Lift Urban Portland

A peek inside Lift UP lately 👀 There’s a lot happening between the loading dock and the dinner table.

Through Farm to Food Assistance, we’ve sourced over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce from campo collective and Stoneboat Farm. Alongside our CAFE partners, we distribute it among our communities here in PDX, connecting local growers with neighbors across the city.

At Supper Club, neighbors gathered over panzanella with h**p seed crunch prepared by Lift UP staff. They loved it, so we’re sharing the recipe for you to try at home.

Keeping groceries moving through our community takes plenty of coordination, too. Each week, our warehouse team handles enough food to equal moving a three-bedroom house twice. If you’ve ever moved, you get the idea. 📦

All of this depends on the relationships people build around food and the care they bring to the work. Thanks for being part of it.

Beautiful, fresh produce and a lot of familiar faces. 🌱

Last week we launched our Farm to Food Assistance program with an array of fresh produce ready for our CAFE partners to pick up and share with their communities.

Pictured are PSU students, our friend Bea from OHSU, and Mike from Community for Positive Aging, all part of the work that connects fresh food with neighbors across Portland.

This is what a food community looks like: people and organizations coming together to make good food more accessible. 💚

What does it take to get food to a neighbor? Quite a few neighbors.

Some grow it. Some sort and pack it. Some drive it across town. Resident advocates help make food available in their buildings, and people across Portland give their time, money, and support to keep it all going.

These are a few of the faces behind that work. We’re glad to be in it together.

Rows of corn and a lot of helping hands. 🌽

Thanks to the Athenahealth volunteer group for spending the day at the farm harvesting with us. The work of getting fresh food into our community starts well before it reaches a pantry shelf, and we’re glad you were part of it.

“Food is medicine,” Bill says. And at the pantry, he sees what that means: fresh produce, eggs, milk, and food neighbors can bring home and use.

Bill is a resident advocate at Rose Schnitzer Tower. He helps make the pantry a place where people can find good food and connect with one another. You can check out his story at the link in our bio.

Good food is part of good care. 💚

Kinda chic to rethink what a food system can be.

Happy Tuesday from LUP! 🫜🍅🍐🍊

In our 2026 survey, 52.1% of Preston’s Pantry respondents said they’d chosen between rent and food in the past year. These are connected needs, and the work of making our city livable belongs to all of us.

A Food + Fund Drive is one way to take part, right where you are. Rally your coworkers, get your building involved, put that group chat to work. The food and funds you collect help keep groceries within reach, with room for each household’s tastes, traditions, and everyday needs.

Join Lift UP’s Keep Choice on the Shelf campaign. We’ll help with planning and materials. Message us to get your drive started. 💚

Getting groceries home takes more than a shopping list. It takes money, time, transportation, and somewhere to turn when those things don’t line up.

This Hunger Action Month, we’re asking what becomes possible when more of us see food access as part of our everyday relationships with the people and places around us.

A Food + Fund Drive can start with coworkers, housemates, a conversation among residents, or a business inviting customers to participate. Together, we gather resources that support neighbors’ access to food, with their needs guiding what we collect.🫙

Bring ‘Keep Choice on the Shelf’ to your building, workplace, or community group this fall. Lift UP can help you get started.
Link in bio!🥫