Born in Eugene, Jennifer Denson went to grade school at Spring Creek Elementary, then migrated with her family to Silver City, New Mexico, for middle and high school, plus a year of college at Western New Mexico University. “I took the basics,” she notes, “then ended up managing the family video store.”
She spent one year as a live-in nanny, then returned to home town Eugene for a year of study at Lane Community College. She escaped to Palm Springs for a year, then took a job in retail at Valley River Center and returned to LCC for a degree in early childhood education. “I taught preschool as a substitute for a while,” she continues, “then was hired by the 4J School District as an educational assistant in 2014. I began volunteering with Burrito Brigade around the same time.”
Burrito Brigade was a modest program, started earlier that year in a house in the Whiteaker neighborhood. A team of 10 to 15 volunteers gathered every Saturday to assemble vegan burritos and carry them out to nearby locations where unhoused people could be found. “A walking distribution where people are hungry,” Denson explains. “Everyone gets a burrito, no questions asked.”
In the winter of 2015, a Sunday brigade was added, with burritos assembled in the much larger kitchen of the First Christian Church in downtown Eugene, and in 2016 the Saturday brigade moved to Bethesda Lutheran Church in the Bethel neighborhood. Distribution was greatly expanded by volunteers with bicycles and cars. In 2019, the Little Free Pantry project was started. More than 50 of the weatherproof food boxes, stocked by volunteers on a weekly basis, are now in use in Eugene, Springfield and neighboring towns.
“In spring of 2020, when the pandemic hit, the churches closed down,” Denson recalls, “but people were still hungry. That’s when we launched Waste to Taste, our free grocery store project.” With funding from donations and local agency grants, the brigade was able to lease a building on West 6th Avenue and remodel its kitchen. “We got amazing kitchen equipment donated,” Denson says. “We’ve been in this building for all operations since 2022. I left my job at 4J and started getting paid, and we have two paid staff besides me.”
For information on Waste to Taste shopping hours (by appointment only), Little Free Pantry locations, and volunteer opps, visit BurritoBrigade.org.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519