BEND, OR -- NeighborImpact continues to see a rise in food insecurity in the tri-county area. "In the last year, we served over 800,000 food boxes and meal sites across Central Oregon, which is absolutely a record," says Food Program Manager Jordan Reeher, "And numbers just, unfortunately, keep going up around the region."

The nonprofit is a regional food bank, "We receive a lot of food from Oregon Food Bank and then distribute it to a lot of our partner agencies around Central Oregon," says Reeher, "They’re a lot of times where someone is receiving the food directly. That’s where people go if they’re getting hot meals, if they’re getting a food box." He adds, "The bulk of the work we do is providing food to those partner agencies. We want to support that network, make sure that we have food available and that we can distribute that." Reeher tells KBND News the need for food has grown since the pandemic, "Through our network, we did four million pounds that we distributed to our partner agencies, and then another two million pounds that our food pantries and meal sites distributed themselves. So, six million pounds that went out in just the last year."

Much of their work is donor supported. But an upcoming fundraiser will help continue efforts through the year. The US Bank Foodie Crawl is April 28th, from 2-4 p.m., "We always call it a pub crawl meets progressive dinner. It’s basically the best of both. You get to just walk around, try out some new spots, try out some new food." Reeher says, "You get to walk around on a beautiful day downtown and eat some little sampler plates from the best restaurants in Bend. It doesn’t get much better than that." There's also an after-party at McMenamins, from 4-6 p.m., "And all of it just supports the food program, and makes it so the work we do is possible."

Tickets are available now HERE.