Apples Help Relieve Hunger in an Unexpected Way…Via Cider!

We all know the old saying about “An apple a day…” and here at Portland Cider, we tend to agree that apples in one for or another are worth reaching for daily! Now, with the release of our annual Community Cider, you can help put more food in the mouths of hungry kids while enjoying your daily apple-based beverage. 

Community Cider is the culmination of a month of fruit donations from our friends and neighbors across the Portland Metro Area. We press all those apples and pears—which otherwise may have been destined to rot—into a delicious, hyper-local cider so that the donors can enjoy the literal fruits of their generosity in a truly unique way. And every pint of that cider that’s sold means more money for hungry kids, because we’re donating the proceeds to the nonprofit Partners For a Hunger-Free Oregon. 

We selected them as a nonprofit partner because they work hard to make lasting, impactful change for the hunger-insecure people in our own community, and across the state. Our donations go to support their Hunger-Free Schools program, which is dedicated to ensuring that kids in schools statewide have food in their bellies so they can focus on feeding their brains in class. 

David Wieland, policy advocate with Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon shares some of the positive impacts that school meals provide. "When kids have access to school meals, we see educational achievement increase. We see racial disparities decrease. We see disciplinary actions decrease. There are all sorts of benefits from this critical piece of the school day."

Oregon has quite a few hunger-relief nonprofits, in part because we have a lot of hungry people living here. The Oregon Hunger Task Force estimates that 9.8% of Oregonians, including 13.2% of Oregon’s children, experienced food insecurity in 2022. About 1 out of every 10 of our neighbors relies on food banks and similar programs for food from day to day. Partners For a Hunger-Free Oregon isn’t a food bank or a backpack-stuffing program; instead, they work with legislators to enact laws and protections for our state’s most vulnerable people. While food banks tackle the acute need for food, the legislation will help prevent that need in the first place. 

The Hunger-Free Schools project, which successfully advocated for accessible school breakfast and expanded access to school meals, is now focused on ensuring free, universal school meals for every K-12 student in Oregon. Thanks to Partners For a Hunger-Free Oregon’s advocacy efforts, 3 out of 4 schools in Oregon will offer free school meals in the 2024-2025 school year. The organization plans to bring legislation forward in the 2025 session to make Oregon a universal free-lunch state. This effort impacts 560,000 students in Oregon K-12 schools by ensuring that all students have access to healthy, nutritious breakfast and lunch at school at no cost. 

Throughout the month of September, our Clackamas cidery took in an impressive 38.000 pounds of donated pears and apples—that’s 19 tons! We’re excited to see this year’s batch of Community Cider rolling off the line, and we encourage everyone to buy it, share it and gift it (it makes a great stocking stuffer!), all in support of Partners For a Hunger-Free Oregon. The Community Cider program has raised $57,000 over the past seven years—will you help us reach the next milestone this year?