In the May 19, 2026 election, Lane County voters will have a chance to vote to renew the local option levy that funds Oregon State University’s Lane County extension service. Slow Food South Willamette is urging you to vote yes to support the Extension.

The Extension services are so very important to the community in ways we don’t think much of. Your Slow Food South Willamette Chair, Vanessa Salvia, is currently taking the Master Food Preserver class. She is also a supporter of a Food Pantry. As a volunteer in this program, she teaches people how to make healthy and easy meals using ingredients that are common in local food pantries.

The service teaches people about safe food preparation and provides this service to the community. Master Food Preserver volunteers work in the kitchen of Burrito Brigade, a local food rescue group, to prepare food that is given away in the pantry.

About 100 staff members maintain the Master Food Preserver program along with the Master Gardener, Compost and Pruning Specialist, Food Pantry, and Master Woodland Manager programs. 4-H and other youth programming is also an Extension service. In these programs, trained volunteers answer the community’s questions about how to safely defrost turkeys for Thanksgiving meals, answer questions about how to best manage trees on private properties, teach students how to successfully raise animals, and much more.

The levy would continue to support these programs and would also add a McKenzie area satellite office in addition to the Oakridge and Florence locations.

Since 2016, the Extension service has since used a local option levy, which accounts for 42% of its budget. If passed, the proposed levy will replace the expiring levy, which charges 2.8 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The new levy will charge 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.