Every November, Willamette Farm and Food Coalition’s Fill Your Pantry event turns the Lane Events Center into a lively marketplace filled with local farms, neighbors, music and the smell of cider pressing.

But with cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, this year’s event carries a deeper purpose. It’s also the launch of a campaign to raise $300,000 to sustain the coalition’s Healthy Food for All program, which helps families using SNAP double their buying power for local food while strengthening the farms that feed them.

As federal food-access funding falters, communities like ours must bridge the gap. When you give to Healthy Food for All, you’re doing more than feeding a family, you’re keeping a farmer in business and farmland in production.

Lane County has always been known for its creativity, resilience and caring. Fill Your Pantry is where all three come together. Join us Sunday at the Lane Events Center to celebrate what local food means, and to help ensure it’s accessible to everyone.

Faye Sofranko 
President, Willamette Farm and Food Coalition
Eugene