RESTORING DIGNITY

A new page has been added to our website ( portlandacs.org ). It provides an overview of the PACS COW mobile food pantry and includes a schedule of appearances, which will be updated as new events for the program are scheduled. Access the page by going to portlandacs.org/pacscow . You can also access the PACS COW page through our main page  or any other page on our website by  clicking the "programs" tab, clicking "food program" and following the link for the mobile pantry at the top of the page.

"I got a call, and I'm supposed to tell you that 72 kids are 15 minutes away," said office assistant, Iris Stanley. "What?! Are you kidding?" I exclaimed. She wasn't. The estimated group of 36 earliteens from the Adventist campmeeting at Gladstone had doubled. We were not sure if we could handle that many kids. Our director, Paul L. Cole, pulled together a huddle of our supervisors. Donna Keeler, Assistant Thrift Manager, willingly agreed to split her group into two work areas, so we could keep the group size at a manageable 18 kids (we had planned for groups of 12). Bob Wilkening and Paul prepared to handle groups of 18 as well. When all was said and done, they rearranged, sorted and moved a lot of thrift merchandise; scrubed under the food pantry shelves; and listened carefully while we told them about the need, and how PACS is trying to help. And what a difference they made! God surprised us with a large group that we thought would be too many t

Monday night was the first food run for the recently finished PACS COW Mobile Pantry (COW stand for “commodities on wheels”). Food was provided to 21 families (a total of 91 people) from 6 – 8 p.m. The pantry is the brainchild of PACS’ Executive Director, Paul L. Cole, who developed the “client choice” mobile pantry concept after a volunteer asked how we could help people in her neighborhood, where there were many needy families, but no food pantries. The concept is designed to reduce the time and financial stress for these families, caused by the need for long drives or bus rides to the nearest emergency food center. The PACS COW was built from a snowmobile trailer, converted on the inside to include shelves and lighting in a walkthrough, grocery store-style setup that works like PACS’ on-site food pantry in NE Portland . Here are some pictures of the first PACS COW opening, hosted in Troutdale , Oregon by Frontier Missions : The exit ramp at the back of the trailer can also

Up until a few weeks ago, soggy feet and safety hazards continued to be a threat to the effort to provide dignity to our clients. The parking lot's surface problems, inherited but invisible beneath the asphalt when PACS purchased the facility in 1998, were becoming a huge issue. The badly needed parking lot overhaul was finally made possible with the help of a grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, labor and equipment use donations by John Jones Construction, and the kind gifts of several individual donors. Thanks to them, we have drastically improved the dignity of our clients in the parking lot. Here is a quick photo recap of the process: A sinking area of the lot, previous to the resurface. Some of these mini-lakes were directly over parking spaces. Soggy feet were frequent occurrences among PACS clients during wet weather. The same puddle you see above, became a slippery hazard on extremely cold days. More clear evidence of the problems beneath the surfac