FREE!!!

By Jackie Deal
FREE! The best word in the English language. Every Tuesday at St. Vincent De Paul’s Thrift Store you can get FREE food boxes. Why? How?
Well, it’s simple. Remember when farmers were dumping milk because there was no market with Covid restrictions? Now the Federal government has bought surplus farm products and is distributing them FREE to certified locations. NO charge. No forms. No restrictions. Just come into the store. The program helps the farmers and helps us.
The manager at St. Vinnies’ (Rodney Linton) ) goes at 6 am every Tuesday to Roseburg to pick up 60-100 boxes for Sutherlin. (For some reason the food truck doesn’t come to Sutherlin.) The 100 boxes are stacked by the door, covered with an insulated tarp; St. Vinnies does NOT have refrigeration so products need to be distributed that day.
Contents of the boxes vary; so far there have been two different choices. Last week included fresh garden produce and dairy products. This week was dairy and assorted. Get together with your neighbors and share a box: 30-40 pounds of dairy products is an awful lot. Potatoes and onions seem to be plentiful; we must have a lot of potato farmers! Ham and chicken have also appeared in dairy boxes.
Please be aware, delivery can be cancelled but so far the boxes have come every Tuesday. Help a farmer stay in business and eat better and cheaper (whoops, less expensively!)