The Oregon Food Bank is welcoming more than 50 tons of food into its larders after the five-day run of the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland.
Portland-based musicians and dancers take to the main stage at the city's annual Waterfront Blues Fest.
Courtney Sherwood / OPB
Laura Golino de Lovato is the development director for the food bank. She says the dollar goal fell a little short, but the food donations overflowed.
"The cans of food, the bags of rice, the boxes of cereal, the jars of peanut butter, all the people who attended the event were the ones that gave that 104,000 pounds of food, and in fact, they're the ones who brought in the $902,000," she says.
Golino de Lovato says once all the pennies are tallied, the food bank may reach its goal of $945,000. She says the Blues Festival makes up about 6 percent of the food bank's annual fundraising. Golino de Lovato credits this year's success to the sunny weather, the lineup of musicians and public awareness of hunger as a problem.
