Union offered financial advice as well as a community development loan. Fundraising events netted the $15,000 down payment and convinced both Benjamin Franklin Savings & Loan and Portland Development Commission, neither of whom had ever financed a nonprofit organization, to loan the co-op $45,000 at low interest rates. Walsh, the builder, co-signed the bank loan. Food Front moved into its new quarters in fall of 1980. Gross sales receipts have grown from $437,000 in 1979 to an estimated $730,000 in 1981. These days Food Front has about 600 members, a third of whom work at least four hours per month in the store in exchange for a percentage discount. Says Theresa, "The working member system puts us in touch with a lot of different people. We can educate people more directly by having them come into the store. It's a natural expression of self-reliance." Health Help Center 4842 N.E. 8th Portland, OR 97211 503/288-5995 In most places, people living on limited incomes who need health care are in a bind. In Portland, they can go to the Health Help Center. The nonprofit center imposes no criteria for use but requests nominal donations and suggests that people with health insurance go elsewhere. No one is ever turned away. Although outreach focuses on Northeast Portland, people come from all over the city and even from the Puget Sound area. From July 1980 to June 1981,1,991 people used the medical clinic, 1,183 information and referral calls came in, and 250 new clients used the family counseling service. Two-thirds of the people who come into the clinic haven't been there before. "The clinic handles screening and treatment of initial problems, and then patients are plugged into something ongoing," explains Mary Anderson, volunteer information coordinator. "This is supposed to be a funnel, not continuing health care and not for chronic health problems, since patients see a different doctor every time." In today's political climate, the center is flourishing. "When we hear of government programs being cut, the attitude here is that we'll just have to expand," Mary states with irrepressible 74 Labwork at the Health Help Center optimism. "We're seeing the impact here—calls are increasing. Government doesn't have a sense of itself as a preserver of the public good anymore. Now the things we've assumed government takes responsibility for—schools, social security—are being cut." Government cutbacks and a dying parish led to the founding of the center as an information and referral service in 1972. Model cities programs were leaving Portland and parishioners were leaving St. Andrews Catholic Church. The pastor. Father Bert Griffin, decided to act on his philosophy of what a "church" is. As Mary interprets it, "a parish could grow if it weren't ingrown, not closed and contained, but like a funnel reaching out into the community. People started coming from all over to hear him preach and get involved." St. Andrews now makes its buildings available for community use, runs an alternative community school, gives away free clothing, opens a food pantry during emergencies, provides tutoring and supervised homework for adolescents, operates a legal clinic and the health clinic. "If the government were running this it'd cost a million dollars. We're running it on a pittance." The Health Help Center runs on $35,000 to $40,000 a year. Most of that goes for paperwork. The church donated the building, a comfortable and homey two-story house. All of the contents of the house and the medical supplies come in as donations, too. Carl Killian, one of the pharmacists, "spends twenty to thirty hours a week scrounging. He can take absolutely anything and trade it. (How many 100 cc syringes can you use?)" All the volunteers and their friends keep their eyes open for supplies. Over 200 people volunteer. The clinic is staffed at all times by a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a lab technician, a counselor, a receptionist and an information and referral person. Many of the people who work here were involved from the beginning. As Mary puts it, "People are looking for a place where they can be better utilized—not just to do a good deed for the day but to give of themselves. The volunteers have respect for the people they serve. We're not a charity; we're a service for enabling people to care for themselves by providing the tools and resources they need. It's so much fun!" Portland Saturday Market 108 W. Burnside Portland, OR 97209 503/222-6072 Drab asphalt lots under a downtown bridge, populated by Skid Row denizens during the week, become an outdoor fair every weekend from April until ChristJudith Rafferty
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