A $460,000 Plan to Keep This Building Running When the Grid Goes Down
An emergency resource center is not much use during a long power outage.
Refrigerators shut off and food begins to spoil. The well pump stops, cutting off access to water. Phones cannot charge. Radios and communications equipment go offline. The lights are out, heating and cooling systems stop working, and fire and security systems lose power.
That is the problem IVFC is working to solve, and it is why we are pursuing the largest infrastructure project in our organization's history.
The project is also the next step in a resilience partnership that has been developing for the past couple of years between IVFC and the Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Resilience and Emergency Management, or OREM.
OREM initially provided IVFC with $60,000 in staffing support to help us develop the Family Resource Center as a community resilience hub, strengthen emergency partnerships, and build our local preparedness capacity. That support helped turn what began as an idea about backup power into a much broader effort involving emergency planning, supplies, communications, local partnerships, and now a major renewable energy project.
What We Are Building
IVFC is developing a rooftop solar and battery storage system at the Family Resource Center. The current design calls for approximately 73.7 kW of rooftop solar paired with 135 kWh of battery storage.
The goal is not to take the entire building off the electrical grid. Instead, the system is being designed around the parts of the building that matter most during an extended outage:
Refrigerators and freezers, so the food pantry can continue operating
Communications equipment
Water pumping from our on-site well
Essential lighting
Heating and cooling, particularly during extreme heat or cold
Fire and security systems
Those priorities did not come from an engineering plan alone. They grew out of the resilience planning IVFC has been doing with local and regional partners around what this building would actually need to provide during an emergency.
On an ordinary day, the system will also reduce IVFC's utility costs, allowing more of our operating dollars to go toward programs and services instead of electricity.
During an emergency, its purpose is even simpler: keep the building functioning and the doors open.
A Partnership With OREM
The solar and battery project would be difficult for IVFC to pursue alone.
The Oregon Department of Energy's Community Renewable Energy Grant Program, or C-REP, requires an eligible public body to serve as the applicant. OREM has agreed to take on that role, with IVFC serving as the project site, local project manager, and long-term owner and operator of the system.
Under the current project plan, OREM will hold responsibility for applicant-level grant administration and compliance, while IVFC will manage the work on the ground, including project coordination, community engagement, construction milestones, and reporting.
That partnership matters beyond the grant application itself.
OREM has been involved in IVFC's resilience hub development from an early stage. Its support helped fund the staff capacity needed to organize the work, build relationships with emergency partners, and move from general preparedness goals toward specific projects. OREM has also provided emergency food and water supplies to strengthen the local cache at IVFC and continues participating in broader Illinois Valley emergency planning efforts.
The solar and battery system is one of the most tangible results of that longer partnership.
How We Are Paying for It
The estimated project cost is approximately $460,000.
We are deliberately assembling the funding from multiple outside sources rather than placing that burden on IVFC's operating budget. A project this large should not come at the expense of food assistance, staffing, transportation support, or the other services people rely on every day.
Here is where things currently stand.
Energy Trust of Oregon: IVFC has submitted an application requesting $109,605 through the Custom Microgrid program, along with a separate anticipated solar incentive.
Oregon Department of Energy: IVFC and OREM are preparing an application for the final round of the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program, with OREM serving as the public-body applicant and IVFC as the project partner and site host.
Roundhouse Foundation: The Roundhouse Foundation has conditionally approved up to $150,000 in bridge financing for the project.
That last piece deserves a little explanation because it solves a problem that quietly prevents many rural nonprofit projects from moving forward.
Many public grants operate on a reimbursement basis. The organization has to spend the money first and then request reimbursement from the funder.
For a large organization with substantial cash reserves, that may be an accounting inconvenience. For a small nonprofit in a rural community, it can stop an otherwise fully funded project from happening.
IVFC cannot responsibly carry hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs while waiting for reimbursements.
Bridge financing closes that gap. It allows us to pay contractors and keep construction moving while grant reimbursements are processed. Without it, we could potentially have a funded project on paper but no practical way to build it.
Together, the Energy Trust incentives, C-REP application, OREM partnership, and Roundhouse financing give us a realistic path toward completing a project that would otherwise be well beyond the reach of an organization our size.
Timeline
If funding comes together as planned, the current project schedule anticipates construction and commissioning during 2027.
We will continue updating the community as funding decisions come back from Energy Trust and the Oregon Department of Energy.
Why This Matters Beyond One Building
IVFC already sits at the center of a lot of daily life in the Illinois Valley.
Hundreds of households come here every month for food and basic resources. Partner agencies operate from the building. Oregon DHS Self-Sufficiency has an office here, along with our food pantry, computer lab, family services, and the shower and laundry trailer we operate in partnership with Illinois Valley Living Solutions.
That means keeping this building operational during an outage does not just protect IVFC programs. It helps preserve a location where nonprofit, community, and state services are already connected.
Josephine County Emergency Management has also identified IVFC as well positioned to serve as a community resilience hub during emergencies, in part because people already know the building, services already operate here every day, and IVFC sits next to potential school shelter locations.
But much of that capacity disappears during a multi-day outage if the building does not have power.
The solar and battery project is an important step toward changing that.
It turns an existing community resource center into a place with a much better chance of continuing to function when normal systems fail. Food can stay cold. Water can keep flowing. Communications can remain available. Phones can charge. The building can remain a place where people come for information and basic support.
This project is not the whole answer to emergency preparedness in the Illinois Valley, and we do not expect one building to carry that responsibility.
But reliable power is one of the pieces that has to be in place for much of the rest of our resilience work to function.
And the project illustrates something equally important about resilience in a rural community: none of us can build it alone.
OREM, Josephine County Emergency Management, local emergency responders, community organizations, technical partners, foundations, utilities, and IVFC are each bringing a different piece to the work.
Our goal is simple: when the grid goes down, IVFC should still be able to show up for the community.
Interested in supporting this project or learning more? Contact IVFC at (541) 592-6139 or info@ivfc.org.
