“Don’t plan your wedding on a Saturday in the fall and expect me to show up,” says Tanner Faris. Why not? He’ll be at the football game. While campus is waking up and shaking off Friday night, Faris will be lined up outside Autzen – six hours before kickoff.

Even though he’s only in his second year here at the UO, Faris has made a name for himself as an Oregon superfan and Pit Crew figurehead. A Duck from birth, it didn’t take long for Faris to find the spotlight and for it to find him. By the winter of his freshman year, ESPN cameras were honing in on Faris and his trademark steel “O” in the front of the crowd.

Faris doesn’t only just show up at his convenience.

“I guess I do plan my falls more than a couple of years in advance,” he said. He keeps Saturdays and Thursdays open throughout the fall, and makes sure to avoid conflicts during the winter so that he can plan his day around basketball, both men’s and women’s.

Preparation is one thing, and then there’s game day. “I just get as ridiculous as possible,” he said.

“He’s crazy – let’s just put it that way,” said Katherine DuPont, Faris’ friend and fellow Duck fanatic.

Sean Larson, like many of Faris’s friends, met the fanatic in line for a basketball game. “If I had to describe Tanner, I’d say passion is a good place to start,” he said.

Faris’ screams and chants fill Autzen Stadium, Matthew Night Arena, PK Park and Hayward Field regardless of the score. “No matter what team, no matter what day, you can count on him to be there to cheer on the Ducks,” Larson said. He’ll be the first one in and the last one out of the stadium, proudly singing “Mighty Oregon” and cheering for his team with crazed passion. When Faris finally heads home, long after the casual fans, he starts looking towards his next event.

“You can always count on him to be there, supporting every sport the school has, from men’s basketball to acrobatics and tumbling,” Larson said. “It doesn’t matter what the sport is — he is loyal to this school and that loyalty shows on game day.”

Faris attends his classes and pursues a degree like everyone else, but he always keeps his Ducks close. “I wear (Duck gear) every single day of the week … I was actually just looking over my closet and I realized I don’t own anything that’s red or blue,” he said.

While Faris is an extreme example of involvement, and not everyone can commit to Oregon athletics the way he does, his passion can certainly be shared by everyone.

Put yourself out there. Show up at football games with your face painted and a clever sign condemning a sub par Pac-12 opponent, but make a point to cheer on our nationally ranked volleyball, softball and baseball programs, too. Challenge yourself to bury your blues and reds, definitely throw out your oranges and blacks, and don’t be afraid to show your “O.”

More than anything, Faris embodies a love for his Ducks unlike any other. “He’s one of the craziest, most passionate Duck fans I have ever met,” Du Pont said. “He’ll definitely leave a lasting impression.”

You don’t have to show up as early or as often as Faris, but make sure you attend an Oregon sporting event every now and then, and wear your green and yellow proudly when you do. Don’t be afraid to let loose when the much-anticipated kickoff, tip off or first pitch rolls around.

If you think love for your team isn’t enough and want to take your passion to the next level – Faris’ level — he is looking for a “superfan intern.” For any interested, there’s no résumé or interview required — just show up early and look for the guy with the steel “O” and the fedora. If you don’t see him, you’ll certainly hear him.

DuckLife is the Emerald’s magazine for incoming freshmen, made available during IntroDucktion. This story has been reprinted from the magazine in its original form.

The community garden brings healthy alternatives to University students. (Alex McDougall/Emerald)

What started as a vacant plot of land is now home to 24 garden beds, dozens of varieties of produce and around 60 of the UO’s most avid gardeners.

Edible Campus, a year-old initiative formed to bring gardening opportunities to campus, did just that when it got The Grove up and running this fall. The Grove is the University’s very own community garden where students, staff or faculty can rent one of 24 beds for the year and grow any crops they want.

Edible Campus received a grant from the ASUO over-realized fund last spring and signed a three-year lease for The Grove’s plot on 18th Avenue and Moss Street. Though the initiative can only guarantee the garden’s existence for the next four years, Tristan Fields, the graduate fellow who brought The Grove to life, hopes it will be around for much longer. “In the future, we’re hoping that it’s a full garden — and it’s a really successful garden — so that it never goes away,” she said.

The new initiative is housed in the UO Sustainability Center and uses the urban farm as an umbrella program.

While the hope for the future is heightened involvement, the year-old group certainly has no reason to complain after its first year. Fields was able to fill all 24 of her beds with individuals or groups from the campus community. “It’s definitely full,” she said.

Though the initiative directs the majority of its energy toward its 24 beds and 60 gardeners, Edible Campus has plans to make a noticeable impact in the heart of campus. “Instead of empty grass lots … we might have fruit trees — so that the whole campus becomes more of an agrarian ecosystem,” Fields said, highlighting in particular the vacant field in front of Johnson Hall.

With a successful first year nearly in the books, Edible Campus looks to broaden its impact on campus and certainly hopes to see more eager faces and dirty fingers at The Grove in the fall.

All four members bring something unique to the group, but it’s their collective passion for collaboration and selfless sharing of expertise that makes Harmonic Laboratory successful. The four-year-old multidisciplinary art collective, which has already made a name for itself within the University of Oregon community, is set to take its intermedia collaboration to the next level this weekend with Four Corners — an evening of music, dance and digital media.

The event, a multimedia experience that seamlessly weaves what are often considered distinct fields of art into one spectacle, takes center stage at the Hult Center’s Soreng Theater Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m.

“You’re not going to find something like this in the area; it’s unique and one of a kind,” said Jon Bellona, one of the group’s digital artists and composers.

Bellona was the last to join the group, but his role as an intermedia artist is as important as anyone else’s. The group was founded in 2009 when Brad Garner, John Park and Jeremy Schropp put their heads together to heighten the artistic involvement in a piece Garner dreamed up about volcanoes — Harmonic Tremors. Since that first performance, the group has fine-tuned its definition of collaboration and is putting together what members hope will be an unforgettable show at Four Corners.

“We’re ramping up the real-time live element and making this a much bigger and more interactive performance,” said Schropp, the group’s primary musician and composer.

Four Corners, which debuts Friday evening at the Hult Center, demands the flawless coordination of 30 individuals, each working to intensify the performance with the artistic specialty he or she brings to the table. The event features two popular local bands — Hamilton Beach and Medium Troy — as well as nine dancers, a string octet and guest performers from as far away as New York City.

Although not many artists work together the way these four do — considering that this type of collaboration demands a selflessness that few possess — Harmonic Laboratory has managed to make itself comfortable in a relatively empty niche.

“A big part of the collaboration has to do with us being really flexible with each other and generous with our own knowledge … sometimes there might be kind of a conflict between what’s better for dance and what’s better for animation … and I need to be flexible and say, ‘I’m going to give this time to the dancers and pull back from the visual element of the work,’ and other times we’ll see if we can downplay the dance a little bit and bring up the visuals in the background,’” said Park, who works in the UO’s digital arts program. ”It’s about what’s best for the overall piece and how we can all be generous.”

Garner, who coordinates with the dancers and choreographs the movement elements of the production, says good collaboration requires a bit more motivation and communication than many performers consider.

“Our collaboration is not a gimmick; it’s an extension of each of our own art. We’re all accomplished artists and we’re choosing to come together because we believe that this is a valuable way of expressing new kinds of work. We believe that there is a kind of work that goes so far past your ego,” he said. “When you get in a circle and you all contribute to something, the result is very surprising — something none of us could make on our own.”

“It’s about how we can learn from each other and how that paradigm of learning actually is more productive than anything from the traditional model,” Schropp said.

Each of the four artists — the four corners of the group and the show’s namesake — has a focus, but they all believe that it is important to think of art forms more fluidly, without distinct divisions.

“Those categories that we’re supposed to specialize in are kind of breaking down across the world in disciplines and professions. We’re kind of expected to be more than just one thing,” Park said. “We want to show how artists can be more than one group — and that extends to anyone’s life, regardless of whether you’re a digital artist or not. We’re living in a world now where the disciplines are just crumbling.”

Timing, precision and teamwork are all essential for the event to run smoothly. Bellona, Garner, Schropp and Park must ensure that each component — be it a dancer, a melody or even a heart rate monitor reworked to produce music — is synchronized with the others to fully enhance the experience for audience members.

Nathan Asman, who founded the local livetronica band Hamilton Beach, is one of these key components. He has been a part of intermedia productions before, but “never anything quite like this.”

“This is kind of taking it to the next level in terms of creativeness … it’s such a cool combination of different art forms,” he said. “It’s not your everyday show.” 

Four Corners is Harmonic Laboratory’s first real leap out of the UO community — where Park, Bellona and Garner currently work and where Schropp received his Ph.D. — and into the broader Eugene community. Although this is their first large-scale show away from the University, the artists still hope to inspire those back on campus.

Garner, an assistant professor of dance at the UO, hopes his performance will be a good example for his students. “It’s important to have your professors model the kind of behavior you want your students to carry on … it’s kind of ‘practice what you preach,’” he said.

“Some people might be really interested in dance, for example, but might not know anything about electronic music,” Park added. “I think this is a chance for any student or faculty member to understand the connections between these mediums.”

Harmonic Laboratory will push traditional perceptions of art by pulling music, dance and digital media together to give contemporary meaning to “collaboration.” Objects not often associated with these experiences (think Xbox Kinect or a heart-rate monitor) are integrated into the performance.

“It’s really gonna be a kick-ass show,” Bellona assured.

We all have our favorites. When we go out to dinner, we usually play it safe and pick a restaurant we know and love. But in a city with a nationally renowned up-and-coming food scene, why shouldn’t we broaden our horizons? What if you chose a restaurant completely at random? Better yet, what if an expert selected four of Eugene’s finest eateries and led you between them in one night of gastronomical utopia? Say hello to Dishcrawl.

Dishcrawl, a restaurant tour that has swept the nation, will make its debut here in Eugene on Wednesday. Four restaurants, all of which are kept a secret until 48 hours prior to the event, will serve their trademark dishes to a group of between 25 and 40 adventurous customers. The guests will make their way on foot between the restaurants, stopping for food, drink, conversation and dessert along the way.

“It’s a personal, VIP experience for all the guests,” said Rosalie Ruff, Eugene’s Dishcrawl ambassador.

Each restaurant’s chef and owner will address the group and discuss their restaurant and the plate in front of the customers. “They really enjoyed seeing who made their food,” said Sara Figueroa, who coordinated a Dishcrawl event in Portland, stressing that this intimate experience is one of Dishcrawl’s highlights.

“I haven’t heard of anything quite like this,” Ruff said of the event’s uniqueness. “You’re basically out to try food at four different restaurants. There’s no strings attached or anything.”

“I don’t know of anything that’s as simple and as easy and user-friendly as Dishcrawl.”

Forty-five dollar tickets to Wednesday’s event are available to everyone — adults, children, couples, individuals, groups of friends, fine-diners and casual eaters — until the day of the event. “We have an eclectic lineup,” she said. “You’re going to be experiencing something fairly nice, or maybe something kind of hole in-the-wall.”

The food is certainly the focal point of the evening, but it isn’t the only reason Dishcrawl has found success throughout the U.S. and Canada. “It’s not just about the food,” Ruff said. “It’s about the experience.”

“What we are really trying to do is get people out of their favorite restaurants,” Ruff said. “It’s really about getting you out of your bubble.”

Ruff and a few dozen optimistic eaters will get out of their bubbles Wednesday at 7 p.m. If exploring Eugene’s top restaurants for a night of food and friends sounds up your alley, lace up your walking shoes and join them.

You might have eyed the Mountain Tees, and maybe you thought about buying a piece of jewelry for Mother’s Day, but let’s be honest — you spent most of your time and a painful amount of money at the Street Faire’s food carts.

Some of you might still be savoring the barbecue flavors, while others might be praying gastrointestinal discomfort doesn’t settle in and keel you over for the rest of the week. Let’s take a look at your choices and break down the best and the worst of the Street Faire food.

The logical place to start is with the barbecues. Long lines, full plates and greedy odors make these carts staples of the faire; while most are delicious, not all are fair to their price tag. Philyaw’s Cookout, for example, lures in customers by being the first cart on the strip. Its hefty servings, aesthetically-pleasing cart and friendly staff make it tough to pass — but $11 and $12 for pulled pork?  Philyaw’s isn’t worth your stop.

Bates Steakhouse, on the other hand, is. Not only does Bates take the cake here, its mouthwatering tri-tip sandwich at a respectable $8.50 runs away with it. If you weren’t fortunate enough to stop here, it might be worth swinging by their Broadway location downtown.

If you didn’t get barbecue, you probably (and hopefully) got teriyaki. Oriental Village, Taste Korea and Aloha Grill make it hard to go wrong — but Aloha Grill is clearly the fan favorite. With incredible dishes around $6 across the board, the Hawaiian teriyaki joint is one of the faire’s most popular eateries.

When it comes to Mexican food, the line isn’t so blurred: Between Saritza’s Mexican Food and Java Oasis, I hope you can discern whose Mexican is more authentic from the names; Saritza’s is affordable and popular. Java Oasis’s nachos will strike a painful resemblance to those you regrettably bought at Autzen Stadium, and though the name implies coffee, its fare will make you wonder if a stadium concession stand relocated to East 13th Avenue for the weekend.

But maybe you weren’t so hungry and decided to enjoy the weather and ambiance with something cold. Between ice creams, shaved ices and frozen bananas, Red Wagon Creamery’s artisan ice cream drew lines much longer than Larson’s Fine Candies or its other competitors. It continues to be one of Eugene’s finest hot-weather pit stops.

On the snack end of things, Larsen’s Fine Candies’ caramel apples, The Divine Cupcake and Le Crepe made things tough on potential buyers and, quite honestly, it would’ve been hard to go wrong depending on your mood. For me though, the fresh fruit and irresistible Nutella made Le Crepe my snack stop of choice.

Though the Street Faire came and went, each of these carts has a permanent location around Eugene, so look them up and give them a try if you weren’t able to during the past week.

Fast, order-at-the-counter service often connotes poor quality — but Kopi-O is setting out to change that assumption in Eugene. Despite officially opening its doors just last Monday, the Southeast Asian cafe is already set to make an impact on the local food scene.

“We want to become a neighborhood restaurant,” said Aaron Ismail, who handles the business side of the restaurant.

Ismail is just one important piece of the family-run restaurant — his father, Kopi-O’s head chef, made a name for himself at various restaurants around town during the family’s 20 years here in Eugene. “(Opening his own restaurant) was a dream he had always had, and we think that Malaysian food is definitely unique,” he said. “We wanted to bring something new and fresh to the community.”

These “new and fresh” dishes might be unfamiliar to Kopi-O first-timers, but Ismail and his family know that Eugene has room for everything under its gastronomical umbrella, and they are excited to bring their new flavors to an adventurous audience.

While Eugene is home to restaurants of nearly all ethnicities, Kopi-O hopes to create its own niche.

“It’s a casual restaurant with a nicer environment,” Ismail said. While the quick preparation, lack of table service and under-10-dollar entrees evoke a laid-back feeling, the almost-upscale environment creates a contrast that doesn’t yet exist in the area. “The goal is to have good food in a really comfortable environment.”

The food blends flavors from Malaysia and Singapore and dares to disregard the fine American divides between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Staying true to southeastern Asian culture rather than conforming to U.S. norms, Kopi-O isn’t shy to serve egg dishes for dinner and noodle dishes for breakfast.

The restaurant, which seats between 35 to 40 patrons, hopes to lure customers with its unique balance of casual and formal.

“There’s a great environment there,” Ismail said. ”It’s a great fit for Eugene.”

Kopi-O is located at 1530 Willamette St. 

Farmers and local food enthusiasts go up in arms when they feel that the federal and state governments are hindering their freedoms. That’s exactly what happened when the Senate committee passed SB 633 by a narrow 3-2 vote on April 11.

But those protesting the bill, who will take their complaints to its first public hearing on May 12, may not fully understand its intentions. SB 633 certainly deserves a closer look.

The bill essentially gives the state government the ability to decide what can and can’t be grown in each of its counties and prevents county and city governments from making similar regulations. At first glance, it appears as though this bill strips local farmers of a basic right to decide what they grow — but it’s important to understand why the bill was brought before a senate committee in the first place. Is it really just an attempt to strip individuals of their freedoms and give more power to the political machine?

Like most bills that give the state a broader authority, SB 633 was proposed with a specific goal in mind. The bill is a reactionary measure to a recent development in Jackson County.

Jackson County citizens recently pushed for a measure that would ban the production of any genetically-engineered crops in the county for the May 2014 ballot. This measure, while purifying the quality of local crops, would dictate what farmers can and can’t grow — which is exactly why people are enraged about SB 633. A bit hypocritical, right?

The bill, more than anything, is a preventive measure. It strips counties and cities of the right to implement liberty-removing legislation on their citizens. The state government fears that if Jackson County votes in favor of the GE ban, the rest of Oregon will follow suit and that Oregon will ultimately be a GE-free state whose farmers have no freedom.

While a GE-free state is great in theory, Oregon needs to be able to grow cheap produce that can be shipped across the country, and even overseas, in order to survive economically. Unfortunately, this often calls for genetically-engineered crops. While more and more people, and even countries, are recognizing the nutritional and ecological value of non-genetically engineered crops, there is still an economic market for this sort of produce, and farmers should have the right to grow crops the way they want to.

Still, local farmers argue that counties should be able to govern themselves and the state should stay out of local affairs — which is ironic because just eight years ago small-scale farmers were praising the Oregon Department of Agriculture for playing “Big Brother.”

When counties recognized the invasive nature of canola, which can easily cross-pollinate with an array of other crops, the ODA came to the rescue with the Willamette Canola Ban in 2005. Though the ban is in jeopardy of being lifted and has seen its share of troubles, it is still effectively protecting local farmers by prohibiting the production of the problematic crop in nine counties in the Willamette Valley.

Fast forward eight years, and the ODA is all of a sudden the bad guy looking to hurt small-scale farmers. When you look a little deeper, the ODA seems to have the same principle in mind as in 2005: protecting farmers.

The bill is not, however, perfect. The issue lies in Oregon’s diversity — Oregon senators would be forced to make decisions for all of Oregon’s counties, despite drastic differences in climate and crops produced. That being said, and what many of the bill’s opponents don’t recognize, is that senators don’t need to make agricultural ultimatums. They simply need the power to prevent counties from making them.

Despite the fact that individual counties may be better equipped to make local decisions, SB 633 is necessary to prevent freedom-abolishing policies like that proposed in Jackson County. While people cry that the state is trying to dictate exactly what is produced — it’s looking to do just the opposite — it’s looking to stop counties who are trying to do exactly that.

Yes, the power SB 633 gives the state government is frightening, but for now, the bill seems to simply be a regulation that gives farmers freedom and lets them grow what they want before their counties tell them otherwise.

Usha Davis

Age: 37

Year: Senior

Major: Family and Human Services

Minors: Counseling Psychology and Women and Gender Studies

In addition to full-time studies at the University of Oregon and her position as a Ford Family scholar, Usha Davis is a mother and works at the Center for Family Development. She was nominated because of her ability to help people during life transitions.

Why did you choose the UO?

“I am at the university because I decided to honor my life’s calling,” Davis said of her decision to return to school.  After working a series of jobs, Davis decided to come to the UO to learn how to help youth coming out of foster care and transitioning into adulthood in order to “help them find the tools they need to get help and to be able to help themselves,” she said.

How are you going to change the world?

“I’m going to show up authentically with as much courage as I can to offer myself and guidance to other people. I want to change the world because I want to be able to give somebody everything that I needed and I was given.  I want to give back.”

“Organic” has certainly become a cultural buzzword in the last decade. Grocery stores have pulled industrialized produce off their shelves and restocked them with organic this-and-that in order to please their suddenly ethically conscious customers. Organic has become the be-all end-all stamp of sustainable agriculture and an instant guilt reliever for shoppers. But what exactly does it mean to be organic? And does the word get too much credit?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines organic as “a labeling term that indicates that the food or other agricultural product has been produced through approved methods that integrate cultural, biological and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity. Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation and genetic engineering may not be used.”

Like any national program with incentives for businesses, people cheat the system. Though disqualified people find a way, as they do in any system, to label their products as organic, the USDA’s current organic certification system is still the best way to indicate a farm’s sustainability on a national level. The system is not perfect — but it’s not the problem.

We are the real problem.

When the average shopper browses supermarket aisles, the organic label makes things easy — if it has it, the product is good. If it doesn’t, the product is bad. Unfortunately, we don’t take enough time to consider the enormous gray area before reaching for a piece of USDA-certified organic produce.

If you want the absolute freshest produce possible, the best place to grow it is undeniably your own backyard. This produce — which you could cultivate without pesticides, hormones or artificial radiation — would not be organic, however. Because unless you’re willing to fork over around $1,000 for a USDA worker to romp through your garden every year, your produce is technically not organic.

Now imagine that you want to start selling some of your produce at a local market. Your product, call it a tomato, now sits next to a basket of similar tomatoes flown up from California. Though your tomato was picked that morning, and it never endured boxed transport or the transfers associated with the trip, customers quickly reach for the Californian option because it has a big shiny sticker on it.

Movies like “Food, Inc.” and “Super Size Me,” as well as the horror stories associated with industrialized agriculture, have spurred the development of a committed organic counter-culture — a culture in which organic is always the best, and if it isn’t organic, we assume the worst.

This mentality groups both ends of the spectrum under the same label. There are, on one hand, the factory farms that pump their produce full of hormones and pesticides. On the other are individual farmers who sustainably harvest their own small plot of land, but for one reason or another aren’t willing to jump through the USDA’s certification hoops. Both of these groups, in the eyes of our organic-obsessed counter-culture, fit the same criteria: not organic.

So am I advocating a new labeling program? The Willamette Farm and Food Coalition (WFFC) is one step ahead of me.

Eugene’s Capella Market will roll out the WFFC’s brand new four-sticker program in the coming weeks. Products will be labeled with anywhere from zero to four stickers, which indicate how local the product is — if it was grown in the same county, state, geographic region or country. With this new system, customers can prioritize locality the same way they do an organic label with just a quick glance at the product.

Now let’s bring your tomatoes to Capella Market. Suddenly, shoppers need to stop and look because both products satisfy their shiny sticker complex. Perhaps in this moment’s pause, they might recognize that your tomato came from right down the road and that your farm is so small and unindustrialized that you didn’t pay a USDA employee to prove it.

The Willamette Farm and Food Coalition’s new program is a brilliant attempt to redirect consumer obsession with organic toward other important factors when assessing produce quality, such as locality — distance traveled is almost always inversely proportional to freshness.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with organic — organic is fantastic. But the next time you pace down an aisle and your hand shoots for the USDA-certified organic sticker, take a look at the tomatoes in the basket next to it, and realize that they could have been grown in your backyard (even if the WFFC isn’t there to tell you so).

When the former minister of the University of Oregon Episcopal Campus Ministry recognized a growing malnutrition problem on campus in the fall of 2011, he gave his garage a drastic makeover.  Along with volunteers eager to relieve hunger, the minister turned the space into the university’s own food pantry.

Every Thursday afternoon, Lane Community College, Northwest Christian University and UO students are eligible for a bag full of free food simply by showing their student ID to a food pantry volunteer.

These volunteers — of whom there are between 8 and 10 — explain the point system to each student and guide them through the pantry, helping them select from an array of produce, canned food, prepackaged meals, dairy products and cereals, among other foods.

Since partnering with FOOD For Lane County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting hunger in Lane County, last fall, the food pantry’s popularity has taken off.

“We’re still drawing people who’ve never utilized it,” said Reverend Doug Hale, the Oregon Episcopal Campus Ministry’s current minister. In fact, of the 45-65 students who take advantage of the service each week, roughly 20 of them are first-time visitors.

Since teaming up with FOOD For Lane County, the food pantry distributes 600 pounds of food each week, and though the service is available for any college student in the area, all but one or two each week are enrolled at the UO.

“The amount of food we distribute is significantly less than regular food pantries, but the difference is that students can come here every week,” Hale said, noting that larger food pantries typically limit customers to around 60 visits a year. At the University’s food pantry, students are eligible for free food each week throughout the year.

Jessica Wilson, a dietitian at the UO Health Center, has been helping out at the food pantry since its conception.

“My involvement is because some students don’t have enough money to eat,” she said. Wilson started noticing malnutrition issues at the Health Center and was instrumental in founding the food pantry. Now she coordinates, volunteers and manages the ministry’s operation.

As the food pantry finds its footing, and even eyes a remodel of its space at the hands of University architecture students, its goodwill has rippled through the community — Lane Community College and several other churches in the county have started their own food pantries in the last year.

“The awareness people have for this need has just kind of mushroomed,” said Hale, who continues facilitating the UO’s food pantry every Thursday from 4-6 pm at the ministry’s headquarters on 19th Avenue and Onyx Street.