King Farmers Market Supplements Food Stamps

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Photo by: Kenneth Aaron

Photo by: Kenneth Aaron

Via the Skanner:

Program Boosts Food Stamps at King Farmers Market
http://www.theskanner.com/index.php?action=artd&artid=9586

The recently opened King Farmers Market is now giving Oregon Food Stamp recipients an extra boost. With the help of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, the Portland Farmers Market and the Alberta Food Co-Op, the Foodshare Fund Northeast will give users of Food Stamps an extra $5 at the King Farmers Market.
The market is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays until October 25th near the intersection of NE 7th Avenue and Wygant Street.

Each Portland Farmers Market accepts EBT transactions. Recipients of Food Stamps merely need to convert their EBT credits into EBT tokens at the market’s information booth. The tokens can only be used for fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, dairy and seeds and plants intended for growing food. They can’t be used for pre-made or hot foods.
The fund began with a $3,000 grant from Alberta Co-op Grocery and a matching donations from the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods and the King Farmers Market Advisory Council. With future donations, organizers are hoping to expand the program by giving additional food credits to people in need.

Contributions can be mailed to 4815 NE 7th Ave. Portland, OR 97211 or online at http://www.necoalition.org.

Groundwork Portland Turns One

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Groundwork PortlandGroundwork Portland: everyone has a right to a livable community

Almost four years ago, Kevin Odell of OPAL, Clark Henry of the City of Portland Brownfield Program, Connie Ashbrook of Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc, Will Newman of Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Landtrust, Jeff Berbetsky of Restorical Research, and Joice Taylor of North/Northeast Business Association bonded over a dream of bringing much-needed resources to Portland neighborhoods overwhelmingly- and unjustly-burdened by urban pollutants, a lack of investment in community-centered development, and the pressures of gentrification.

One year ago, in September of 2008, Groundwork Portland opened its doors to organize low-income communities, communities of color, and youth around vacant land in their neighborhoods, plan for its redevelopment, and access the resources necessary to transform eyesores into community assets like community centers, community gardens, locally-owned businesses, and parks.

Over the past year, Groundwork Portland has been proud to collaborate with many different organizations and communities.

In the spring, Groundwork Portland launched Our Portland, a community-centered engagement program with seniors at Mt. Scott Learning Center to evaluate environmental justice issues in the Foster-Powell Neighborhood. The seniors joined community leaders on tours in their neighborhood to learn about environmental justice issues like brownfields, urban renewal, and gentrification. The program ended with Intersections, the art show they put on in their high school to showcase their photographic explorations of these issues.

While engaging the students in a conversation about environmental justice issues in their neighborhood, Groundwork Portland helped the school take on a project in their own backyard. Volunteers of Groundwork Portland coordinated the transformation of Mt. Scott Learning Center’s parking lot into a lush garden, basketball court, and outdoor lunch area. Over the course of three work days, more than 200 volunteers from the community pitched in to take out parking spaces, plant, paint, and otherwise spiff up this small charter school.

Last winter, Groundwork Portland joined forces with OSALT to begin the cleanup and creation of Emerson Street Garden. This summer, more than 65 kids from the Blazers Boys and Girls Club were the first to get their hands dirty, with a small container garden lush with all the fixings for salsa.

Over the coming year, Groundwork Portland and OSALT will hold garden planning sessions so everyone can chime in about what they want to grow. GeoEngineers, the local engineering firm that’s donating all necessary remediation services, will continue testing and remediation plans to ensure that the garden is safe enough for everyone to enjoy.

In addition, Groundwork Portland helped more than 50 community organizations like churches, schools, and community-centered nonprofits answer questions and access resources they needed for their own work to transform eyesores into assets. We offer a wide range of support to our partners, from research to joint grant applications. Contact Groundwork Portland for a copy of our “What’s in Your Garden?” brochure to help you evaluate the safety of your garden project, or to get more information about partnering with Groundwork Portland.

This has been a wonderful year for Groundwork Portland, and for me, so it is with no little sadness that I say goodbye to all of you. Today is my last day with Groundwork Portland. It has been wonderful working with you. The energy you bring to community-based projects is inspiring; I can’t wait to see what you accomplish next. Feel free to email me and tell me all about it.

Andrea Hamberg
Program Manager
—
Groundwork Portland: because everyone has a right to a livable community
2407 SE 49th Ave
Portland, OR 97206
503-467-4567
info@groundworkportland.org
www.groundworkportland.org

2010 Neighborhood Small Grants Program, Applications due Monday, Nov. 2, 2009

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Office of Neighborhood InvolvementThe City of Portland, Office of Neighborhood Involvement and seven neighborhood District Coalitions announce the 4th year of the Neighborhood Small Grants Program with $178,830 available to neighborhood and community-based organizations. The grants program’s goal is to provide neighborhood and community-based organizations an opportunity to build community, attract new and diverse membership, and sustain those already involved. Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. Proposals are due no later than 2:00 PM, Monday, November 2, 2009. More information can be found at www.portlandonline.com/oni.

In the first three years of the grant program $553,847 was awarded to 271 neighborhood and community organization projects. The average grant award was $1.972; 127 neighborhood projects were funded along with 102 projects (38%) initiated by underrepresented organizations working with people of color, immigrants and refugees, lowincome families, youth and people with disabilities. The remaining organizations represented environmental, crime prevention, business, arts and culture organizations and associations.

New Coffeeshop to Open on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

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CaffeBriosoMegan Kennedy has just opened Caffe Brioso in the building between Ned Ludd and Barberama on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Their grand opening is this Saturday (Sept 5). They will be open from 7-7 and will be giving away free drinks and samples.
Their focus is using local products and supporting our community while building relationships with their customers. If you have any ideas on how we can involve the community into the coffee shop and vice versa please let her know at caffebrioso@gmail.com.

The local products they carry are:

Bellatazza Coffee (roasted in SunRiver Oregon)
Dragonfly Chai (NE Portland)
Tao of Tea (SE Portland)
Marsee Bakery (NE Portland)
Grand Central Baking Co. (SE Portland)

The address is 3907 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Near Wayne’s.

North Northeast Portland Bicycle Demonstration Project

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bicyclistSince the spring of 2008, Metro has been working with local business leaders, elected officials, public health professionals and mobility advocates to determine if they were satisfied with the pace of development of our regional trails and network of off-street paths and walkways. This group, identified as the “Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails” decided to expand their scope to include all on-street bikeways. They did so in the course of studying all that is necessary to address this issue–including a trip to see comprehensive “active transportation” systems in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The committee published their report last year. That report, titled “The case for an active transportation strategy,” calls for hastening the development of active transportation systems and to create projects to demonstrate the potential of bicycling and walking–“active transportation”–in three different environments: urban, suburban and rural. The regional call for active transportation proposals was a direct result of their report to Metro.

The proposal calls for creating an urban demonstration project in a 13 square mile area of North and Northeast Portland. All selected roadways are either currently identified as bikeways in the City’s Transportation System Plan or are slated to be included as such with the update of that plan. Metro is currently assembling a grant application to the federal government that, if successful, will fund this project. View the proposal at: http://kingneighborhood.org/Reference_Files/NNE Demonstration Project final.pdf.

For more information on Metro’s Active Transportation Partnership, please see this web site: http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=30078
To see the report “The case for an active transportation strategy”, please see this pdf: http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/brc_final_report.pdf

I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have about this project or about Metro’s effort (though I may steer you to Metro for detailed information).

Thanks and respectfully yours,

Roger Geller
Bicycle Coordinator

City of Portland Office of Transportation
1120 SW 5th Avenue, Room 800
Portland, OR 97204

voice: (503) 823-7671
fax: (503) 823-7609
TDD: (503) 823-6868

email: roger.geller@pdxtrans.org
web: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=34772

Bicycle Master Plan web site (updated regularly): http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=44597