Ontario Community Food Center celebrates major milestone with community block party

More than 275 neighbors gathered in Ontario, Oregon, this September to celebrate a major milestone for the future Ontario Community Food Center. Planned for a late 2027 opening, the center will expand access to free, fresh and culturally relevant food alongside healthcare connections, housing resources and other basic needs. The community celebration marked years of local collaboration to improve food access across the Western Treasure Valley.

In 2019, a coalition of local leaders, now known as the Western Treasure Valley Food System Partnership (WTVFSP), identified food access near affordable housing developments as a key priority to help reduce hunger in the Western Treasure Valley Region, which includes rural eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. The Partnership set an ambitious goal to establish the Ontario Community Food Center, and this September, on a sunny evening, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the next milestone of that goal.

"What excites me most is what the food center represents for our community,” said Lindsay Grosvenor, Southeast Oregon Regional Manager at Oregon Food Bank. “Neighbors helped shape this project from the beginning, and Wednesday night we got to celebrate that work together."

What the Ontario Community Food Center will offer

Community members, partners, funders, elected officials, Oregon Food Bank staff and volunteers filled the future site, located at 952 Fortner Street in Ontario, for a community block party with music, food, activities and excitement.

The future food center will be nestled between Valley Family Health Care and River Bend Place, an affordable housing community in one of Ontario’s neighborhoods with the greatest need. It will offer a range of support services, making it easier for community members to access food, healthcare, housing and other basic needs.

The block party kicked off with gold shovels to “break ground” and attendees enjoyed local food, music and even made postcard art that might become part of the Ontario Community Food Center! And throughout the block party, folks were encouraged to share what they’d like to see inside the new food center, in addition to the pantry, kitchen, community space and outdoor plaza already envisioned.

"Having a food center right next door to our clinic means we can connect people to care and nourishment at the same time, instead of asking them to make that trip multiple times," said Dan Ramirez, Board Chair of Valley Family Health Care and District Manager for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

Ontario Mayor Debbie Folden shared her excitement for the future Ontario Community Food Center, saying it is “just the beginning.” And Oregon Food Bank President Andrea Williams told a story about her great-grandmother, Francisca, who worked in fields and canneries growing food for her communities when she often had to go without. An experience that many farmworkers in Southeast Oregon share.

Addressing food insecurity in Malheur and Harney counties

Food insecurity has climbed across Oregon, with Malheur and Harney counties facing some of the highest rates in the state.

In Malheur County, one in five people and nearly one in four children don't have reliable access to enough food. In Harney County, it's one in six people and one in five kids. The food center will respond to that need.

“People in Ontario and other communities across the nation will increasingly turn to community-based programs as federal cuts to the social safety net continue. Co-locating food and healthcare resources meets people where they are and provides them with a space to see their neighbors as people — not just faceless individuals on opposite sides of the political spectrum. This feels especially important when people have to do more with less and everything feels divisive,” said Sarah McGregor, Oregon Food Bank Network and Government Relations Manager.

When will the Ontario Community Food Center open?

Set to open in late 2027, the Community Food Center will improve access to free food and increase capacity to process and distribute fresh, culturally relevant, local food, along with a community kitchen, a free food market and a gathering space. Construction has already begun, building on years of community collaboration. Ontario joins other communities across the state supported by Oregon Food Bank’s Rooted + Rising campaign, including Columbia Gorge Food Bank’s new warehouse in The Dalles.

The block party closed with a blessing from the Burns Paiute Tribe, a song and dance that welcomed the community to join in! The connection continued in October, when Eddie Melendrez, Oregon Food Bank Community Organizer in Ontario, joined the tribe’s Wadatika Reservation Day Powwow and shared a portrait of Queen Amaya Garcia.

The future Ontario Community Food Center belongs to everyone who continues to show up for it: our neighbors who shape what the space will be, the WTVFSP, the Nutrition Oregon Campaign, donors across the state. Thank you to Walsh Construction and RESOLVE Architecture + Planning for turning community ideas into plans and soon a building. Thank you to Valley Family Health Care and River Bend Place, our partners whose clinic and homes already stand beside the future Ontario Community Food Center.

GIVE TO HELP END HUNGER IN SOUTHEAST OREGON