Sandy Action Center Continues Mission From Since 1961

By Abby Haney

Photo of the outside of the Sandy Action Center in 1993. They provided a food pantry for low income families as well as a thrift store, two aspects that remain to be there today.

Getting and eating food everyday is something many people take for granted. However, for some, it’s a struggle to provide food for themselves and their families. In Sandy though, the Sandy Action Center works to help provide families the support they need, currently serving about 350 households per month. 

The Sandy Action Center began in 1961 with a group of friends, Pete and Helen Sulzbach and Frank and Jayce Marcy, who sought to help migrant workers. They were concerned since some of the housing and resources they were being provided wasn’t adequate enough to support workers and their families.

“They started out of one of their garages,” Sandy Action Center Director Kirsten Pitzer said. 

“They were just collecting food, blankets and toiletries, storing them in the garage and then once a week, they would drive to the farms and distribute them out of the trunk of their cars.” 

Eventually, however, the amount of food and items they were holding outgrew the size of the garage. To keep up, the Sulzbachs and Marcys acquired a storage space that held the food. The Sandy Action Center kept growing until, in 1983, they were awarded a Clackamas Building and Development Grant, which allowed them to purchase a building to fully set up shop in. 

The building they purchased was owned by an individual person. What made this odd, was that the building used to be a post office. 

“The building was actually privately owned by an individual person, even though it’s kind of weird that you’d think a post office would be housed in something privately owned,” Pitzer said. 

The Sandy Post Office currently resides on Wolf Drive but beforehand, it was located in the Sandy Action Center’s space. This move was made not long ago, with many citizens remembering the old post office location. 

A “thank you” note written in 1994 by past director of the Sandy Action Center, Sheri Baker, to those who donated products for holiday baskets. The food basket allowed for a special Christmas for those who are less fortunate and brightened their holiday season.

The Sulzbachs and Marcys continued to want to improve the Action Center so they made it into a non-profit, which it still remains today. This opened up new opportunities for them to help more families. 

“It’s a lot greater access to funding. People want to hear that you’re a non-profit,” Pitzer said. “They want to see certain things before they donate and they want to make sure their money is going to a place that is able to manage it.

While the size and location of the Sandy Action Center has changed, the mission has not. It still focused on providing hunger relief. 

“As far as our mission is to provide hunger relief and so we try to do everything through that lens of hunger relief and we try to stay pretty specific,” Pitzer said.

In order to further the mission, Sandy Action Center partnered with Oregon Food Bank over a decade ago. When the friends first began, they relied on donations. While the action center still takes donations, they need more in order to provide to everyone. The partnership with Oregon Food Bank opened up doors and allowed them to provide food for all of the homes. 

“They relied on donated food and we still have a lot of donated food but we could never operate the pantry out of what’s just donated,” Pitzer said. 

Front of a nomination form filled out in 1996 by past Sandy Action Center director Sheri Baker. She nominated the four friends, Pete and Helen Sulzbach and Frank and Jayce Marcy, who started the action center for their service to helping the lives of those less fortunate.

The focus for the Sandy Action Center remains food, but they have also expanded to include a thrift store. However, food continues to take up most of the shop space.

“We have found, especially because of our building size, we have to just focus on food,” Pitzer said. “The thrift store is a handy thing to have but it's not the mission.” 

Over time the way the Sandy Action Center distributes food has evolved. It started as food boxes delivered to families' houses, then a closet of dry goods but now, it’s a self-pantry where the client gets to choose their products.

“We feel that having a self shop pantry provides people more dignity in their experience because we’re not telling them what they should eat. They’re being able to choose for themselves,” Pitzer said. 

Today, families who are eligible due to their low income or receive support from the government, are able to pick up a food box and clothing card from the Action Center every 30 days on Wednesdays or Fridays. Sandy Action Center also partners with Mainspring to provide low income seniors with a box of food every month. Finally, once a week, a home-cooked meal and dessert is served at the Sandy Community Church for participants, no charge included, which the Action Center sponsors.

For 64 years, the Sandy Action Center has been providing relief to families in town. While some may overlook the importance of the organization, it is a vital piece of the town. It was in the past, it is today and will continue to be a pillar for the Sandy community. If you want to help, the Action Center is always looking for volunteers or donations. 

Abby Haney is the Editor-In-Chief at Sandy High School for the Pioneer Press and is a writer at large for The Sandy Historical Society.