A nod to nonprofits: Community Sharing Program

From KLCC Studios, this is Oregon on the Record. [upbeat jazz music] I'm Michael Dunn. One of the truly amazing things about nonprofits is their flexibility. No disrespect to private business, but how many for-profits can suddenly decide to begin offering an entirely new product, and more amazingly, actually do it at lightning speed? Yet that's often the case with these not-for-profit entities. All this week, we're gonna be featuring nonprofits in our community who may not be household names, but are nevertheless doing amazing work, sometimes with very little resources. Today on the show, we'll bring you the story of Cottage Grove's Community Sharing Program that began as a food pantry, but has now morphed and grown into a robust service delivery entity that is fulfilling needs far and beyond just food. That's next on Oregon on the Record. [upbeat jazz music] Mike Fleck, the executive director for Community Sharing Program. Mike, thanks so much for coming on and talking with us.

Well, thank you.

Yeah. Well, let, let's start with the basics. Tell our audience what is Community Sharing Program and what do you do?

Well, uh, Community Sharing, uh, started in 1982, became a 501[c][3] nonprofit in, uh, 1984. Uh, everybody knows us as a food pantry, and that is our primary focus. Um, but we are also, uh, what's called a community service center. Uh, so we are one of the four organizations, uh, that contract with Lane County. Uh, we are the South Lane County service center.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, Siuslaw Outreach Services is the, uh, West Lane. Uh, Eugene and Springfield are both operated by Catholic Community Services.

Mm-hmm.

And what a service center does is we have basic needs, um, services, which would be the food pantry. Uh, we, uh, operate a shower trailer, a warming shelter. Um, we purchase hygiene items to go along with our food boxes, pet foods, um, just any number of things that, uh, you need to, uh, survive. Um-

Mm

... water utility assistance. Um, we've had some pretty severe cuts in the last couple years, uh, so we've lost, uh, gasoline vouchers. We've lost, uh, laundry vouchers, um, and some other programs. Um, w- another aspect is we do housing assistance. Um, so we contract with Lane County and provide, uh, oh gosh, it's county programs, state programs, and federal programs. And so, um, the biggest one, we, uh, started doing a new program for eviction prevention last year, uh, which helps folks going, uh, through the eviction process-

Hmm

... uh, you know, mitigate that by, um, i- helping them to get current on their bills. Um, the last area that we serve is energy assistance, uh, primarily a big federal program called LIHEAP, which is the Low Income, uh, Home Energy Assistance Program. Uh, we also have small pockets of money from other programs. Uh, but that, that's kinda the biggie, and that helps folks with their, uh, power, uh, utility, gas utility, um, uh, if they're using bulk fuels like propane or, or, um, you know, gas, uh, th- those can be, uh, helped as well. Um, so that's kind of the nuts and bolts. Um, there's lots of little nuances. Uh, like we run a backpack program, uh, where we give, uh, the South Lane School District, uh, 300 or so, um,