Combat childhood hunger at Feast Portland

Since the inception of Feast Portland in 2012, co-founders Mike Thelin and Carrie Welch envisioned this food and drink festival that showcases Oregon's culinary bounty as having a mission to help end childhood hunger. So far, this festival has donated more than $230,000 to charity.

In 2016, Feast Portland’s sole charitable partner is Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon. As stated on their website, PHFO "envisions an Oregon where everyone is healthy and thriving, with access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. To bring that vision into reality, they raise awareness about hunger, connect people to nutrition programs, and advocate for systemic changes that end hunger before it begins." According to the USDA's report, 15% of Oregon families were "food insecure" in 2013.

Pesently, the Feast is working with PHFO to focuses on raising awareness to to expand participation in Oregon schools for their 2016 campaign titled "Let's Do Breakfast, Oregon!" This campaign launched in partnership with the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Dairy Council will work to encourage schools to serve breakfast in the most effective way: at no charge to the student and after the bell. The main strategies of this campaign is to provide outreach and assistance to schools on ways they can boost student participation, share statistics pertaining to the number of children in Oregon who go to school without any breakfast, and increase awareness about those federal nutrition supports that can help combat child hunger.

In November 2015, the school breakfast challenge served 82,000 breakfasts and signed up 30 schools. The goal for 2016 is triple that number.

Feast Portland will place this year from September 15th to 18th, 2016. For four days, participants purchase tickets to our 40 events happening throughout Portland. These events range from large scale signature events, playful fun size events, intimate themed dinners, educational panels, and hands on classes.

Since this festival continues to grow in popularity, events starts to sell out months before the festival begins. By mid-July most events have already sold out. Those few events that still have tickets remaining for sale can be found here (http://www.feastportland.com/schedule/).

For further information about Feast Portland 2016 and to get connected so one can be tuned in to future feasts, log on to their website.