In 2019, a coalition of local leaders, now known as the Western Treasure Valley Food System Partnership (WTVFSP), identified food access solutions within new housing developments as a priority for addressing food insecurity in the Western Treasure Valley Region. The Partnership set an ambitious goal to establish a Community Food Center by 2026.
The Western Treasure Valley Food System Partnership (WTVFSP) is a collaboration of social service and food systems partners across the Western Treasure Valley region, in rural eastern Oregon and western Idaho. The WTVFSP works to improve the coordination and sustainability of the regional food system by sharing nutrition support programs and education, and food-system-related economic development opportunities in the area.
Learn MoreAs WTVFSP’s first project, the Ontario Community Food Center represents a substantial investment to foster just and sustainable food systems in Southeast Oregon. This initiative will enhance the capacity of the Oregon Food Bank’s Ontario branch to address immediate hunger relief while also nurturing relationships, engagement and leadership essential for catalyzing lasting, systems-level change.
“Complex problems such as hunger require a collaborative and transformative approach like that of the Western Treasure Valley Food System Partnership. By uniting diverse organizations from various sectors to work toward a common goal, we have the ability to impact change at the systems level.”
“It is my fondest hope that 5 – 10 years from now I will be attending, probably as an old retired social worker, community meetings, planning sessions, cultural events and maybe gardening classes at the Food Center. I hope I will see a vibrant place full of healthy energy and neighbors finding ways to care for each other in unique, resilient and rewarding ways.”
Ontario Community Feast is reimagining food systems in Eastern Oregon
“This collaborative partnership aims to “hear a variety of voices and build off of recent collaborative efforts of the Nutrition Oregon Campaign and local food systems assessments.” The overarching goal of this project is to “improve the health of individuals, the community and our regional food system.”
— Lindsay Grosvenor
Oregon Food Bank to Combine Housing, Healthcare, Food Aid
“Oregon Food Bank’s plans for a new community food center are putting it in the vanguard of hunger relief organizations that are reimagining how food banking can work.”
Advocates cook up plan to transform Ontario kitchen into food hub
“Crowhurst collaborated with Lindsay Grosvenor, Nutrition Oregon Campaign and the Oregon Food Bank to create the Western Treasure Valley Food Systems Partnership.”
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