Nick Furrow
When Eugene's annual Whiteaker Community Thanksgiving Dinner was called
off due to COVID last year, a group of neighbors in the Whit got
together to provide a traditional Thanksgiving meal to homeless campers
living under the freeway bridge at Washington-Jefferson Park. "A core
group of us formed The Way Home," says Nick Furrow, coordinator of the
grassroots homeless advocacy group, standing in front of The Way Home's
Free Store at 170 Monroe Street. "Our objectives are to continue
outreach, getting people what they most need, and to influence policy.
We push to have sanitized campsites with trash pickup and porta
potties." On Sunday, November 21, The Way Home held a tent drive,
accepting donations of serviceable tents to be given away to people in
need of housing. Eight tents were donated, along with 52 sleeping bags.
Furrow himself experienced a lesser degree of poverty as a child
growing up in semi-rural Pennsylvania west of Philadelphia. "I shared a
bedroom with two brothers and two sisters," he recalls, "and having
money for grocery shopping was a problem. It was stressful for a little
kid, but it influenced my empathy for the poor and their suffering."
His parents were pursuing their education at the time, and both became
professors, at Drexel and Swarthmore. "I got a scholarship from the
state of Pennsylvania and studied urban planning and art at Stanford,"
he reports. "The next years were a whirlwind of adventure: Italy, New
York City, Finland, Seattle, Portland, and now Eugene. I've been here
four years." Furrow began cooking as a young child, and most of his
work experience has involved food. "I helped a friend launch the Bounty
food truck at Beergarden on 6th Avenue," he notes, "and I was executive
chef at a large sorority." This year, Furrow and The Way Home
volunteers will cook 500 Thanksgiving meals and transport them to
encampments at Washington-Jefferson Park, 13th and Chambers, Owens
Loop, and to downtown Eugene.
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 24 November 2021
|
|
archive
contact