An hour before the Tualatin Food Pantry (TFP) opened at 4 p.m. on a recent Monday, people were already filling the lobby ready to shop.
“It’s first come-first served,” said Danielle Schneider, executive director of the TFP (formerly the Tualatin School House Food Pantry). “We hand out numbers to determine the order for people to shop, and a volunteer coordinator checks them in if they have been here before or visited another Oregon Food Bank (OFB) facility, or signs them up if this is their first visit.
“We are the fifth-largest food pantry in Clackamas and Washington counties combined and growing rapidly.”
The food pantry is set up like a grocery store, and after shoppers, who are limited to two visits per month at the TFP but can visit other Oregon Food Bank facilities, check in, they get a grocery cart and start shopping. Produce is the first stop, with Schneider noting that local farmers will drop off items such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pears and more…