I walked in and there it was. The orange paper. The felt-pen printing. The lake of mistake in the middle. And it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.
Taped and retaped a few times but the message remained clear. If you need help, call The Pongo Fund. That big black section in the middle tries to hide an error but actually helps define the beauty of the wording.
Nothing needs to be perfect. It just needs to be.
The 100 year-old house sits along one of Portland’s most hurt stretches of community. The food pantry is in the basement. You enter through a thin aluminum screen door that has been opened so many times you almost expect it to open itself. And when it closes it closes with a smack. You walk through the kitchen, past a plate of three donuts cut into quarters.
The orange paper sign is one of the first things to greet at this small sanctuary of social service filled with food and clothing that welcomes about 100 people each week. Because of their location they get a large number of people who live outdoors.
Many of them with pets that fall asleep together at night counting the stars. Pets that are hungry and that’s why the sign tells them to call The Pongo Fund.
But that’s not good. Because these people then need to navigate another trek to get to our door. A trek sometimes too far for feet that have already walked miles.
And that’s why the orange sign remains but things are different now. Because this place now has shelves bursting with dog and cat food from The Pongo Fund. Waiting for those in need, two and four-legged alike.
Because sometimes a simple bowl of kibble can be the force that both keeps a family together and saves the lives of the animals they love.
As I left that day just a few days ago, a man walked in the door and asked for dog food. He softly said “Thank God” when they told him yes.
And this is why we Pongo.
Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. Bringing Hope. thepongofund.org
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