This month we are excited to highlight our partner Sunshine Division. We asked them to tell us about their organization and how you can get involved. Read below to learn about what they shared with us!
Sunshine Division: Meeting Our Community Where They Are
Our Mission
Since 1923, Sunshine Division has provided immediate food relief to individuals and families experiencing hardship throughout the Portland metro area. Our mission is rooted in the belief that everyone deserves access to essential resources with dignity, compassion, and respect. We work to meet our neighbors where they are, recognizing that every household has different needs, circumstances, and barriers to accessing support.
How We Serve Our Community
Sunshine Division offers a variety of programs designed to make food assistance and other essential resources accessible to our community. We recognize that a single approach cannot meet everyone’s needs, so we provide multiple ways for individuals and families to access support.
Our Free Food Markets, located on Stark Street and NW Front Avenue, provide groceries at no cost to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. These markets offer a welcoming place for community members to access the food they need without the added financial burden of purchasing groceries.
Through our Home Delivery program, we bring shelf staple groceries directly to households that face challenges accessing a market in person. Transportation limitations, mobility challenges, caregiving responsibilities, and other circumstances can make it difficult to visit a market during operating hours. Home Delivery helps reduce these barriers and extends access to food assistance to households that might otherwise struggle to obtain it.
We also support children and families through Izzy’s Kids (Shop with a Cop), which provides seasonal assistance to children, which connects children with local law enforcement for a supportive school shopping experience. These programs reflect our commitment to supporting families beyond their immediate grocery needs and helping children experience care, connection, and joy.
In addition, Sunshine Division works with community partners to distribute food and respond to emerging needs throughout the Portland metro area. By maintaining strong partnerships and adapting our approach, we can extend our reach and respond to changing circumstances within the community.
Across all our programs, our goal is to reduce barriers to essential resources and ensure that people can access support in ways that work for their lives. We understand that food insecurity affects people from all backgrounds and walks of life, and we strive to make assistance accessible without requiring people to volunteer, meet unnecessary conditions, or navigate avoidable obstacles to receiving food.
How Community Feedback Shapes Our Services
The people who use our services are essential partners in shaping them. Sunshine Division regularly gathers feedback through email surveys and in-person surveys at our Free Food Markets. These surveys help us understand how our programs affect clients, what is working well, and where we can improve. We ask about food access, food selection, additional resources families may need, items they would like to see offered, and suggestions for making our services more responsive to their needs.
This feedback informs real decisions about how we operate. Our clients have helped shape not only what goes into our Free Food Markets, but also the layout and design of the spaces themselves. Their experiences and recommendations help us consider how food is presented, how people navigate the markets, and how we can create a more welcoming and accessible environment. We believe the people who use our services should have a meaningful voice in determining how those services are delivered.
Community input is also important to our approach to culturally responsive food access. Food is deeply connected to culture, family traditions, dietary needs, and personal preferences. We want the groceries available through our programs to be useful to the households receiving them. By asking clients what foods they want and need, we can better understand their preferences and identify opportunities to improve our food offerings. Listening directly to clients helps us move beyond assumptions and make more informed decisions about the resources we provide.
Accessibility also means recognizing that barriers extend beyond the availability of food itself. Transportation, mobility, work schedules, caregiving responsibilities, and other life circumstances can affect a person’s ability to access assistance. Our Free Food Markets and Home Delivery program provide different pathways to support, allowing us to serve households with varying needs. We continually look for opportunities to make our services easier to navigate, more responsive, and more welcoming.
Ultimately, meeting our community where they are means recognizing that there is no single experience of food insecurity and no single solution that works for everyone. By listening to our clients, incorporating their feedback into program decisions, and offering multiple ways to access support, Sunshine Division strives to create services that reflect the lived experiences and needs of the people we serve.
Our commitment is simple: to ensure that individuals and families throughout the Portland metro area can access the food and essential resources they need with dignity, respect, and a sense of welcome.
Ways to Support
Meeting our community where they are takes a community of supporters. Whether you give your time, bring people together to collect food, or celebrate the holiday season with us, you can help Sunshine Division continue providing food assistance with dignity and compassion.
Volunteer. Give your time to support our mission and connect with neighbors who share a commitment to helping our community.
Host a food drive. Bring together coworkers, friends, or your community group to collect food for local individuals and families. A food drive is a meaningful way to turn collective generosity into support for neighbors experiencing food insecurity.
Join us at Winter Wonderland. Celebrate the season while supporting Sunshine Division’s year-round food assistance. Winter Wonderland is a beloved Portland holiday tradition and our largest annual fundraiser an opportunity to make holiday memories while helping local families.
Together, we can help more neighbors access the food and essential resources they need with dignity, respect, and a sense of welcome.
