In this episode, we spotlight a local nonprofit that started with one high school student’s idea and grew into a vital resource for families across the region. From its humble beginnings in repurposed spaces in our schools, Hunger Fighters Oregon now operates permanently in Mountain Park, providing food assistance to hundreds of families in our community. Simone Coker-Kamna, Executive Director of Hunger Fighters Oregon, and Julianna Cahill, a Lakeridge student serving on the nonprofit’s Board of Directors, share the journey and ongoing impact of Hunger Fighters. Together, we will discuss how Hunger Fighters addresses food insecurity, empowers student leadership, and creates meaningful community connections.
Dr. Jennifer Schiele, Superintendent, LOSD
Mary Kay Larson, Executive Director of Communications, LOSD
Simone Coker-Kamna, Executive Director, Hunger Fighters Oregon
Julianna Cahill, Student, Lakeridge High School, and Board Member, Hunger Fighters Oregon
MICHELLE ODELL:: Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego, a podcast providing educational insights for an engaged community. Lake Oswego School district superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Schiele, will discuss what's important to our learning community. She'll be joined by experts examining various topics, answering important questions, and sharing upcoming events and activities you won't wanna miss.
MICHELLE ODELL:: And now it's your host. Lake Oswego School District Executive Director of Communications, Mary Kay Larson.
MARY KAY LARSON:: Hello everyone. Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego. My name is Mary Kay Larson. I'm your host here with our superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Schiele. This is our last. Episode of the season. Woo-hoo. But really excited that we are ending this school year on a really important note.
MARY KAY LARSON:: Today, we're shining a light on a local nonprofit that began in our schools. It was a powerful idea from one of our students, a Lake [00:01:00] Oswego High School student, and it has grown into a vital resource for our families in need. That is Hunger Fighters, Oregon. It was founded in 2017 by Lake Oswego High School freshman, Michael Murray.
MARY KAY LARSON:: He started it off at what was the former beluga Junior High, and then it became Lakeridge Junior High. And then when that building got rebuilt, it moved over to the house that is green that used to be behind Lake Oswego High School. And then when that house went away, it has moved now to, and what we hope is its permanent location off of Monroe Parkway.
MARY KAY LARSON:: It's evolved from a student initiative to a very comprehensive food pantry that supports hundreds of families in our community. Joining us today are a couple of incredible people helping carry forward that mission. With us is Simone Coker Kana, the Executive Director for Hunger Fighters, Oregon, and also joining her is one of our students, Juliana Cahill.
MARY KAY LARSON:: A junior at Lakeridge who serves on the Hunger Fighters [00:02:00] Board. So, Jen, let's take it away. Thank you Mary Kay.
DR JENNIFER SCHIELE:: Let's start with Simone. Simone, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What's your background and what inspired you to join Hunger Fighters Oregon?
SIMONE COKER-KAMNA:: I am a Navy brat. I have lived all over the country moving every few years.
SIMONE COKER-KAMNA:: Born in Virginia, but ended up here in Oregon after going to. Undergrad at Michigan State University and then coming to the University of Oregon for grad school where I received my Master's in Arts administration, which is basically nonprofit administration with an arts focus. But I graduated at the height of the recession, and so looking for a job, I kind of took any nonprofit job I could.
SIMONE COKER-KAMNA:: Find, and one of the first ones was with a social services organization, volunteers of America. So got into that direct service work and really enjoyed working to support people in that way, in a way that was beneficial to them. You know, after working in the nonprofit industry for about 20 years between the arts and education, coming back to social service work was always something that [00:03:00] was interesting to me and exciting to me.
SIMONE COKER-KAMNA:: And when the position presented itself, I. Felt really excited to come do this work and you know, try something new. The executive director position was new to me as well, so it was all an exciting time to get into this.
Speaker 3: So who does Hunger Fighters serve? Like what population? And I know that there's some common misconceptions about food insecurities in a community like Lake sbo.
Speaker 3: Can you talk a little bit about that? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4: Hunger fighters serves anyone in need, regardless of income or zip code. If you need support, we're here for you. Whether that's temporary or long term. Sometimes that means, you know, we're helping people just. During a specific point in their life because things got hard or you know, they're chronically ill or disabled and will need support as long as we can give it.
Speaker 4: So a lot of the assumptions with an a community like Lake Oswego that's pretty wealthy is that there's no one here that would need these services. But what we see at the pantry are, you know, like I was saying before, people who are going through a rough patch, so whether they lost a job or they're [00:04:00] sick, an accident happened and, you know, just need to make ends meet.
Speaker 4: You know, it's helpful to be able to come to the pantry and get. Groceries you, maybe you save $200 a month that way versus trying to stretch your dollar, trying to go to New Seasons or Fred Meyer. But also, you know, there's a lot of families that come to Lake Oswego because of the school system and it being such a great school system that can't really afford to live here.
Speaker 4: So we see families that are living multiple families in a household, trying to support each other in whatever way they can. And so a lot of those families take advantage of our services as well. And then you see people who are generational, so they. Are able to live in a home here because their parents lived there, or their grandparents own the home and it gets handed down.
Speaker 4: But if it wasn't for that, you know, generational wealth, they might not be able to afford to live here otherwise. So they might not be in a situation that, you know, the, your average person thinks the lake us we go resident is in. They might live in that house, but not be able to really afford to live in this community.
Speaker 4: So our services are super helpful in those ways as well. And in [00:05:00] general, across the world. Hunger's everywhere, regardless of the community that you're living in. And so that's just a general misconception I think about most. Places that, you know, if you can afford to own your house or whatever, then you can afford groceries, and that's just not always the case.
Speaker 3: Thank you. So Hunger Fighters played an instrumental role when schools shut down during the pandemic and many students lost access to their school meals. And in some ways, that happens every summer. You know, summer break brings in that same challenge. What are your greatest needs heading into these summer months when kids will not have access to their school lunch?
Speaker 4: We have a similar issue with you know, the food drive slowed down over the summer. Our volunteers go on breaks, so the pantry itself just kind of slows down in general. So what we see often is our shelves are a little less full because, you know, the food drives have slowed down. People are putting their money towards their vacations and their trips, which is totally understandable.
Speaker 4: But those people who would normally be giving throughout the year kind of take a break because they're, you know, focusing their resources [00:06:00] Otherwise. So in the summer we're seeing more families, like you mentioned, come through because they need to support their kids who were getting those free and reduced lunches or other meals throughout the day at school.
Speaker 4: The other need is, like I was mentioning, was around volunteers and this is also a great time for people who've been wanting to volunteer to kind of plug in because we do have these, you know, our regular volunteers that we call them are the people who volunteer weekly or monthly on a, on a regular basis.
Speaker 4: Those people sometimes, you know, will go on a trip a couple weeks here and there, so those spots open up. They're kind of sporadic, however, so having those people who are on wait lists or wanting to get in, that's a great time to start checking in to see what opens up because they kind of, those openings kind of happen randomly in last minute.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So how can people, you just kinda mentioned volunteers, but how can people support this mission? Like what kind of donations are most helpful, or what kinds of volunteer roles do you need first or like. People are listening, they wanna know how can we help and how do we help. Now
Speaker 4: first, just to say any help is appreciated.
Speaker 4: [00:07:00] And you know, we love all the support we get from the community, whether that's financial, whether that's volunteer, whether that's, you know, bringing supplies by with financial donations. Those generally go farther for us because if you don't know hunger fighters. Aside from food drives and donated food, we purchase a lot of food that goes on the shelves.
Speaker 4: So when we receive financial donations, we're able to take that money and go purchase food at better prices. We have someone, our inventory manager, who can kind of comparison shop and do all of that work that your individual person just usually isn't doing and buying in bulk and things like that. So we're able to stretch those dollars a little bit further.
Speaker 4: Financial donations also help us keep our lights on, you know, our day-to-day operations and overhead on the food donation side. Food drives are always great because they provide a great back stock for us. So when we get these food drives of a hundred to 200 pounds or more, that's really just allowing us to, again, stretch.
Speaker 4: The amount of food that we have available and allow us to have a back stock so that if we do have these kind of down times in the season, we have something to pull [00:08:00] from and it doesn't feel like we're kind of dipping into our reserves. So the more we're getting from food drives, the more we're able to extend that, which is great.
Speaker 4: And volunteers, honestly, we're, we're doing really great with volunteers. This community has been amazing with showing support that way. And as I mentioned before. Right now there's basically a wait list to get in the door to help us, which is a great place to be in. From that perspective, we are trying to do more group events with, you know, local businesses and things like that.
Speaker 4: So whether that's a beautification day, you know, if you've never been in the pantry, or if you have been in the pantry, actually it's very white in there, like white walls, kind of sterile. We're wanting to paint the. Base, you know, dress it up a little bit. So opportunities like that will start to present themselves soon as well.
Speaker 4: But yeah, so that's really where we're trying to, you know, in terms of support, the financial to really help us build up those back stocks and remain a sustainable organization is where what we're focused on right now. As we grow. Yeah. And
Speaker 3: I have heard you say, and this was new to me, that it's easier for the pantry for you get a case of one thing versus mm-hmm.
Speaker 3: Like [00:09:00] when I go to the store, sometimes I buy a variety of things, like, oh, I'm gonna buy this bag of groceries for somebody in need, but that's actually not the way. It works. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. I
Speaker 4: mean, again, doing that is great. We're not gonna, we're not gonna say no to those donations, but yeah, I think the idea is, so on an average shop day, when our pantry guests come in, we're seeing about 30 guests per shop.
Speaker 4: So the idea is to be able to have all those people have access to the same. Products. And so if someone were to bring in 30, which this is a lot to ask, obviously, but you know, just thinking if you could bring in 30 of one thing versus 30 different things, that means at least. Every guest from that shop will get that one, be able to have that one item versus, oh, this person only got the toothbrush, this person got the toothpaste, this person got the peanut butter, versus everyone got the peanut butter.
Speaker 4: If that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 4: But again, we're, you know, we, because of the way our stock comes in, oftentimes when people do bring in a bag of mixed items, it just kind of gets added to the, [00:10:00] that product amount. Mm-hmm. So it's not. A bad thing by any means.
Speaker 3: I mean, not everyone understands what the pantry looks like, and I, I hope they're noticing that you are calling the shoppers guests.
Speaker 3: And when I go in there, it feels very much like a boutique grocery store. It's not like the food pantries where you drive through and you get a bag of everyone gets the same food. Guests get to go and shop for things that they need on the shelves, and it, it feels like a, they have a cart and it feels like, yeah.
Speaker 3: Safeway.
Speaker 4: Yep. Which, yeah, we wanna make it feel as normal as possible. The idea that we want people to feel comfortable. We don't wanna feel people to feel like they are inferior or that they are doing some special thing that, yeah, we just want it to feel like a normal situation. They're going to get their groceries like anybody else would.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. A lot of times people in these situations are often utilizing other service. Support systems as well. So they're used to having to go sit in an office, take, you know, wait their turn to do something. So trying to get away from that, you know, kind of [00:11:00] sterile feeling and making it feel just like a regular thing that they're doing.
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's great. So from your experiences so far, and you've been with the pantry about a year, I think. Yeah, just over a year. A year ago. I met you for the first time. So what's one of the most meaningful or creative acts of support that you've seen from a volunteer or a community partner?
Speaker 4: Again, every. Any support people give is always appreciated. Amazing. I think well I was trying to think through this. We recently have a newer volunteer who, his name is Tim and he is a contractor by trade. That's his job. And he came in just to help be on our cleaning crew. But as he was cleaning the pantry, he would notice little things here and there.
Speaker 4: And because he's a contractor, he understands like the importance of. A safe and healthy building. And so he's noticed all these little things that we can fix and has offered to do a lot of that work for, you know, just for parts or labor or whatever, at a very discounted rate, which is, you know, just another way to make the pantry feel comfortable, accessible, all those things for our guests.
Speaker 4: It's not [00:12:00] just for. Staff, you know, he wants to build out an office for us, which is great for us, but it actually makes the pantry itself work a little bit better that way. We also have another volunteer, Greg, who goes and gets all this fruit and makes these little fruit cups for everybody that we put in the, in the fridges.
Speaker 4: And then for the holidays, he tries to make, you know, holiday themed baskets. So at Easter he made all these little Easter baskets that were full of candy and things for the kids. So just little thoughtful touches like that. And I think our volunteers are really aware. Of the people that they're serving and the importance of, you know, just making people feel accepted and cared for.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. And loved really. I mean that, you know, having little, little touches like that at the store are important. And as you know, hunger Fighters started as a student led initiative, which we're so proud of here. Mm-hmm. In Lake Oswego. How does the student involvement continue to shape your work today?
Speaker 3: And what does it mean for your board to include high school students?
Speaker 4: The student aspect is huge. I think. I used to work in a school and so understanding, you [00:13:00] know, you don't wanna write off kids and students, they are really doing a lot of work and are so smart and able to connect dots in ways that I think as we get older, we kind of just lose the ability to do or we're too busy thinking about other things.
Speaker 4: And then also they just have a. Their finger on the pulse of things that are happening right now in the world and can kind of translate some of those things a lot in more creative and interesting ways than some of us older folks can. When students are able to talk to their peers about things that are happening in the world, it's different than when an adult's talking to them or a teacher's talking to them.
Speaker 4: When students are able to get together and try to make change, they tend to be a lot more impactful than adults because we usually have some other goal in mind on top of just trying to. Make a difference. So I think that student viewpoint and view student perspective is something that is really integral and critical to the success of hunger fighters.
Speaker 4: I think when our students, so our student board members now often go out and work, talk to other students at like the elementary schools and junior high schools, [00:14:00] their role models for these younger kids in ways that. Adults can't be or aren't. You know, they're close enough in age, but also still older and want to hear from them and understand what they're saying.
Speaker 4: I mean, our students are so smart that, you know, they know how to translate the issues of today to ways that younger students can understand and kind of digest in ways that we can't. I think it's important to stay true to Michael's, the founder of Hunger Fighter's original goal of starting the program, which was to help his peers out who he saw struggling.
Speaker 4: And I think students are again. Gonna be pivotal for that. You know, they're the ones organizing the food drives in the schools, especially as they get older. And the high schoolers are doing that on their own. They're the ones spreading the words. They're the ones telling their friends like, Hey, you know, just do this thing.
Speaker 4: It's not that big of a deal. It's not that hard. It's a little different again than when a teacher asks them to do that, or an adult asks them to do that. Having your friends ask you to participate in something can be a lot more meaningful and impactful. And I think having our student board members are.
Speaker 4: Is again, super important because like I said, they're bringing in perspective that we might not understand. Also, they're in the school so they [00:15:00] understand the inner workings of how things happen, how things need to happen, how communications happen that we just aren't privy to. So I think they're just a great bridge to not just the the school district and the schools themselves, but the other students and just getting information across.
Speaker 4: That we don't have the access to.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. That's fantastic that our students can make such a impact. So looking ahead, what are your hopes for the future of Hunger Fighters of Oregon? Are there any plans to expand services or outreach or what, you know, you tell us. Yeah. I
Speaker 4: think, you know, honestly, in a perfect world, you know, hunger fighters and other organizations like ours wouldn't exist.
Speaker 4: You know, we'd we'd, we'd work ourselves out of where we are right now, but that's likely not gonna be the case. Our goal really is just to adapt. To meet the need of our guests as times change. So I think in this 2025 was gonna be a growth year for us. You know, we have a full staff now, we're seeing more guests come in the pantry.
Speaker 4: So it's really about sustainability and making sure that we can [00:16:00] be here for our guests in the way that they have come to expect us to be and be a reliable resource for them. So again, that's, you know, building those coffers to make sure that we have the resources, both financially and supply wise to continue to give our guests.
Speaker 4: The same service that they've been getting over these clearly uncertain times that we're heading into, but also then long term adapting how we need to. So we've done some satellite pantries with the local church. We work with the adult community center to get them some, we just did some emergency food boxes that we sent over there for their seniors.
Speaker 4: So figuring out different ways to be a part of the community that are outside of just. The, the physical space, you know, whether that's a mobile pantry in a couple years from now, if that's needed, expanding our delivery program to reach more home bound individuals. All of that kind of just, again, growth in a way that makes sense for what our guests actually need.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well that is. Fantastic. It was so fun having you on the show, Simone, and I wish you all the luck and, and actually you don't even need it 'cause you're such [00:17:00] a fantastic person. We just are so glad you came to Lake Oswego and that you're working with hunger fighters and our students and making sure people have what they need.
Speaker 3: I just really appreciate you being here.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. It's been really great being out here. I think the community support is, has been kind of like blown me away seeing, you know, everyone coming from all different corners to support this pantry and the people that need these services. So I appreciate you having us on today.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Now I'm really excited to talk to one of our students. Juliana. Hi. Welcome to the show.
JULIANNA CAHILL:: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Let's start with what inspired you to get involved with Hunger Fighters and how did you come to serve on the board?
Speaker 5: You know, I first actually heard about Hunger Fighters.
Speaker 5: It was at the end of my sixth grade year when we were going into the pandemic, and I remember. One of the things that people were worried about when we were considering the school shutdowns was how kids were going to continue to have access to free and reduced lunch, because that's the thing that a lot of people in our community [00:18:00] rely on, and I feel like a lot of people didn't realize that at the time.
Speaker 5: They were like, if we shut down the schools, kids aren't going to be there. They're not going to have access to those meals. Kids are going to go hungry and. My family, me in particular, I just thought that that was unacceptable. You know, these two options of either you're going to be in danger from the pandemic or you're going to be in danger from food insecurity.
Speaker 5: Those were unacceptable options, and so that's when my family started donating to food insecurity organizations, one of those being hunger fighters, organ, and then. About three years ago, at the end of my eighth grade year, well, I'm a junior right now. We got a little notice on the tag classroom, talented and gifted classroom from Alicia Cochran, who was the organizer of that at lake Ridge Middle School.
Speaker 5: We got a notification for. An opportunity to be a student board member at Hunger Fighters. And I thought, this is great. This is an awesome opportunity for me to be able to have sort [00:19:00] of a set position that I could step into. I could make a difference in my community by being integral part of the board.
Speaker 5: And so I really wanted to pursue that. I applied and was accepted, and I've been on the board for about three years now.
Speaker 3: That is amazing. I mean. Our kids here and, and I know our listeners hear this all the time, but I am in awe of your thought and your compassion that you have. I mean, that's just, it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: And as a board member, you get to see both operational and human side of this work. What have you learned from this experience that kind of shaped you as a student or maybe even just as a person, a human being?
Speaker 5: I feel like. One thing that I've learned by being on more of the administrative side of this organization is how people can come together with so many different skills and backgrounds to make a community of people who are all, who are all.
Speaker 5: In the [00:20:00] business of helping others. I thought that that was a really beautiful thing. When I stepped on the board. I'm like, these people all have their own skills. They all have their own careers, and they all work together very well for this one purpose of fighting food insecurity in our community. And so it was really interesting to see the administrative side of it because I had never had any experience on a board before.
Speaker 5: I had never been to any board meeting before. So I feel like that's really given me a nice background on the organizational side of things. And then in terms of volunteering, I really love. Seeing how physical things that we do in the pantry, you know, our back stock, our shelving, our stickering of items for expiration dates.
Speaker 5: I really love seeing how that translates to actually impacting people's lives. Our guests come in and as Simone was saying earlier, they don't have to feel the stigma of. Feeling like their food insecure. It's much [00:21:00] like a, a grocery shopping experience except with no transactions involved. So I really loved seeing how we were able to foster an environment of acceptance for our guests so that they can feel like they have a normal experience even in times of hardship.
Speaker 5: Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's. Amazing. Can you share a favorite memory or story from your time volunteer that really stuck with you?
Speaker 5: Well, for a lot of last year, my sophomore year with the previous student board member from lake Oswego High School who just recently graduated, we would go to elementary schools and middle schools in the community and we would get to.
Speaker 5: Speak with kids from those places sort of concurrently with their food drives that they were planning and and carrying out. And I really loved speaking with those kids because this may sound bad, but I feel like as we get older, we sort of develop an apathy of sorts where you think you're, you're too cool to care about [00:22:00] other people and.
Speaker 5: Those little kids don't really have that yet. And so they were, they were very excited to be involved. They were excited to be making a difference. And one thing that I remember in, in particular, this, this one boy asked a question, maybe third or fourth grade, he was like, why do you guys. Do this, do you get paid?
Speaker 5: He was wondering, he was like, do you guys get paid to like come here and to talk about these things? And we're like, no, we don't get paid. We're volunteers. And he is like, well, why would people do that? And so it was really a special moment for me to be able to explain how people do things from the kindness of their own hearts to be able to help others.
Speaker 5: And not everything is transactional. It's not like I'm getting something. Physical in, in a reward sort of manner. For this, for this position, it's more like I'm working with others to make my community a better place. And I feel like when people learn that at a young age, that's very [00:23:00] impactful and that's something that they'll carry with them for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 5: And so. I just love speaking with younger people and as Simone was saying, it's like, yeah, we're a little bit older, but we're still in the age range and people really like to hear from us, which is very special for me.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I, I think our younger, especially our elementary kids, love when the high school kids come and talk with 'em.
Speaker 3: They really do. And they, they look up to our high school students, so you know, if we can start by helping. Children at that age, learn why making your community better is so important. You, you, you got a really good point there. That's very important. Right. And you kind of talk about this a little bit, but not every student thinks of themselves as a leader, especially in middle school or high school.
Speaker 3: What would you say to other students who might wanna help but they're not? Really sure where to start. Like how, how do you know, you kind of talked about how you got started, but what's a other way that kids can get started in helping?
Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, just to start off, I feel like [00:24:00] we get a lot of. Let's just say outside pressure to try to be a leader.
Speaker 5: You know, how were you a leader in your community? What leadership positions have you held? And I feel like it's important to remember that to make a society or a community of any sorts, not everyone has to be a leader in that sense. You know, you can also be a participant in something without being the president of it or the chair of it.
Speaker 5: And that's equally as important. And so I feel like some kids. Get overwhelmed with the thought of being a leader. They're like, I don't wanna head meetings. I don't wanna give speeches. I don't want to travel around doing things like that because it's intimidating, you know? But I feel like it's, it's very important for adults in particular to not put that sort of pressure on kids, because a lot of people wouldn't be ready for a leadership position like that, but.
Speaker 5: You can still be leading your community to a better place in more of a participant [00:25:00] position. So we've actually been expanding a student ambassador program since we only have two board seats for students. With hunger fighters. We've sort of been trying to. Set up this student ambassador program where other kids who maybe aren't ready for that leadership position yet or don't have the time for it, can still help out, can still do things more on the the student side of the organization.
Speaker 5: So recently we were at the lake Oswego Sustainability Network Resource Fair, and that was all student run. Our table was just several students, including myself, running it. Answering questions, providing some food waste and food insecurity trivia to people who came by. And it was just a really nice way to see how students can get involved in sort of a more casual manner.
Speaker 5: You know, it's not as many emails, it's not as much administrative stuff, it's just more like. Active action in the community. But I feel like if students are looking for a [00:26:00] way to get involved, the school counselors sometimes definitely go unnoticed, but they have a lot of opportunities and they, they know a lot of different people in the community who you can get in contact with.
Speaker 5: And there are so many opportunities that people don't realize. I bet, I don't even know 2% of them, but there, there are many opportunities in the community. Which is, which is very exciting for, for new students who want to get involved. Mm-hmm. For sure.
Speaker 3: If you have a passion, we can find something for you to do with that passion.
Speaker 3: But yes, I loved how you said earlier, it's just unacceptable to have hunger. I mean, our, our children should not, right? Yeah. We, we live in a country that produces lots of food. There should not be any mm-hmm. Child, especially who is hungry. And I just loved how you're like, that's just unacceptable for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So what's one thing you've learned about in just food insecurity that you didn't realize before you joined Hunger Fighters?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's, that's a great question. I. Realized how truly prevalent [00:27:00] it is in places that you might not expect. You know, I feel like before the pandemic, I had no idea that there even was a food insecurity problem or a hunger problem in this community because we're a very affluent area.
Speaker 5: You know, it's, it wouldn't seem like it's an issue, but it is. And. Another thing that I realized, and I was sad to discover this, was how truly cruel people are in regards to this subject. You know, there's so much stigma around struggling around not being able to have the money to pay for what you need, and that really upset me.
Speaker 5: You know, it's like. I don't know why people have to have to judge others for their hardships when they have no idea what the background may be in their situation. So that was one thing that I discovered and that I was sad to discover. From working on the board, you know, we have a lot of [00:28:00] conflict resolution conversations about how maybe a volunteer wasn't being respectful.
Speaker 5: Most of them are, mind you, but it's, it's sometimes hard to see that how, how that's a real issue with just judging other people. And so I feel like that goes to show that we need to generally be kinder as a society, but also I truly believe that most people are good. Most people are trying to be kind to others or trying to help people out in.
Speaker 5: Hard times. And so that's been, that's been nice to see too. We have a lot of very caring board members and a lot of very caring volunteers who are really trying to do everything they can to help these guests who are in need. Yeah,
Speaker 3: absolutely. And you know, for those listening out there, don't judge others, you really do not know.
Speaker 3: No. You know their background. And so I think that's a really important lesson from a. Student, I might add a junior to the world. Mm-hmm. Let's not judge other people. I, I say to people a lot, like [00:29:00] every child walks around with an invisible backpack and you have no idea what they're carrying around with them.
Speaker 3: So you have to be real careful and kind because you, you don't know what they've gone through. You don't know what happened to 'em this morning. You don't know if they're hungry. You don't know if some kind of argument happened that's very jarring, or, you know, created trauma for them and. You know, it's, it's so important to be kind and this is, you're actually the second student in, in a little while that has talked about kindness and I just so appreciate that.
Speaker 3: So I think that's something we should keep spreading.
Speaker 5: Agreed. Yeah, I like that invisible backpack idea. That's, that's a very nice analogy for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, Juliana, thank you so much for being on the show today. Of course, we really learned a lot about hunger fighters and in your leadership with that, and I just really appreciate you coming on and I love your message of kindness.
Speaker 5: Oh, well thank you. Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 2: This is great.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Take care.
Speaker 2: Wow. Thank you Juliana and Simone. I know this show is recorded and people can't see us, but usually every episode one of [00:30:00] us wells up. And I think that one had all of us welling up as they were talking. We intentionally chose this episode as we headed into summer because while our schools take a break, hunger does not, and it's really important.
Speaker 2: I hope people listening learn something new. I know I did. And I know there's so many people out there that wanna help and hopefully this will inspire more people to help and as Juliana said, be kind. I love that. Now, before we wrap up the show, let's talk about what else is happening in our community, Jen?
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: With the end of the school year in sight, we're entering one of the most exciting times of our school's graduation season. Lakeridge High School's. Graduation is on June 5th. And Lo High's graduation is on June 6th, so a Thursday and Friday this year. We're so incredibly proud of our seniors and all they've accomplished, and we're looking forward to celebrating this next chapter with their family and friends.
Speaker 3: And so join me in wishing them well, and congratulations on an. [00:31:00] Amazing 13 years in Lake Oswego. Meanwhile, our facilities team and bond program are gearing up for the summer, which is our busiest season for construction and school improvement projects. Thanks to the community's investment in our schools, major upgrades are underway to improve safety, efficiency and learning environments.
Speaker 3: And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one of our favorite annual traditions. The annual lobster feed and charity auction hosted by the Lake Oswego Rotary and Lakewood Center for the Arts. It's coming up on June 14th. This event has raised more than $4 million over the years to support local nonprofits, the arts and humanitarian efforts in Oregon and around the world.
Speaker 3: If you haven't bought your tickets yet, please do. This is the time. To get into the lobster feed. I'll be there. I know you will. I love that.
Speaker 2: It's such a fun event and to me, the lobster feed really signals that it's the beginning of summer in our community and it's such a heartwarming event seeing so [00:32:00] many people come out and support so many wonderful causes.
Speaker 2: But before we go to the lobster feed, we're gonna wrap up this show. Not only is this the last episode we're wrapping up this episode, it is also the end of season two for learning in Lake Oswego. This is our 33rd episode, and we are so grateful for all of our guests, our listeners, and our community members who have made this show so special, and we have a wonderful following and hope more people tune in as we.
Speaker 2: Always have something new to learn and share happening in our schools. We'll be taking a, a little break over the summer and then we'll be back for season three in September. We already have episodes lining up. If people have ideas or they wanna learn something new, please reach out. We're always willing and interested in learning together and would love to hear from you.
Speaker 3: Thank you again to our guests from Hunger Fighters and to everyone who tunes in and stays connected. We look forward to continuing these conversations [00:33:00] in the fall. And until next time, keep exploring, stay engaged. Class dismissed for
Speaker: the summer. We hope you found this episode informative and helpful.
Speaker: While our discussions are general. We understand each family's experience is unique. If you have specific questions about your child, please contact your school principal. To learn more about the topics we discussed, ask a question or share ideas for future episodes, please visit lod schools.org and remember to like and follow us wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker: Thank you for engaging with learning in Lake Oswego. We appreciate your support and look forward to having you with us for our next episode.