Fighting hunger in Portland with fresh food before it goes to waste

It’s a sunny afternoon in Portland’s Lents Park, and a group of people are gathered near the playground and community garden. Some are sitting on the grass, others are in groups chatting and folks like Cinnamon are lined up, waiting to shop.

“I actually live like 20 minutes away, but I figured, my car is like a small really tiny hatchback [and] gets decent gas mileage,” she says. “And what you get is way more than what you would do in gas.”

There’s a variety of foods displayed on the three long tables: from grapes to garlic bread, organic milk to collard greens. Another shopper, Steven, is excited to talk through his market haul: “Today I got some amazing looking hamburger buns; they’ve got seeds and stuff all over them. Some grapes, a melon, a gigantic cauliflower, cinnamon rolls, pizza …”