Loaves & Fishes Centers’ Spring Luncheon Draws Over 1,000 People and Raises $463,000

Portland, May 3rd. Supporters and volunteers of Loaves & Fishes Centers donated $463,000 in just one hour to provide hot meals to seniors in the greater metropolitan area at the organization’s annual Spring Luncheon presented by Safeway. Ed Whitehurst, Worth Caldwell, Jr., recipient of the Compassion for Seniors Award Gayle Whitehurst, incoming Prime Minister of the Royal Rosarians supported the event. Leadership gifts from the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund and several private individuals challenged donors to make this event the most successful to date. The event is Loaves & Fishes Centers’ single largest fundraising event of the year.

More than 1,000 area business leaders and volunteers gathered in the Oregon Convention Center on  to hear Tony Leineweber, of the PSU Foundation, deliver a keynote address. Tony is long-time Meals-On-Wheels volunteer and past board president of Loaves & Fishes Centers. 

Dr. John Thorpe and Worth Caldwell, Jr. received the Compassion for Seniors Award. Dr. Thorpe was instrumental in the capital campaign to build Loaves & Fishes Centers administrative offices and central kitchen that opened in 2003 and has been a volunteer at the Elm Court Loaves & Fishes Center for more than 20 years. Worth Caldwell, Jr. joined the Loaves & Fishes Centers board of directors in the 1990 to help build board leadership and capacity. He was a key member of the capital campaign committee and has volunteered at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for more than two decades. Both are past board presidents. 

Safeway was the event presenting sponsor. Other sponsors included: Food Services of America, Wells Fargo, Alpenrose, Chevron, Clark Foundation, DeJarnett Sales, Enterprise Fleet Management, The Greenbrier Companies, Hoffman Construction Company, the Lampros Family, Legacy Health Systems, O’Donnell Clark & Crew, Unified Grocers, Walter E. Nelson Company, Western Family Foods, American Nutrition, Brownstein Rask, Columbia Distributing, Endeavour Capital, Gramor Development, Neil Kelly, OSU Foundation and the OSU School of Business, Trailblazer Foods and U.S. Bank.

Spring Luncheon committee members included Jim Bock, Clancy Cashion, Steve Cerri, Kathy Cheng-York, David Drinkward, Jenny Grim, Ron King, Ric Larsen, Tawnie Nelson, Gail Pemble, Kim Silva Dubose, Rhoni Wiswall and June Yoshida.

About Loaves & Fishes Centers: Since 1970 Loaves & Fishes Centers has provided a nutritional and social lifeline for seniors through 36 meal sites in Multnomah, Washington and Clark counties and Meals-On-Wheels delivery to homebound seniors. With the help of more than 9,500 volunteers, the nonprofit, secular organization now serves 5,000 meals daily and 1.2 million meals each year. Visit: www.FeedSeniors.org.