Feeding the community

Published 9:00 am Sunday, September 21, 2025

Volunteers fight hunger against growing need

What makes a community? Attending garden parties, school plays and city council meetings can bring people together. 

But for volunteers with Clatsop Emergency Food Bank, the word “community” has a deeper meaning — it means showing up for those who need it most.

For the past 50 years the food pantry has operated out of the First Presbyterian Church of Astoria. Nancy Cole has been volunteering there for 17 years. 

“I attend the church, and one of the members said, ‘well, you’re retiring. It’s your turn.’ And so I retired in 2008 and I have been volunteering there ever since,” Cole said.

Cole serves as secretary of CEFB, which makes her “the bread runner,” as Cole described it.

“I go to Safeway to get day-old bread, I dispense and I stock and I do all the statistical reports that need to be turned into the state and the regional food bank,” Cole said.

She said the food bank operates in part from Fred Meyer and Safeway donations and with the help of grants from the county and city.

“With those grants, we have been able to purchase personal hygiene products that otherwise we would not carry,” Cole said.

But the real lifeblood of the food pantry are its volunteers.

“Last month, there were 21 different volunteers and they worked 140 hours,” Cole said. “We have volunteers from the church. We also have many volunteers from the public. We always need more volunteers.”

Raymond Montgomery and his sister Jo Black spend two days a week volunteering at the food pantry. He said the food pantry serves a variety of clients.

Jo Black volunteers at the food pantry two days a week.

“We get all sorts of people; they check in with Clatsop Community Action, and CCA usually refers them to us,” Montgomery said. “We get a lot of homeless people, people living in their cars; we don’t worry about that because we are here to feed Astoria.”

Montgomery has been volunteering with the food pantry for eight years.

According to Black, Montgomery used to work for Lockheed Martin “back east, then he moved here (to Astoria) and became Mr. Volunteer.”

“I have turned into an entirely different person,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery said the food pantry has everything a person or family could need, from staples like bread, cereal and meat to toiletries and hygiene products. And so much comes from the generosity of local people.

“Franz (Bakery) gave us seven free racks of bread the other day,” Montgomery said. “Local gardeners bring in their produce … we have a lot of support within the community.”

Canned tomato-based goods sit on a shelf.

The food pantry also encourages people to donate any produce they may grow in their gardens, such as apples, pears, carrots, or zucchinis.

Montgomery said several factors are challenging the organization. For one thing: “The need has gotten bigger.”

In addition, recent cuts from the Trump administration to food assistance programs have only exacerbated the problem.

“Quite often what you get from the government is the United States Department of Agriculture stuff — milk, eggs, cheese,” Montgomery said. “Sometimes we’ll get noodles … potato flakes … but noticeably less (since the cuts),” he said, gesturing to a single box of potato flakes on an otherwise empty shelf.

The CEFB gets some of its food from regional and state food banks. But in March, the USDA cut $500 million in funding for food banks.

A single box of USDA dehydrated potato flakes sits on an otherwise empty shelf.

Cole said on an average day, over the course of an hour, the food pantry will see between four and 15 clients.

Clients enter the basement of the church, where the food bank is located, and can select which food they need and place it in a cart.

“Our method of providing for the clients … is kind of a shopping method, in that we don’t just give them a box of food,” Cole said. “They have these carts and … if there are three people in the family, they get a certain amount of food. If there are seven people in the family, they get more food.”

Black said that for her, helping the community comes easy.

“I’m a retired registered nurse, so I’m used to serving people,” Black said. “You can’t just sit in your house. It’s nice to see people get what they need or want.”

Black said the food pantry tries to keep the barrier of entry low for the community.

“We don’t ask any questions — just their name, how many people they’re feeding, and zip code,” she said.

The food pantry based out of the First Presbyterian Church of Astoria operates Monday through Friday between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.