The Path to Plenty Walk  drew  dharma people from across  Portland.
Photos by: Molly Bailen, Steven Diamond

Under a bright, crisp autumn sky on Nov. 15, nearly 80 members of Portland’s Buddhist communities gathered for Path to Plenty: A Walk to Support Food Security Worldwide.

After years without an in-person Portland-area hunger relief walk, the event felt less like a fundraiser and more like a homecoming. It was a return to shared purpose, friendship, and the simple joy of moving together with open hearts.

Participants from Portland Friends of the Dhamma, Oregon Buddhist Temple, No Rank Zendo, and Wise Spirit Buddhist Community came together in support of Buddhist Global Relief and Urban Gleaners. These two organizations work to alleviate hunger internationally,  and in the Portland metro area.

For longtime organizer Matthew Grad, the day carried a special significance.

“After several years apart, it’s deeply meaningful to walk together again,” he said. “There’s something powerful about moving side-by-side in the same space — it nourishes our sense of connection and community. Supporting Buddhist Global Relief and Urban Gleaners feels especially important now, with cuts to humanitarian aid worldwide. By helping to feed others, we also feed our own hearts.”

The morning of the walk began at the Portland Dhamma Center, shared home of Portland Friends of the Dhamma and Wise Spirit Buddhist Community. Participants gathered in the dhamma hall for opening reflections by the organizers. Alongside Matthew Grad, speakers included Carolyn Saiget of the Oregon Buddhist Temple, Keizan Gus Shaffer of No Rank Zendo, Molly Bailen of Wise Spirit Buddhist Community, and Lizz Marks of Urban Gleaners.

Shaffer offered a reading from Torei Zenji’s Bodhisattva’s Vow, highlighting the teaching that even basic human necessities are expressions of compassion and interdependence:

“Who is not reverently grateful for the protections of life: food, drink, and clothing,” the passage reads. “It is clear that these protections are nothing less than the warm flesh and blood, the merciful incarnation of Buddha.”

With that intention in their minds and hearts, participants set out from Portland Dhamma Center and made their way down Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, a lively stretch of cafés, bookstores, and shops. The weather was unseasonably sunlit, dry and warm enough for participants to take off coats — many attendees commented on their feeling of gratitude for such a gorgeous day for the walk.

The walk was not hurried. People strolled in small clusters, catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, or moving quietly in reflection. Though sanghas represented different traditions and lineages, the sense of unity was palpable.

“We represented a diverse group in sangha, geography, ethnicity, age, and physical ability,” Saiget said. “But that morning, we walked as one.”

For many, the most meaningful part of the day was simply being together after years in which communal gathering was difficult. Saiget, who helped organize the event for Oregon Buddhist Temple, said she expected participants would feel accomplished and grateful — but she was struck by how many described the experience as joyful.

“I didn’t anticipate how many participants would describe the walk as genuinely fun,” she said. “People left energized, inspired, and eager for more opportunities to gather and engage.”

That enthusiasm extended to representatives from Urban Gleaners, who emphasized how critical community support is at this moment.

“In the midst of SNAP benefit cuts, rising costs, and increased hunger in our community, we’re inspired by the response from local organizations to make a tangible and sustainable impact,” said Katy Hill, the group’s communications and development manager. “The Path to Plenty walk amplifies the need to address food insecurity at a local level, and we’re honored to be a part of it. Together, we can make “Food For All” a reality.”

While donations were still coming in at the time of writing, organizer Grad said he was confident the walk would meet or surpass its $5,000 fundraising goal. But he emphasized that the true impact of the day extended beyond numbers.

The walk rekindled bonds between sanghas, strengthened shared commitments, and brought forward a sense of collective possibility — the understanding that when communities join together, their compassion can ripple outward in ways greater than the sum of individual efforts.

Support from grassroots efforts like the Path to Plenty walk remains crucial, especially for Buddhist Global Relief, and Urban Gleaners, which address sustainable food security solutions.

Buddhist Global Relief works not by imposing solutions from outside, but by partnering with local organizations to create sustainable, community-led systems of nourishment. Its programs support school meal initiatives, agricultural training, food sovereignty projects, and education and livelihood opportunities for girls and women.

“In giving food, one gives life, beauty, happiness, strength, and mental clarity,” states the Anguttara Nikaya — a teaching that remains central to BGR’s mission. And at a time of international aid cuts, Path to Plenty Walk organizers said, the need for support has grown even more urgent.

Locally, Urban Gleaners carries out a complementary mission, rescuing surplus food from grocery stores, farms, restaurants, and schools and redistributing it to families facing food insecurity. Its work not only reduces waste, but nourishes thousands of Portland-area children, adults, and elders each week.

In support of these organizations,The Path to Plenty walk offered participants a chance to put their practice into motion — literally. It was a reminder that dana, the practice of generosity, is not abstract. It is footsteps on a sidewalk, hands reaching out, a community strengthening ties and creating new ones.

As the morning came to a close and walkers returned to the Dhamma Center for snacks and tea, many lingered — laughing, making plans, and continuing conversations that had begun along Hawthorne Boulevard. What they carried with them from the walk was more than the satisfaction of fundraising; it was a refreshed sense of the strength and nourishment that comes from sangha working together toward the well-being of others.

In the words of organizer Grad, “By helping to feed others, we also feed our own hearts.”