Kitchen Commons matches kitchen resources with community need, making it affordable and practical to cook healthy food, putting the dream of a food business in reach of low-income entrepreneurs, and advocating for food justice. Kitchen Commons operates in Northeast Portland, since 2010.

We are building the kitchen commons: a network of community kitchens in every neighborhood. Community kitchens are places where neighbors of all ages and backgrounds come together to make and share meals, learn from each other about cooking and preserving the harvest, and nurture small food businesses. They can be hosted by faith organizations, schools, community and senior centers, businesses and nonprofits. They can be certified for particular purposes, but many activities don’t require certification or special equipment.

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

We envision communities free from hunger, with widespread basic cooking, meal-planning and grocery buying skills, and easy access to well-equipped spaces so that all people can prepare healthy meals. Everyone is regularly cooking, eating and preserving what they grow with family, friends and neighbors.

We are bridging the gap between generations and tapping into our cultural wisdom by preserving and transferring community food knowledge. We are building community wealth and creating jobs by incubating the food business dreams of those who otherwise couldn’t afford to fulfill them. We have a just, democratic food system that ensures everyone is treated fairly and has a voice.

Health Starts Here Taco Night:

Benefit for the Backpack Lunch Program

$10 per adult; kids under 12 eat free! Thursday, August 23^rd, 5-7, at Whole Foods Fremont, 15^th & NE Fremont.

Join Chef Ashley for a delicious fiesta, featuring a Healthy Taco Buffet. Wine and beer tasting included.  100% of the proceeds will benefit the Backpack Lunch Program, which provides lunches to school children at King School who are on free or reduced-price lunch programs. With this program, they are assured of at least two meals over the weekend.

The King Backpack Lunch Program is a program of the King Neighborhood Association. For more information, contact us at backpack@kingneighborhood.org.

Celeste Carey, neighborhood crime prevention specialist for King and surrounded n’hoods, writes us:  “Starting in September, I will present the concept of Livability Teams to Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Watches and Foot Patrols, informal neighbor groups and the NECN Safety & Livability Team. Community members will organize to report and remove graffiti, remove litter, observe and report other issues in the area related to crime, safety and livability. Teams can volunteer for projects, for a few hours, for specific tasks, and supervised youth are welcome too. Stay tuned, or if you’re really interested, call me, your friendly neighborhood Crime Prevention Coordinator, for more information at 503-823-4764.”

The city’s 2012 Gun Turn-in will be next Saturday, August 18th, from 10 am to 2 pm, at Memorial Coliseum. The reward for a turned-in gun is a gift certificate to Fred Meyer. For more info, get in touch with the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation at 503-220-1669.

Do you know a corner that needs a streetlight? Here’s how you can get the city to install one – http://www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/article/192894. Neighbors are required to ante up $500 to help pay for the light, and form a neighborhood watch.

At this past Wednesday’s King NA meeting, we voted to write a letter to the manager of the MLK Safeway, asking for vigilance on the part of store staff in keeping the parking lot and surrounding grounds clean. If you have ideas about how we can keep our neighborhood clean, and partners who can help us do it, please let us know.

In case you didn’t catch this, here’s a video of the M.O.M.S. walkers coming across a police stop of youth in an automobile, along MLK, as filmed by a member of Portland Copwatch.

Here’s what King NA will be talking about on this Wednesday evening:

• Crime, safety, and policing in our neighborhood
• Enrollment balancing and school reconfiguration and possible closings – Trace Salmon, King School PTA
• KNA elections (in September), by-laws, and decision-making process
• A request for sponsorship of the MLK Loaves & Fishes jambalaya fundraiser in September
• Continued groundskeeping work at the King Facility
• Neighborhood events! KNA’s movie in the park; the Two Plum Park potluck; and the Block Party at 10th & Mason

We meet at NECN’s office, 4815 NE 7th, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

Events of note, coming up this month:

— August 7: National Night Out.

— August 11: Alberta Street Fair.

— August 12: Salad potluck at Two Plum Park, beginning at 4 pm.

— August 18: Vernon’s Movie in the Park at Alberta Park – “Super Eight.”

— August 20: NECN’s land use and safety/livability committees host a joint meeting on Coal export terminals in the PNW, from 6:30 to 8.

— August 23: Outside taco dinner sale at Whole Foods, 15th & Fremont, from 5-7 pm. Proceeds benefit the Northeast Backpack Lunch Program.

— August 24: ReRun’s movie in the parking lot, at dusk.

— August 25; Block Party at 10th & Mason.

See you Wednesday eve!

Metro is seeking volunteers to serve on the agency’s new Public Engagement Review Committee (PERC). The committee will meet twice a year and serve as a key component of Metro’s ongoing efforts to develop and implement successful public engagement processes.

The PERC will include at least three at-large community members along with three individuals from local community organizations, either staff or board members. The committee will also include a public involvement staff member from each of the three metropolitan counties, Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington.

In selecting PERC members, the Metro Council will seek a mix of members that demonstrate:
• a commitment to community involvement
• skills, knowledge or experience that support the public engagement principles adopted by Metro
• an ability to represent the geographic and demographic diversity of the region.

The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. For more information, visit www.oregonmetro.gov/engage.

The PERC is part of a multi-track strategy to ensure that Metro’s public involvement is effective, reaches diverse audiences and harnesses emerging best practices. In addition to the committee, Metro will convene public involvement peer group learning sessions, hold an annual stakeholder summit, conduct online surveys and develop an annual report of Metro’s public involvement practices.

The updated public engagement review process was adopted by the Metro Council in May following a two-year process to replace the Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement that previously oversaw the agency’s public engagement activity.

Metro, the regional government, crosses city limits and county lines to build a resilient economy, keep nature close by and respond to a changing climate. Representing a diverse population of 1.5 million people in 25 cities and three counties, Metro’s directly elected council gives voters a voice in decisions about how the region grows and communities prosper.