COMMENT & VOTE BELOW

Fantastic organization and tireless advocate for the community of Beaverton!

Sharon received the 2009 SOLVE Award and Oregon Governors Volunteer Award for Lifetime Achievement! She is a national treasure residing in Beaverton.

Sharon is one of the most giving and positive people that I have had the pleasure to meet and know. I cast my vote for this award to Sharon Straus of Sunshine Pantry.

I have never seen anyone as sharing and giving as Sharon. She truly deserves to win this award!

"Auntie Sharon" is the best. Sunshine Pantry rocks!

Sharon Straus, her Father and Son are community heroes!!! Not only do they provide foods, some household sundry items and clothing, but Sharon instills the giving cooperative spirit amongst all her volunteers and she really shows appreciation for her volunteers. Sharon and her Family have my highest praise for all they do and give back to our community!

Sharon's organization supports 800 families in the community with only 1 paid staff member - the driver who runs around town picking up food that stores are donating. It is amazing what an incredible difference one person can make. She has positively affected over 25,000 people over the last 28 years, she is truly an Angel. Thank you, Sharon!

Sharon is an amazing woman! She gives 110 %! Her caring for others over all these years has meant so much to so many people! She has made such a difference to so many people over the course of her 25 years. Washington county is so blessed to have someone who gives so gives so much for others. She's my nominee a million times over! Thanks Sharon!

Sharon is the BEST!

I've heard SOOOO many wonderful things about Sharon....

Passionate and enthusiastic for serving the needs of her community, Sharon Strauss deserves the red dress award!

The moment i met Sharon, I knew she was special! Putting the needs of others above her own pretty much tells the tale. I can't imagine someone more deserving.

Sharon is such a kind-hearted, caring, and giving person altogether!! She has made such big difference to the community! I really think she deserves this award!

Sharon is such a kind-hearted, caring, and giving person altogether!! She has made such big difference to the community! I really think she deserves this award!

I have worked with Sharon through the community mental health agency I work for and she is a gem. There are not enough words to describe what a positive and caring person she is to everyone around her. She deserves this award 100%!

Mother Sharon is caring and sweet and Sunshine Pantry rocks!!!!!!

Sharon and her Sunshine Pantry help take care of people and children in need with food and even school supplies. Its a big undertaking, run by volunteers, and always could use another set of hands volunteering.

Sharon Straus and her Family are true community champions, not only by all they do to help expedite and provide foods and household items for needy people, but also in the many ways they inspire folks to volunteer and see the rewards of giving back to their community. Sharon also infuses the spirit of joy and fun into the Sunshine Pantry's volunteers---and Sharon very much appreciates her volunteers! My vote is for Sharon Straus and her Family for the Angel Award from the REd Dress Society of Oregon!

Well deserved.

Sharon is nothing short of extraordinary! Her own needs are on the back burner as she diligently provides for others day in and day out. Her Dad and her staff make everyone feel at home, safe, and valued. How to end world hunger???...clone Sharon!

Congrats......

I vote: auntie SHARON!!! ;-)

Sharon is a compassionate, humble pioneer for the people. She cares about lives... especially children and is driven to provide for those in need or simple people who need a hand up during difficult times. I appreciate her and her cause and trust that her life works are deserving enough to warrant the Angel Award from the Red Dress Society of Oregon. Thank you for recognizing Sharon, she is truly an angel.

Sharon is a wonderful person. She knows no limits to her ability to help people in need. It has been my pleasure to in a very small way contribute back to her and Sunshine Pantry by getting them in touch with FreeGeek for computers to help her help more people.

My wife and I look forward with delight to seeing her when we visit the pantry.

I consider Sharon a true blessing in my life. She has helped our family greatly when my husband was out of work for a time, and continues to be of help as I am unable to work because of a disability.

We also are looking for ways to contribute to her organization and directing people we meet in need to her.

We love you Sharon!!!

Sharon is an ANGEL! She deserves this! What an Amazing person!

I have watched the Sunshine Pantry grow from a few boxes of canned goods in our garage during the holidays to the full-blown enterprise it is today. My mom has done a tremendous job at providing a valuable asset to the Beaverton community.

It is wonderful to read about this Sharon. You are doing so much for so many.

I volunteer at the Sunshine Pantry & every day people thank Sharon for her dedication and hard work. Many of these people are middle class folks who have lost their jobs & are unable to feed their children. It's very hard for some of these people to ask for food. Sharon encourages groups to tour the pantry and she passes on her excitement for helping others to the next generation. Our little corner of the world is truly a better place because of Sharon.

Sharon is wonderful. The Sunshine pantry has been there when I needed it and I have appreciated Sharon's sweet smile and hard work.

Sharon helped me feed my family when I was in desperate need of help. She is truly a selfless angel.

Sharon deserves every accolade and more. She is an angel

The Sunshine Pantry is a great place to help those in need get clothing, food, house wares and school supply assistance. As Sharon says, "all you need is a box and a smile."

Sharon always has a bright smile and is willing to give until the need is met.

Sharon is one of the most kind and compassionate people I have ever met. She is a shining example of a person who uses her life to make a difference every day in everything she does.

Sharon is one of the most kind-hearted individuals I've ever had the good fortune of talking to; she looks past labels and social stereotypes to the true character of a person and truly reserves no judgments towards any of the people that walk through her doors. Thank you for giving me a chance, Sharon!

I have gone to Sunshine Pantry for a number of years, during a very trying time in my life while experiencing being targeted for unfairness,discrimination, and violence in my public housing, while trying to recover from a great deal of adversity, prior to moving in there, while trying to live on an income 'way below the poverty level, that has forced me to turn to a number of places for food in order to make it through the month. I have food stamps, but not enough to make it beyond the first week of the month, usually.

I greatly appreciate the kindness, gentleness, and unconditional acceptance of me as a client. at Sunshine Food Pantry, where I do not feel condescended to, or as if the staff seems to feel they are doing me a special favor, as if I were less human than they were, as I have at many other food pantries, and where I do not feel forced to take food that others decide to give me even if it puts me at risk of losing my feet, eyesight, or other major bodily functions, and therefore, my life, via diabetic complications brought on by white sugar, flour, rice and junk food.

I DEEPLY APPRECIATE the fresh produce, especially the dark green leafy vegetables, the organic health foods, the whole grain breads, the whole grains, dried beans, fat-free canned refried beans, the extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salad dressing, as well as toilet paper, soap, and shampoo and hair conditioner, donated clothing and bedding things that I DO need,

I love the donated flowers, too, food for the soul...

Word cannot describe the profound healing I have experienced, on all levels, including spiritual and physical, due to the kind, accepting, fair, inclusive, respectful, dignified treatment I receive at Sunshine Pantry from Sharon, her father, and her son, and from the volunteers, who are so loving and make every effort to accommadate me and other clients with our unique needs.

By contrast, I went to another food pantry, where I felt pressured to believe the same as the extremist discriminatory religious denomination providing the food, in order to get the food, and, therefore, only conditionally loved, and disrespected for who I am, and my spiritual path, and threatened with continued hunger if I did not convert to their beliefs.

I felt injured by this, because, as a child, I travelled to many parts of the world, and met many people of many different walks of life, and I felt loved by them, no matter what race or religion or sex or ethnic group I belonged to, and I loved them as part of my family.

It felt like a great privilege to know and feel safe with good, loving people all over the world, who loved me and I loved them, no matter what.

By contrast, when I go to Sunshine Pantry, I get this same unconditionally loved feeling, where all who pass through are treated with the utmost dignity, respect, honor, acceptance.

I love the extraordinary friendliness and peace that happens when the wide variety of clients rub shoulders at Sunshine Pantry, sharing kindness, safety, cooperation, and spreading goodwill.

I started out a married woman, but due to extreme, prolonged domestic violence, which came very close to ending my and my children's lives, I was forced to divorce when my children were toddlers. I raised them on my own, without child support, while injured by the domestic violence, and often enduring the scorn of many unkind, judgemental people, and enduring the impersonal, bureaucratic treatment so common when I have been forced to turn to them, as a last resort, for help.

Coming to Sunshine Pantry has supported me in healing deep wounds from the unkind treatment of people in the community I needed to feel safe with, but instead, found them harsh, judgemental, and excluding.

My experience at Sunshine Pantry has helped me be able to get up and try again, in hope, rather than giving up in despair, and brokeness, as an impoverished, now older, woman with bad credit, due to living through homelessness many times, [including starting with my toddlers through middle age, ] the way I felt like doing, when I first started coming there.

I am now starting to look for part-time work, with hopes of eventually working more, even in the face of added discrimination in the form of ageism, using the many gifts and talents I was given, and intend to contribute to my community, with love.

And I am recovering physically, as well.

And thus, my adult children, their loved ones, including my grandchildren, experience healing, as well.

I am very, very grateful to Sharon, her dad, and son.


P.S. Each time I visit with Sharon's dad, in his 80's, I am in awe of his
wisdom, kindness, and understanding. I feel very fortunate to have the
experience.

I want to add that as a nurturing mother and grandmother who loves and values life, and values supporting the highest potential of all people, the long-term sustainability of our Mother Earth home, and all of its living creatures; and knows in her heart we are all One and not separate from one another or the rest of life, I greatly appreciate Sunshine Pantry's founder Sharon Strauss, her father's, her sons' , the pantry's caring volunteers and supporters' concern for, real help of, and kind treatment of the children whose parents come to the pantry, especially because I know how much more children suffer in poverty.

All of our children, not just some of them, are our society's and worlds future.
There are long-term, far-reaching consequences as a result of how we treat them!