Category Archives: gardening

Come out for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

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There will be a second round on the invasive species removal at the King Facility Parking Lot, next January 16th from 10:00-4:00, for MLK day. AmeriCorps seem very interested in helping us in the project. Hopefully they will send some hands the 16th. At the same time the King School PTA will be coordinating a cleanup, weeding, graffiti removal project on the school grounds, playground, and local area.

The Portland Farmers Market is also planning to bring a small crew, a tent and some snacks. Whole Foods has also pledged pastries, snacks and drinks.
So far, it is unlikely that we will have an excavator on this day.

We estimate that now we are around 20 volunteers, but some will come on the 14th and others the 16th. We would love to have 20 more folks helping us. Please join us!

We have a truck to do the trips to Metro on Saturday, but still need more for Monday the 16th.

The land we’re clearing of invasive species, and prepping for later installation of native plant species, borders the King Facility parking lot,

at 4815 NE Wygant at 7th. We are also looking for someone to watch kids so we can provide day care for the volunteers. Let Diego know if you can help.

Diego Gioseffi
808-779-3435

Trace Salmon
King PTA
info@kingpta.org

Kitchen Commons: skills, resources, and spaces for affordable food!

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From Kitchen Commons:

Hello my name is Mollie and I would like to inform you about a new organization called Kitchen Commons.

MISSION:
Kitchen Commons is a network of Portland metro area community kitchen and food preservation organizers. Our goal is to improve community food security by supporting and developing spaces in our neighborhoods where people can come together to learn about cooking and preserving food on a budget, and access equipment and resources for both personal and microenterprise use. Our vision is to build community through food by joining together, cooking together, and feeding families together.

The role of Kitchen Commons is to support, develop, and promote and match kitchen resources with community needs. By fostering the development of lots of different kinds of kitchens, we can help to meet lots of different evolving needs in different communities. We do this by connecting neighborhood kitchen organizers with resources and tools, creating opportunities to network and share ideas, and advocating for policies that facilitate the development and use of community kitchens.

We’ve found that it’s important to emphasize that there are lots of community kitchen activities that don’t require certification or special equipment like classes and community cooking events. Also we are interested in helping groups fundraise or solicit in-kind donations in order to improve their kitchen space. Several groups with kitchens have thought that they could not participate with us at all because their kitchen isn’t certified or has various deficiencies.

PROJECT:
Right now our website is in the process of being built. Kitchen Commons is a very new non-profit. The first step to making this website successful is to find organizations that are interested in publicizing their accessible kitchen, and adding it to our website.

My question to you is, do you have a Kitchen you would like to open up to your community or neighborhood? If so we are a free resource to publicize your kitchen to the public and help overcome barriers to community use of your kitchen.

Please let me know if your interested in knowing more information and I would love to speak with you more about it. Thanks so much for your time!

Sincerely,
Mollie
mollie@kitchencommons.net

KNA Meeting, Wednesday Oct 12th

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What a great meeting we have planned! We’re so sorry that this agenda is being released so late… Columbus Day preparations had us running around all of last week, and we’re just catching our breath.

This week’s King NA meeting will feature our last visit with Officer Ryan Bren, who has served our neighborhood as District Officer for the last couple of years and has been a pleasure to work and communicate with.

We’ll be hearing from Emily Wilson, who has worked tirelessly to put together a project to improve Two Plum Park, in particular by raising money to install a bench. Two Plum Park is one of four neighborhood parks in King, and we’re happy to help out folks who are looking to take a hand in the care and improvement of them!

Speaking of, neighbor Diego Gioseffi and his neighbors have developed a project to remove invasive species from part of the King School lot, and replace them with native plants in the ground. We have struggled to get permission from the City to go ahead with the project, but progress is being made; also, the folks who run the King Farmers Market have offered to help. Once we have a date set, all are invited to come pull weeds and help us clean up part of the King School grounds! Please join us to get an update on the planning of this project.

We’ll be getting an update on the Portland Playhouse, & its efforts towards getting a Conditional User Permit from the City, in order to resume using their building at 602 NE Prescott. In addition, King NA has had discussions with the Playhouse and nearby neighbors about parking issues ~ we’ll have a short update on this.

The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods is looking for feedback about Last Thursday. In addition to a survey of residents living near Alberta Street, NECN is reaching out to the nearby neighborhood associations to get feedback, ideas, compliments, and criticisms about how Last Thursday operates. Please join us and share your experience with us.

There will be other short presentations on topics of community interest, as well as a bit of time to bat around ideas, projects, questions, and thoughts. Please join us for Wednesday evening’s meeting – all are welcome at our Neighborhood Association!

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Urban Farm Collective Seeks Donations

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From Kickstarter.com:

The Urban Farm Collective began in 2009, educating, growing and sharing food in inner NE Portland, Oregon and exchanging produce exclusively via a barter system. The first year we grew on just one lot; by the next year we’d grown to four sites.

This year, we have been accepted as a project of Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust and have the opportunity to take on five new plots, bringing our total garden space up to more than 1/2 acre.

If we are able to transform these new lots into gardens, this would create something that as far as we know exists nowhere else in the country: a non-profit urban farm, exchanging produce to participants via barter and donating significant amounts of fresh, local produce to the community at large.

Volunteer gardeners and land owners are already on board; all we need is the money to transform the lots. The money will go toward purchasing irrigation systems, tools, greenhouse supplies, path and fence building materials, water catchment systems and harvesting supplies.

Urban Farm Collective video/contribution website
Urban Farm Collective site

King School Students Work on History/Gardening Project

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Second and third grade students from the King School SUN afterschool program are participating in a partnership with the Emerson Street Garden to learn gardening while working with neighborhood elders to help transform a vacant neighborhood lot into a community asset.

Sixth through eighth graders are partnering with artist Joe Sneed and students from da Vinci Middle school in a five day-a-week class on N/NE History, Art and Culture. They are collecting stories of local neighborhood history from local residents and incorporating these stories into a design for an archway entrance to the garden.

Eight grade students in the King School Technology and Design course will be working with engineers from the Portland Water Bureau to develop a learning center to be built at the garden to be used for educational opportunities and workshops into the future. The Technology and Design course is part of the International Baccalaureate program at King School.

If you would like to get involved contact Joe Sneed at joe.b.sneed@gmail.com or call 503.995.2632