As you can see in the picture above, we spent some time in the city of Philomath today. To practice our observational and interviewing skills, we spent a couple of hours walking around the city, making note of landmarks, important features and general characteristics of the area.
This was interesting because I have driven through Philomath quite a few times, but had never taken the time to closely observe the area. On our walk through town, we saw a cute little shop called Myrtlewood Mystique Gallery. We decided to have a look inside and started talking to the owner. She was really friendly and told us about the store, their specialization in Myrtlewood products, as well as other Oregon hardwoods. She also gave us a tour around the woodshop in the back of her gallery, where they make all of the products! She gave us an interesting insight into the lives of some of the artisans, and niche markets within Philomath and was very open and honest. If you’re ever in the area I would definitely recommend stopping in and checking it out!
Following our walking tour of the town, we visited Philomath Community Services. This is an organization serving the Philomath community made up of a few different programs including a food bank, community garden, Gleaners, and June’s Kids Kloset. These programs are designed to help struggling individuals and families within the Philomath community to have access to food staples and other necessities. The property on which the Philomath Community Services is located was donated by the E.D. Hughes family, which brought together the different programs and put them all in one centralized location. The building was built all by funding from local donations.
June’s Kids Kloset is a program where once a month parents can bring their children in to pick out an outfit, socks and underwear. This can make a real difference to families without the funds to buy new clothes as their kids keep growing.
The food bank is open to struggling members of the Philomath community. In order to receive food here, they must provide proof of residence within Philomath. Approximately 50-60 families come in once per month and go through the food pantry, which is organized in a shopping setup. This setup is unique in that instead of serving everyone a box of food, of which they have no choice, individuals are able to choose foods that they want and need, reducing waste of unused food. The pantry is all stocked on a donation basis, but they carry toiletries, foods such as shelf stable milk, eggs, canned foods (soups, spaghetti sauce, tuna fish, etc), baking supplies, pasta, bread, cereal, meat, frozen vegetables, and each family may take one emergency blanket per year.
The customer base for the food bank is fairly constant throughout the year, consisting of families that don’t quite make enough money to get by, handicapped individuals, homeless individuals, and people who are in between jobs. The shoppers must be at least 18 years old to shop for themselves, but food is provided to entire families with ages ranging from newborns to 90 year olds.
The Gleaners program is unique in that members are able to contribute something, by contributing 8 hours per month of their time, in return for food. The program has approximately 250 members who are able to come in and pick up food once per week. Differently from the food bank, members are able to go to local businesses and farms where there is excess unwanted food and bring it back to the center. Working with the Linn Benton Food Share, the Gleaners are able to create agreements with local businesses for weekly pickups.
The community garden is setup so that the volunteers work as a team to grow the entire garden, and then get a share of the harvest. Usually, about half of the total yield is donated to the food bank, and the other half is split between volunteers.
It was very interesting to learn about these programs and see a little bit into the community spirit within the “City of Volunteers.”
