Ron: “Hunger does not take a summer vacation”

by Communications Office

Ron helped volunteers pack food Saturday for Oregonians facing hunger during the summer months -- when the need can be greatest for children and their families.

“Hunger does not take a summer vacation,” Ron said at the Oregon Food Bank site in north Portland with CEO Susannah Morgan as her organization launched its summer volunteer drive.

During his visit to the Food Bank in December, Food Bank officials told him how donations and volunteers can decline in the summer even though hunger often worsens for children when they’re out of school and lack access to meal programs.

The Oregon Food Bank is always in need of volunteers. Visit http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/volunteer for more information.

Ron promised during that holiday visit to return this summer to food bank facilities in Portland and statewide to spotlight the need to help hunger-fighting organizations maintain the year-round momentum for volunteers and donations.

On Saturday, as he made the first of those summer visits to food banks in Oregon, he highlighted two key pieces of legislation that will help in that battle and in the overall fight to end hunger.

The first of those pieces was expanded and permanent tax relief that Ron – as the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee – worked to get into tax legislation at the end of 2015. The legislation makes it easier for farmers and others who want to donate to food banks.

The second piece is his bipartisan CHARITY Act that would reform the tax code to make it easier for families to support charities and ensure that charities are best equipped to accomplish their missions.

“So many families are walking on an economic tightrope balancing food and rent and gas and the like,” he said. “We just have to do more to help.”