comes from mostly two sources. Oregon Food Bank and Urban Gleaner. Oregon Food Bank is a donation charity as they use the funds to order large samples of food such as eggs, rice, oil, pasta, and overproduce in season fruits and veggies. Urban Gleaners is a nonprofit organization that goes around different stores to take the surplus of near expired food, and bake goods that didn’t sell.

Sun Site Manager, Nicole Senders is also the liaison to the pantry. Questions, concerns, and complaints can be taken to her. She encourages students to volunteer not only for the benefit  of getting free food, but giving back to the community and community involvement. 

“It’s amazing, come volunteer, there are a ton of benefits, you can talk about volunteering, [there] is post high school opportunity, and community involvement, and snack for days,”  said Senders.

Nicole Senders can be contacted through Email: nicole_senders@ddouglas.k12.or.us or phone: 503-421-6255. She can be reached at the Grad Center in the South Building, room 180 in the health building. 

Christian Cruz is the pantry manager to all pantries in David Douglas School District he works at different pantries on different days. On Thursday specifically he is either available at Menlo Park Elementary from 2-4 p.m., or David Douglas High School.