In 2024, BCS served an average of 886 households  each week. These family units came to us with an average of $25,000 worth of debt. Read more about living wages in the Portland Metro area. 

Birch serves 64 other nonprofit agencies and food pantries each week, reaching about 45,000 people.

Birch partners with 25 local farmers each week to reduce waste. We work hard to get food to households before expiration but anything remaining we provide to local farms for animals and composting. 

Over 300 generous food growers, processors, distributors, and retailers give food and household items to help working, struggling families. 

Every family who joins our Sustainable Families Program will have one-on-one meetings every six months with one of our financial counselors. These meetings result in a financial plan and strategy, tailored to drive individual families’ toward success. In addition to these valuable meetings we also had 637 class participants in our financial education courses.

As families work to pay off debt and save up for emergencies, we are seeing a net impact of $18,966 per family throughout their time on the program. 

BCS relied on 2,120 volunteers in 2023, including every participant’s family. This added up to 33,690 volunteer hours (a $673,800+ value!).