Give Two Hours for Loaves and Fishes

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David Lomax of KNA asks:

Got 2 hours?

I am volunteering at the New Seasons Market – Concordia store on Sunday, November 21, 2010. I invite you to join my Martin Luther King Jr. Loaves and Fishes team by volunteering for a 2-hour shift.

Loaves & Fishes Centers, The Meals-On-Wheels People, is having a fundraiser the five days preceding Thanksgiving. It is called Donate Dinner. Donate Dinner is one of the largest volunteer events in the Portland metropolitan area. Last year, 1,500 people volunteered for 2-hour shifts and the outcome was incredible – they raised more than $230,000 to support the Meals-On-Wheels program.

What do I need you to do? Greet customers as they come into the store to shop for their Thanksgiving dinner. Smile, hand them a Donate Dinner card, and let them know that if they would like to donate to the Meals-On-Wheels program they tell the cashier when they check out. Their grocery receipt will include their tax-deductible nonprofit donation receipt. It is that simple!

Please join my team for a 2-hour shift. Last year, each volunteer raised an average of $225 per shift! All proceeds are invested in our local senior population.

Together, we can make sure that no senior in our community goes hungry or experiences social isolation. Please join me and the more than 1500 other volunteers to raise critical funds to feed our elder population. Click here if you want to view my team’s current schedule.

If you are not available on Sunday, November 21, 2010 to volunteer for my team, please go to www.donatedinner.org and see if another date and store are available. It takes a village to feed our seniors!

Loaves & Fishes Centers, The Meals-On-Wheels People is a secular nonprofit corporation that prepares 5,000 meals each weekday for seniors in Multnomah, Washington and Clark counties. Unlike most other Meals-On-Wheels programs, our local Loaves & Fishes has never had a waiting list for meal services. Why? Because of the generous community support from volunteers and donors, a meal can be delivered within 24 hours of notification.

David Lomax
MLK Center Loaves & Fishes
5325 NE MLK BLVD
Portland Oregon 97211
(503)-953-8207 Phone
(503)-988-4899 Fax
dlomax@lfcpdx.org
www.loavesandfishesonline.org

Leaf Removal Fee Comes to Section of King

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The City of Portland has instituted its long talked about fee for removal of leaves in the streets of Portland neighborhoods with the heaviest street tree canopies. Many homeowners were surprised when implementation finally came since there was apparently no advance direct notification. According to the Oregonian article on the subject, the news of the plan was supposed to be disseminated via the individual neighborhood associations–even though they are not city entities. Paige Coleman, director of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, distributed an email querying neighborhood association volunteers if they had in fact been notified by the city.

The portion of King that is in a leaf district is Walnut Park from Alberta to Ainsworth and Rodney to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. This district will receive two leaf removals each year. This year’s will be on November 5th and 24th and the fee will be $30 with low income households paying $10. Property owners can opt out of the fee if they apply for a waiver and submit a leaf removal plan. More info is at the City of Portland leaf removal page: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=47144&a=319617

Read Oregonian columnist Anna Griffin’s take on the issue here.

Vanport Phase 2, 3 May Go Forward

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KNA’s Alan Silver attended the latest PDC Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Committee meeting. For those less wonkish of you, the OCCURA is the urban renewal district that includes most of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in NE and the Vanport Square project. Here’s what he has learned:

Ray Leary and Jeana Woolley (Vanport Square LLC) originally proposed 16 townhouses for Vanport phase 2, priced somewhere north of $300,000. They’ve concluded that there’s not a market for those at present, and are now proposing to build 8 single-family homes on the site, priced between $260-290,000. PDC is negotiating contracts with Leary/Woolley, and a construction start date of fall 2011 is anticipated.

PDC has been approached by two development teams about Vanport phase 3. One proposal would include the Urban League, medical offices, and commercial; the other team includes Jeff Sackett (one of the developers of Vanport Square), and its proposal includes commercial real estate, including negotiations with an anchor tenant whose identity the team is “not disclosing publicly at this time.”

The PDC is ‘gathering information’ on these two proposals at present. It expects to have no funds available to aid developers of Vanport phase 3, who will have to rely entirely on private financing to complete construction.

As far as OCCURA/Interstate – no one knows when the transfer of prpoerties between URAs is going to happen, and so PDC is writing out its 2010-11 budget for OCCURA knowing that it might have to rewrite it entirely. OCCURA is on a ‘status quo’ budget – anticipating no major changes in its priorities. Interestingly, OCCURA will go on operating even if every parcel in it is transferred to Interstate URA. As long as revenue generated by OCCURA activities continues to accrue to PDC (repayment of loans, etc), then OCCURA will exist to spend that money – and it must spend that money within the original boundaries of OCCURA (Interstate URA can’t access it).

So, we may see something built at Alberta/MLK. Just don’t bet on when yet.

King School Bookfair at Barnes and Noble

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Save the date of November 27th to do you book shopping for the holidays and support King School at the same time. All purchases at the Lloyd Center Barnes and Noble store on the Saturday after Thanksgiving from 12-5 will benefit King School PTA programs that support literacy programs and teachers at King School. There will be performances and activities and the PTA will be selling their excellent gift wrapping services. Stay tuned for more information or go to: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools/king/351.htm