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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 28, 2006 Charlie Saling, a community-service worker at the Gleaning Network, moves trays of donated bread into a walk-in refrigerator Thursday. The nonprofit will continue to use its Central Point site for food distribution but its thrift shop will relocate. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Nonprofit on the move Property’s new owners cite financial need to develop the facility By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT — Gleaning Network volunteers are packing up and preparing to say goodbye to their longtime familiar space off North Front Street. Thrift shop operations must be cleared out by March 15, but the property’s owners will permit the nonprofit to continue regional food distribution efforts there using the back half of the facility. The property, with a dirt lot and an ailing single-story structure, was sold in August by the Vella family, former owners of the Rogue Creamery, to a group of business partners that includes commercial real estate agent Tom Bradley and Creamery owners Cary Bryant and David Gremmels. Lori Norris, president of the Gleaning Network, said while the new property owners gave the Gleaners an option to stay, rent would have increased from $1,000 per month to more than $3,000. "The owners before were very generous and allowed us to stay for ‘x-amount’ of money," Norris said. "When the new owners bought the property, they needed to make more money so they wanted to raise the rent to well over $3,000. We were paying $1,000. So they gave us three months free rent and said, as of Feb. 1, it would go up. Advertisement "They did give us three months to decide what we wanted to do, but there’s just no way as a nonprofit organization we can pay that kind of money. Every dime goes into paying the rent and the insurance ... to make sure there is food for the people we help." The Gleaning Network accepts food that otherwise might go to waste from various sources and distributes it to those in need. Bradley said he and his business partners were forced to increase rent to cover the debt incurred in buying the building. To have the building "just sitting there," Bradley said, would have cost thousands of dollars. "In essence, we gave them a free ride for all of 2005 and asked them to come up with a plan to cover the cost of the building. We did not buy the property with plans to use it right away � when they could not come up with a plan, we offered free use of the loading docks to continue distributing food," Bradley said. "... But to cover the costs of carrying that operation, we need to rent out the front of the building." With growth and change in store for the Rogue Creamery, marketing and merchandising director Francis Plowman said the creamery, which owns a share in the property, is considering a combined retail space with an Italian focus that could include a caf�, Italian wine and cheese sales and other uses. "We’ve been developing Italian concepts for several years � Some of our ideas are to expand the Italian concept with cheeses, wine, olive oils and vinegars � it could include a quick lunch kind of thing, coffee � maybe even an education center for Italian products. There are a couple different things we’d like to do now that we own the space." Bradley and Plowman said the property owners had been generous in supporting the Gleaners, financially and otherwise. Bradley said Thursday that he and his partners are hopeful that allowing the Gleaners a free space would eliminate the need to focus so strongly on the thrift store operations that supported food distribution. Norris said the Gleaners have tentatively secured a new location for the thrift shop. "We haven’t signed the final papers yet, but we’re planning to move," she said. "The thrift shop is packed up and ready to move out. "The move will, maybe, affect us for a short time. Any time you move there is a certain adjustment period. As far as the food going out, we’ll continue the way we are right now. We’re in three counties and we have a lot of families depending on us. It’s like anything else; it’s going to be different, but we’ll keep on trying. That’s all we can do, really." Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Computer Security Discount Hotel Reservations Casinos Canada dvd-r Generic Viagra Myspace Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Online Casino Fundraisers Student Loans Sudoku Online Advertisement s Advertisement