Food bank receives $8,000 from state.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

An unexpected $8,000 windfall almost had FOOD for Lane County spokeswoman Dana Turell in tears. Not because of the money - welcome enough - but because of the vote of confidence in the food bank, she said Monday.

The nonprofit agency is one of three beneficiaries of money distributed by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers.

The state had a total of nearly $68,000 from the settlement of charitable fraud cases, said spokeswoman Victoria Cox.

The Attorney General's Office regulates charitable activities, and the cases involved professional fund-raisers who had violated charitable solicitation laws, she said.

Some of the money came with strings attached, Cox said. Two cases stipulated that $34,859 go to organizations benefiting veterans, so the state handed over that money to the Oregon Veterans' Home.

Another case specified that $8,067 be distributed in Lane County, Cox said.

The agency decided that all of it would go to the food bank here, not only because of the continuing hunger problem facing Oregonians, but also because of upheaval at the food bank.

Friction over spending between Executive Director Caroline Frengle and the board of directors led to Frengle's dismissal in August. In the wake of that decision several board members resigned.

"We wanted to show our confidence in this organization," Cox said.

And that overwhelmed Turell. "I was stunned," she said. "I was speechless. It means so much that they want to give us this money. ... It's a vote of support and faith in us," she said.

The money will go into the general fund, which pays for delivery of food to those in need, Turell said. The remaining $24,931 from the Attorney General's Office will go to the Oregon Food Bank, Cox said.