‘At Work With’: What if your groceries were free? At this Cornelius mercado, they can be

A few blocks away from City Hall, a store window shows a hand encircled by forks, spoons and ears of corn in an intricate design. Above it, window decals spell M-E-R-C-A-D-O.

It’s 9 a.m. on a Monday, still an hour before people will arrive to browse the shelves. Gladis Vasquez unlocks the door to a small, sunlit market.

And that’s exactly what it looks like: a small grocery store. Shelves are stocked with canned foods and dry goods, like masa harina for making tamales and tortillas. Fridges hold fresh vegetables and eggs, and freezers feature meats and frozen burritos from a local wholesaler. A well-stocked produce section lines the back wall, there are some personal items and COVID tests in the corner, and on a shelf past the bread, near the exit:

“This is where we normally put our sweet items, on this rack. Right now we have a lot of Krispy Kreme doughnuts,” Vasquez said.

And in a bucket on the floor below them are some flower bouquets.

“So that’s something that’s good for the community, they get a side treat.”

It’s what someone might choose as an impulse buy… if anyone bought anything here at all. But what’s missing from this market is a checkout aisle and cash register. Everything here is free.

The Centro Mercado food pantry is a project of Centro Cultural, a Washington County Latino community organization with a 50-plus-year history in Cornelius. A sign on the wall styled like a Lotería card reads, “Centro Mercado is led and operated by Latinos living in the community.” And while the low-barrier pantry serves everyone, it specializes in stocking culturally specific foods for Latinos.

Lately, places like this have been crucial in the midst of growing food insecurity and uncertain food benefits in Oregon. For OPB’s “At Work With” series, we got to know one of the people making sure their neighbors can feed their families, no matter their budget.

What made you want to start working at a food pantry?

A couple years ago, Vasquez was looking for something new after she’d worked her way up to manager at a fast food restaurant. She found the open position of “food specialist” on a job listings website. She grew up in the back roads of Cornelius, and her parents had used other Centro Cultural programs. But when she realized it was a job at a food pantry, she was interested for another reason: her family had relied on those too.

“My mom, she wouldn’t work when we were kids, so she would go to a food pantry just, probably like a couple blocks from here,” she said.

It’s a big part of why she feels motivated to work here.

“It’s something that I wanted to do to help other families, just because I have those memories that we would go to food pantries and get the help that we needed.”

Who is encouraged to come in? Anyone in need, or are there certain criteria to meet?

“We don’t deny service to anyone,” Vasquez said.

Whoever is in need of help with food can visit the Mercado. They ask whether visitors are eligible for low-income food benefits like SNAP, but if they aren’t, they’re still welcome.

“We don’t know your situation. We can’t judge you guys,” she said.

Say, for example, someone’s just above the income cutoff for food aid eligibility, but they’re still struggling for another reason, like being rent-burdened.

“I believe that they’re still eligible, because you’re coming here for a reason, that you need it, right?”

People also don’t need to live in Cornelius. Vasquez said they get visitors from other cities in the area, like Tigard and Gaston.

“People travel, like to come here because I think we’re one of the only food [pantries] that people come in and shop and choose what they actually take,” she said.

How does the market-style pantry work for visitors?

Vasquez has memories of the food pantry from her childhood.

“We would just sit there patiently to see what we would get, because they wouldn’t let you choose the items, you’d just pass by and tell them what you needed.”

But things are different here. Rather than being handed a bag or box of selected items, visitors choose items themselves, just like at the grocery store. Each person has five minutes to browse. There are posted limits on some items, like meat and eggs. With others, people can take what they need, as long as they’re conscious of other shoppers. They can also leave what they don’t need, which is important.

“They know they’re going to be using the items. They know that they’re not going to throw anything away,” Vasquez said.

On top of daily staples, they’re also able to get treats that they wouldn’t normally buy. There’s a candy bin out sometimes for kids. Or those Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

“It could be that they can afford a bag of rice or a bag of beans … they choose to buy that to feed their family instead of buying a tray of cupcakes or a tray of a dessert or a candy, so I feel like it’s just giving that joy to the kids.”

She remembers being one of those kids, excited to see cupcakes at the food pantry.

“I was happy to get that, because we wouldn’t really buy any sweets,” she said.

How does the Mercado serve Latino community members?

Centro Mercado is open to people of all backgrounds, but the majority of its visitors are Latinos. The staff there speaks Spanish. Cornelius is one of several Oregon locales with a majority Hispanic or Latino population, and the farming community is home to many agricultural workers. It’s part of why food has been such a big part of Centro Cultural’s mission since the 1970s. They’ve been serving hot meals for decades. Today, their Cocino de Oro program provides free lunches to people over 60 (and at low cost to those under 60).

Though the Mercado storefront just opened in 2025, the organization started distributing take-home food items in 2019. Before long, they noticed something.

“They started off with just dry, canned items, and they would say that a lot of people wouldn’t use that,” Vasquez said.

People were returning foods that they weren’t culturally familiar with, because they didn’t know how to use them. So now, they’re more intentional about providing cultural foods their Latino visitors actually want.

“What they normally come looking for is the Maseca, rice, beans, any milk, eggs, the basics, tomatoes, jalapenos, any tomatillos,” Vasquez listed.

Even when they get vegetables that might be unfamiliar to some, like chard, employees help them learn how they can use them at home.

“You just tell them, ‘Oh, you can just do it like…’ we call it ‘a la Mexicana,’ it’s just with tomato and jalapeños and onion, just chopped and minced … they’ll start taking it.”

Where do donations come from?

A large portion of their donations come from the Oregon Food Bank, which brings several pallets of food on Monday mornings to the warehouse space behind the storefront. The space is chock full, with pallets and shelves piled high with non-perishables, plus a large walk-in fridge.

They also receive food from local grocery stores and food businesses. One private donor regularly brings them eggs and dairy, including cotija cheese.

Vasquez said their most popular items with visitors include eggs, milk, and fruit.

“Fruit is really expensive nowadays. I went to the store and I bought two of them and it was like $5 each,” she said.

The Mercado also partners with a local farm, Working Theory Farm, which provides fresh, organic produce. Vasquez says that can be rare for people shopping for groceries on a budget.

“People actually see what organic tastes like.”

Community members can pitch in by donating their time. The Mercado gets lots of volunteers, and part of Vasquez’s job is showing them the ropes and what to work on that day.

On the day of OPB’s visit, volunteer Thomas Hrabal was helping stock tortillas in the storefront. The retired veteran grew up in neighboring Hillsboro.

“I was at a Veterans Day event with [Hillsboro] Mayor Beach Pace and inquired with her as to what I could possibly do to volunteer for the community, and she referred me to here,” he said.

“It’s great folks, great community. It’s offering a helping hand.”

What are folks who come into the Mercado struggling with right now?

The number of Oregonians facing hunger has continued to increase. Around 400,000 Oregonians experienced food insecurity in 2023, according to a 2024 US Department of Agriculture report that came out before the Trump administration discontinued the report last year. Prices at the grocery store also keep going up. More than 750,000 Oregonians, roughly one in six residents, rely on food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federal government’s temporary disruption of those benefits in November threw recipients into chaos.

Centro Cultural’s food program manager, Everardo Lopez Pizano, said they saw that reflected at Centro Mercado.

“We went from receiving between 80 to about 120 people, to our max, being about 160 people per day,” he said.

Vasquez said visitors include parents with children, and locals experiencing homelessness. They stock some grab-and-go items, like pasta salad, for people who don’t have access to a kitchen.

Meanwhile, ICE has been targeting immigrants in the area, including many Latinos. According to the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, immigration agents arrested at least 265 people in Washington County in October and November. Arrests in the wider Portland metro area have included people with citizenship or other legal status. The sharp rise in arrests prompted Washington County to declare a state of emergency in early November.

Meanwhile, a Supreme Court ruling last year made it easier for immigration agents to stop people based on factors like their race, making Black and brown residents vulnerable to profiling.

All of this has created an environment of fear for Latinos and immigrants in Washington County. Some are afraid to leave their homes.

Staff at Centro Mercado are keenly aware of this and work hard to keep their visitors safe. A big sign on the front window reads “ICE IS NOT WELCOME HERE.” The Mercado keeps its front door locked at all times. Lopez Pizano says he keeps an eye out for ICE activity in the neighborhood, “making sure that our streets here are safe, so people can come and get food.”

What are your favorite parts of your job?

Vasquez said some of her favorite things to do at work are sorting and choosing the items that come in, “seeing what is gonna go up front and just seeing if they take it or not.”

She also loves restocking the storefront.

“Once the fridges are super stocked, there’s a happiness in my heart,” she said with a laugh.

When she helps check visitors in at the door, she enjoys chatting with people and helping them out if needed. She’s gotten to know some of their regulars. She runs into them out and about in town sometimes. She said this job has helped her become less shy. She values social connection more.

“In Mexico, I know that they live in, they say pueblo, in the city. They’re all close, they’re like ‘Oh, eres hija de tal persona,’ or ‘You’re blank’s daughter’ and they all know each other, they all talk. Once you start to get involved with the community, you have that connection as well, and you think, ‘This is the community I want.’”

What do you hope to see in your community when it comes to food access?

“I think no one should ever live a day without eating something,” Vasquez said.

She also wants to help reduce the shame and stigma about needing help with food.

“A lot of people actually see this as maybe something that they don’t want to be seen at,” she said.

“Dirían de vergüenza, [they’d say because] of embarrassment. I think it’s something that you shouldn’t be embarrassed of. I’m hoping that’s something that people start to understand and change that. They’re more than welcome to come here.”