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37 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, November 26, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 25, 2004 Coho giveaway aids Oregon’s needy Cole Rivers Hatchery, Oregon Food Bank team to feed thousands Outdoor Journal By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune The Rogue River’s cornucopia of coho salmon is providing a good source of protein for thousands of hungry Oregonians again this fall. Cole Rivers Hatchery workers last week supplied 2,700 excess hatchery coho toward the Oregon Food Bank program that distributes excess coho from state-run hatcheries to the state’s needy. The Cole Rivers fish are killed and processed by American/Canadian Fisheries, a Bellingham, Wash., company that also buys other excess hatchery fish for processing as food and other fish products. The company processes the fish free of charge, giving the food bank the meat in 1-pound, vacuum-sealed fillets. So far, about 40,000 pounds of processed coho fillets have been distributed statewide through the Oregon Food Bank, says Carolyn Brown, the Oregon Food Bank’s resources coordinator. Advertisement "That’s a lot of protein and it’s good, healthy protein for the people we serve," Brown says. "Protein is one of the hardest things to get donated, so we’re happy to get such an excellent source." Locally, processed coho are distributed through ACCESS Inc. A new national survey shows Oregon remains one of the hungriest states in the country. Almost 13 percent of Oregon households still reported having difficulty providing food for all members of the family during at least one point of the year. This is the fourth year the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has distributed its excess coho to the state’s hungry residents through the food bank. So far this year, 80,560 pounds of coho fillets have been donated, the most since the first-year record of about 120,000 pounds of fillets in 2001. At 4-ounce servings, the program has supplied more than 322,000 meals to Oregon’s needy statewide. The Sandy Hatchery leads the way this year, providing 31,853 pounds to date, Brown says. The next highest is Bonneville Hatchery, which has supplied 12,109 pounds, she says. Cole Rivers, along the upper Rogue near Trail, has supplied just shy of 8,000 pounds of fillets, Brown says. The 2,700 fish supplied at Cole Rivers is just the first of many expected there, hatchery manager Randy Robart says. "We’re well above what we had at this time last year, and we even have at least another thousand available for American/Canadian right now," Robart says. Last year, Cole Rivers supplied 5,146 excess fish. The fish are not weighed at the hatchery, which logs its Oregon Food Bank donations only by the number of fish. Robart believes this year’s run is strong enough for the hatchery to eclipse last year’s giveaway. The fish are considered "excess" because they are salmon not caught by sport or commercial fishermen — the two entities for which they are raised and released annually — and are beyond the numbers needed to spawn for the next coho crop. The fall coho giveaway traditionally has occurred at hatcheries like Cole Rivers since the early 1990s, when food processors stopped offering competitive bids for excess hatchery coho. When the bids dropped well below $1 apiece, hatcheries began to provide free salmon to local charitable organizations, whose own volunteers took the carcasses and cleaned them before distributing them whole to needy families. The ODFW, however, turned to the Oregon Food Bank to streamline the giveaways as well as create a way for the fish to reach needy Oregonians statewide instead of just those near coho-rich hatcheries. In exchange for processing the excess coho, American/Canadian Fisheries keeps the carcasses and roe. The roe is sold as fishing bait, and the carcasses are sold in various fish-product markets. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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