PERRYDALE, Ore. — Food For All, the Perrydale FFA-led effort to collect, package and deliver this year nearly 190 tons of farm-grown fresh fruits and vegetables to 8,000 needy families statewide, had a new challenge this year — COVID-19.

Coronavirus concerns have kept students away from the seven Lower Willamette FFA District schools involved in the Food For All packaging efforts.

At Central High School in mid-December, two of the school’s custodians, two ag teachers and two English teachers were among a group of 10 or so who were sorting large donations of onions and apples into family-sized net bags for delivery to families throughout the state.

“We’re doing pretty well with no students this year, where we usually have over 200 students a day at this time,” said Abby Chase, one of Central’s ag teachers.

Food For All, now in its 22nd year, was begun at Perrydale by Kirk Hutchinson, then the school’s ag adviser, with one donated 1,000-pound bag of spuds from a potato chip producer in Salem.

Hutchinson now acts as the coordinator of the program and is aided by Perrydale’s current ag adviser, Christina Griffin, and by the ag staff and FFA students in the other six district schools — Willamina, Dayton, Sheridan, Yamhill-Carlton, Central and Dallas.

“Businesses, some students, teachers, community members, FFA alumni — all these groups are coming together to make Food For All work this year,” Hutchinson said. “That is so amazing, especially in the political climate that we’ve been through in the last few months, that all the people have forgotten about their differences and come together for a common cause.

“Nobody’s thinking anything but ‘People need food, and what can we do to make things happen?’” he said.

Perrydale’s FFA members are the mechanism that keeps the machine running, as they start each Food For All yearly drive in mid-November and work through Dec. 23 on the various tasks necessary for a successful drive.

The members give presentations each year to community members and businesses to solicit help with the program. Sixteen-year-old Cora Gleason, a Perrydale FFA member, related some of the pitch they made to locals they hoped to enlist in the effort.

The three legs of the program, she explained to them, are “collection, packaging and distribution” of fresh food.

After contacting businesses and farms that have donated to Food For All in the past, she said, food is picked up and dropped off at one of the partner schools.

Packaging the fresh produce into smaller bags takes place immediately, “and we then haul it to food banks, churches and other organizations so it is able to go directly to families,” Gleason said.

“Most of the people we give food to cannot access the food bank system,” Hutchinson said, “Elks Clubs, Eagles Clubs, Knights of Columbus and churches just adopt these families and get food from the Oregon Food Bank. So our little niche is giving these fresh fruits and vegetables that we have access to as agriculturalists.”

In all respects, and despite the pandemic, lack of a large workforce and other challenges, this still will be a successful year, Hutchinson said.

“We have more food packed right now than we’ve ever had on this date (Dec. 11) in the history of Food For All,” he said.