CELEBRATE GRAND OPENING OF NEW BUILDING: OREGON FOOD BANK -- TILLAMOOK COUNTY SERVICES, OCT. 1

Celebrate the grand opening of a new building for Oregon Food Bank - Tillamook County Services, Saturday, Oct. 1, at 1760 Wilson River Loop, Tillamook Ore.

"We're thrilled with our new space and invite the entire community to our grand opening," said Cari Clifton, branch manager, Oregon Food Bank - Tillamook County Services."

Dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony begin at 11 a.m. with guest speakers State Sen. Betsy Johnson; Tillamook County Commissioner Mark Labhart; Rachel Bristol, CEO, Oregon Food Bank; and Imie Camellia, president, North County Food Pantry. The facility will be open for tours and refreshments from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"The new location will help us better serve Tillamook County," Clifton said. "The new 6,000 square-foot warehouse doubles our current space. The additional space also allows us to increase freezer and cooler size 163 percent, which means we can distribute more nutritious fresh and frozen food to people who are hungry in Tillamook County."

Freezer space will increase from 1,024 cubic feet to 2,688 cubic feet. Cooler space will increase from 768 cubic feet to 2,016 cubic feet.
"The additional space also allows us to welcome more volunteers to help repack food," Clifton said. "We thank Rogers Terminal, a division of Cargill, and Tillamook County Creamery Association for helping to fund building improvements."

OFB - Tillamook County Services (formerly known as The Regional Food Bank for Tillamook County) distributes more than a half-a-million pounds of food each year to 25 partner agencies throughout Tillamook County.

"The number of families seeking emergency food increased 8 percent last year," Clifton noted. "Every week, new families, who have never had to ask for help before, contact me asking where to get food. This new building will help us distribute more food to our partner agencies, and it will help us work more efficiently."

Oregon Food Bank is a charitable, nonprofit organization that works to help low-income families alleviate hunger and its root causes. It distributes food from a variety of sources through a statewide network that includes its four branches (in Beaverton, Ontario, Portland and Tillamook), 16 independent regional food banks and more than 900 partner agencies. Oregon Food Bank also addresses the root causes of hunger through advocacy, education and building community food networks.