By GEOFF PARKS

For the Capital Press

More than $1,100 raised by the Oregon Farm Bureau went toward a Feb. 18 shopping trip to provide food to the Portland area's two Ronald McDonald House Charities locations.

The event was in recognition of the Farm Bureau's Food Check-Out Week, which "aims at helping American consumers learn how to shop effectively to put nutritious meals on the table with fewer dollars," said Anne Marie Moss, OFB's communications director.

"Who better to highlight the importance of nutrition and healthy eating while on a budget than the farmers and ranchers who raise the food we eat every day?" she said.

The third week of February was selected by the American Farm Bureau for its nationwide Food Check-Out Week as a prelude to National Nutrition Month in March.

Food purchased by the four Farm Bureau volunteers -- including Moss -- at Haggen Foods in Tualatin went to the two Ronald McDonald House Charities that serve Oregon Health and Science University and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

RMH Charities provide a "home away from home" for the families of seriously ill children receiving medical treatment.

Moss was accompanied by OFB members Gerry Casale, Helen Bushue and Anne Rigor.

Since the program began in the mid-1990s, Farm Bureau members have donated more than $3 million in food and monetary contributions to RMH Charities and others during Food Check-Out Week, which is Feb. 17-23 this year, Moss said.

"Through charitable donations to local RMH Charities during Food Check-Out Week, we recognize the need everyone has to find solutions to feeding families healthy foods on a tight budget," Rigor said. She has been an OFB member since 1993.

The OFB group coordinates the food-buying event each year. Donations from individual county Farm Bureaus around the state were about $950 this year, Moss said. That money is added to funds from Country Store sales -- food brought and sold by farmers -- during the organization's December convention -- $200 this year.

Moss also said a June food-buying spree in Bend will aid the RMH Charities in that city.

"It takes about an hour-and-a-half for the food shopping at Haggen's," Moss said, checking off items from a one-page list of "grab-and-go" food items appropriate for the families of patients receiving care at the hospitals.

The group then traveled to the two RMH Charities locations to deliver the food.