Food appreciation from farmer to table

Interfaith organization creates innovative partnerships to educate communities about food and health

By Jenny Holmes and Alison Warren
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Photo by Carolyn Nelson

During a summer program, children learn cooking skills from professional chefs, in one of several programs focused on food and health provided by Ecumenical Ministries’ Interfaith Food and Farms Partnership.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Interfaith Food and Farms Partnership (IFFP) has been empowering faith communities, farmers and neighborhoods to create innovative partnerships for just and sustainable food systems since 2005. Through its cooking classes, farm to congregation projects, food assessments and The Congregational Wellness Project, IFFP educates people about food and health.

This year IFFP worked with Hacienda Community Development Corporation (CDC) to provide cooking classes to families and middle school kids. The kids are part of Expresiones, a Hacienda CDC after-school and summer enrichment program designed to increase family participation and school attendance and reduce youth risk factors such as gang involvement, dropping out of school and alcohol abuse.

The cooking classes are taught by chefs from Bon Appetit Management Company which is committed to creating and supporting sustainable food systems. Bon Appetit donated chef time, supplies and food for the classes as a way to give back to the community and contribute to a better food system.

Chef Micah Cavolo, a parent himself, recognizes that many kids don’t understand how the food system works. The Expresiones kids have been fortunate to be involved in growing a community garden and using some of their community-grown vegetables in the cooking classes. Chef Cavolo sees this as a great way for kids to start making the connection between the garden and their plate.

“I feel that to have a successful sustainable future, you need to engage and nurture the future and in my world I do that through food. The only thing more rewarding then being a chef is being a teacher also. Lucky for me they are rolled up into one job,” says Cavolo.

Pairing small scale and immigrant farmers to congregations is another way IFFP provides producers and consumers an opportunity to understand one another. The project includes farmer tables as well as community-supported agriculture (CSA) for congregations.

Yua Lo is a small farmer who has benefited from the Interfaith Food and Farms Partnership. A refugee from Laos, Yua arrived in the United States as a 7th grader in 1978. She adjusted to a new culture, learned English and attended middle-school, all while caring for her younger siblings. Later Yua’s family moved to Stockton, California to pursue farming. When she and her husband moved to Oregon 11 years ago, they planned to give up farming, but in 2001, Yua felt called back to the fields.

Today she is a savvy grower and smart businessperson. Not only is Yua steadily growing her family farming business through her relationships with local churches, where she provides flowers and vegetables. She has also provided important congregational connections to the Hmong community including new Hmong farmer table partners.

Small immigrant farmers who face language and cultural barriers find the supportive atmosphere of the congregations very encouraging. In addition, congregation members learn about different cultures. Farm families producing on a scale too small for other marketing opportunities get a new opportunity through the partnerships.

Alex Velikoretskikh (pronounced “vel-i-kor-et-ski”) is one of these farmers. Alex was born in Russia and has always been a gardener and farmer, even as a young boy in the Ukraine. He immigrated to the U.S. with his wife and children in 2007. Ten in all, the Velikoretskikh family lives in the southeast Foster Powell neighborhood of Portland. Using hand tools and simple irrigation techniques, they grow potatoes, squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans and green onions on two plots, one on Sauvie Island and the other on Southeast 39th near Holgate.

Besides supporting immigrant farmers, congregations are encouraged to increase low-income access to healthy farm grown food through donations for an extra CSA share, and by buying leftovers at farmer tables for donations to food banks or a community meal. These partnerships raise awareness in the faith community about the importance of supporting local farmers and building justice and equity in the food system. Small farmers also benefit from the new economic opportunities.

Another unique partnership exists between First Presbyterian Church, Alder House, Julia West and a local farmer. For the past four years First Presbyterian Church has had a farmer sell produce after their Sunday service. To reach out into the community and increase access to the fresh food for all, the church also uses its kitchen to teach microwave cooking classes to residents of Alder House, a low-income single-room housing complex, and to clients of Julia West, a drop-in center for homeless individuals in downtown Portland.

The classes have been well received by participants such as Janice Potter. Janice “really loved the recipes the class provided and found them to be very helpful.”

One of her favorites was the rhubarb crisp, a recipe given out as part of the IFFP program. Janice used the coupons provided by the class to connect with the farm table at the church and buy the rhubarb she needed for the recipe. The coupons have also given Janice the chance to eat fresh lemon cucumbers, tomatoes and beets.

She’s a shining example of how this class helps people to think differently about food and eat well, even without having a regular kitchen. The classes also provide a unique way to build community through sharing skills and eating together. As one participant stated, it was the people who made it worthwhile for him.

The Congregation Wellness Project, another IFFP program, is equipping congregations to do assessments of their facilities and practices to determine how they can create environments where healthy choices for food and physical activity become easy. Some congregations that have done an adaptation of the School Wellness Index have realized that their land can be used for community gardens.

The belief that everyone one should have access to healthy foods and an environment that supports health forms the foundation of all IFFP programs. IFFP is doing its small part to partner congregations with communities to support health and a sustainable food system for all.

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For more information visit www.emoregon.org/food_farms.php

Jenny Holmes is the Environmental Ministries Director at EMO and Alison Warren is a Program Associate. If you are interested in participating in their programs, contact them at jholmes@emoregon.org and awarren@emoregon.org or by calling 503-221-1054.

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Do-it-yourself neighborhood building

City Repair brings neighbors together, beautifies the city and inspires others

Story and photo by Edie Sidle
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Share-It Square, a neighborhood gathering place which includes a bulletin board and chalkboard at SE 9th Av and Sherrett St in Sellwood, spurred the formation of City Repair.

Placemaking, food forests, free boxes, de-paving, permaculture, deep dialogue, bioswales, and cob—you might take some wild guesses about what these terms mean, but Hindi Iserhott with City Repair uses them everyday while working with Portland communities.

First and foremost, Hindi explains, City Repair is about organized group action. Formed in 1996, City Repair came about as a result of an unfortunate experience. A boy was hit by a car while bicycling in a Sellwood neighborhood. Fortunately he recovered, and the event spurred the residents in the area to come together to make the intersection safer while defining their community in a unique way.

Some of the Sellwood residents admired the public piazzas common in Europe but mostly missing in the United States. Others thought about the neighborhood’s straight lines and grids defined by the layout of the streets, and they wanted to soften their intersection.

At the same time, City Repair founder Mark Lakeman had been coordinating “Moon-Day T-Hows,” in the same neighborhood. These wildly-popular Monday evening dessert potlucks convinced many of the residents of the importance of having a gathering place for the community.

The synergy of the two events brought the neighbors together to address their concerns. One Sunday afternoon, the residents took action by painting a design on the intersection of Southeast Ninth Avenue and Sherrett Street. They were so excited about their results that they sent a letter with a picture of their accomplishment to the Portland Department of Transportation (PDOT).

PDOT responded by demanding they remove the painting from the intersection. While stalling for time, neighborhood activists managed to gain the support of then-Portland-Mayor, Vera Katz. Eventually they also won over council members who birthed a new ordinance to legalize the efforts of the forward-thinking community group. Thus the colorful and out-of-the-ordinary Share-It Square was created.

Since then, Share-It Square has evolved to include a solar tea station, free box with “treasures” for the taking, kid’s play corner, and an artsy sitting place aka bus-stop bench. Residents will soon add a food forest. As you approach Share-It Square, you just have to stop. It’s not every day that you see such an interesting and lively intersection.

Geri Ota lived on the intersection of Southeast Ninth and Sherrett from 2000 until 2005. She fondly remembers how neighbors gathered to do something to make their community beautiful. She says she has never lived in a community like Share-It Square, which comes together to plan and then paint the intersection on an annual basis.

“I love that community... So many people came out to participate and it was such a satisfying experience to come together,” she says, recalling the annual Square renewal event.

Through donated labor and supplies, the neighborhood residents still get together each year to renew the efforts that first began some dozen or so years ago. Neighbors have a potluck and the green thumbs in the group share food from their gardens. New neighbors are welcomed, resulting in a feeling of true connection in the neighborhood.

“There was so much enthusiasm and it was a lot of fun,” Geri recalls. It was “good, hard work that was well worth it,” she adds.

It didn’t just end with one project in one neighborhood. Through the tenacious efforts of Mark and others, the Sellwood project morphed into a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization that annually spearheads 20 projects in Portland and works with other cities—Albuquerque, Asheville, St. Paul, Eugene, Oakland, and Tucson, to name a few. In six years City Repair has inspired 50 other communities nationwide to consider similar initiatives.

Mark, a trained architect, grew up in Portland in a household with two architect parents. His visionary mother focused on village design while his Yale-educated father, a City of Portland planner, played a prominent role in the development of Portland’s Waterfront Park and Pioneer Square. While growing up, Mark and his brother were immersed in talk about inner-city culture, urban sprawl, community commons, and placemaking. He jokes that the rides in the family car amounted to a “rolling architecture school.” It paid off.

Indeed, City Repair facilitates the process of helping individual communities accomplish their placemaking goals. By helping them to organize, develop consensus, address conflict, and engage in deep dialogue, people can speak sincerely and listen with open minds. Residents develop decision-making processes and other group skills that people can use effectively in their everyday lives.

City Repair seeks to focus on an organic approach. The organization centers its efforts on promoting sustainability and permanence, empowering people and community, and building friendships and partnerships instead of just doing projects.

City Repair allows each community to engage in creative problem-solving through an inclusive and participatory process. Yes, it takes longer, but the results are profound. With a flexible and adaptive facilitation process, City Repair helps each community define what works best for them and what they want to achieve rather than what is outlined in a preconceived, one-size-fits-all urban plan.

Having spent time with indigenous societies, Mark also believes in the importance other cultures hold for food, music and celebration. Before the work begins, City Repair incorporates into each project just such a life celebration in order to downplay the usual goal-driven way of doing business. City Repair also helps in the purchase of straw, sand, clay and other materials used in each placemaking project.

Most people are in favor of improving their community and the organic nature of the City Repair projects make it seem like fun. Yet these community projects have surprisingly significant effects.

A recent study by Dr. Jan Semenza and Tanya March of Portland State University demonstrates in a measurable way the value of City Repair’s community work. The survey conducted of resident participants within a City Repair project site found 53 percent rated their neighborhood better than before, 30 percent mentioned increased social interactions, and 44 percent rated their present neighborhood as an excellent place to live.

For Mark, even with these impressive findings, it is not about trying to make Portland like another city or better than another city, it’s more about working with whatever is at hand, whatever individuals bring to the table and their active creative participation. The important result is that when we give of ourselves, it means more to us. It’s also about reflecting the true community, not someone else’s definitions of what a community should be. Mark sincerely values human capital, people pushing the envelope to the edge in order to create a new paradigm where society shifts to a community focus.

Just as we are coming full circle to value locally-grown produce and local businesses in order to become more sustainable, it makes perfect sense to look into individual communities to improve our quality of life. And when all is said and done, it’s people that make our communities better, shape our ideas and our work at the local level. People are the vitality of our neighborhoods and the true foundation of City Repair.

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City Repair puts out a Request for Proposals in November. For more information, visit City Repair’s website at www.cityrepair.org or call 503-235-8946.

For years, Edie has been involved in “business writing” but more recently has been exploring creative writing, even trying her hand at poetry. She may be reached at edeegee@yahoo.com

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Kids Club pulse of community

Story and photo by Nicole Morales
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Jackie Johnson (left) and Tia Bennett. Tia, the Activities Director at Cherry Blossom Estates, developed an after-school club for kids in the housing complex that has united its diversity.

Cherry Blossom Estates, home to 85 families, is doing something different—progressively different—from other apartment complexes that are home to low-income families. While most housing complexes are content to simply rent out and maintain their units, Cherry Blossom provides for a full-time Activities Director. The director’s responsibilities range from ensuring the children are fed and have a place to go after school to teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to the adult residents.

I recently visited the community—located just off 102nd Avenue and Washington Street in Southeast Portland—to find out how Tia Bennett, Activities Director, has transformed a once barren-walled clubhouse into the communal pulse of the complex. Tia directs and supervises the Kids Club, an after-school program for approximately 30 five- to twelve-year-olds, and has expanded the program to include Teen Time for the older youth, where teenagers can chill by the pool, play volleyball or just have a safe space to talk. Most recently Tia initiated a community cleanup crew in which youth screen the apartment complex grounds and pick up garbage.

Tia’s involvement doesn’t stop there. She regularly updates a resource book for residents and recently helped to establish the complex’s Neighborhood Watch program. She is currently working on implementing med van visits for the senior residents.

Here’s what I learned when I sat down to talk about Kids Club with Tia and long-time resident Jackie Johnson.

Upside: You were specifically hired on as the Activities Director?
Tia: Yes, and I try to make something available for everybody.

Upside: Do you see yourself as a teacher, as a parent, or as a mentor?
Tia: I would say all of the above. I do the teaching, the ESL instruction, the tutoring, the activity planning, and the resident help. I really do feel like a mentor to the children and adults here.

Upside: The adults, too?
Tia: I do ESL tutoring for the adults. Our community is very diverse because of the many nationalities here. They all just come together and that’s my favorite part of it.

Upside: What was it like at Cherry Blossom when you first arrived?
Tia: When I came in, the clubhouse was pretty much empty and it was a really dark brown. It didn’t really have much going for it. They told me, “Do what you want with it—we want it to be kid friendly.” They gave me a budget and I made it a classroom setting.

Upside: Not all classrooms are as warm and inviting as this. (Sunshine yellow and cherry red walls complement the kids’ colored name-bug projects that drape one corner of the room. Popsicle puppets that resemble their creators line the doorway.) What happened when you began five years ago?
Tia: The first year it sat empty. I had to go door to door and tell people, “Come into the clubhouse, learn ESL, send your children, it’s free.” Once the children started coming, it was very segregated. They didn’t talk or play together. They came to the clubhouse and all sat at their different tables by nationality. And a few times, they would say, “Well you can’t sit here, you’re not [my nationality].” This just broke my heart.

Upside: And now?
Tia: Now, they’re just best friends. And I really think the kids have brought the adults together. Every year we have these events. For instance, we started out with five people for the first Thanksgiving Harvest party and then the next year we had 25 people. And just this last barbecue we had over a 100 people! It’s just amazing how you see all the cultures come together.
Jackie: The clannishness has dissipated. The example that Tia refers to of the kids coming together translates to the adults and that’s why I’m personally so excited about what goes on here. I grew up with “old world thinking,” and that would probably describe a lot of the parents’ thinking that reside here. So I have a real keen appreciation of what Tia does with the kids.

Upside: How do you define yourself within the program, Jackie?
Jackie: Very much an advocate for what happens here and very much an advocate for the whole goal that Jim, the owner, has.
Tia: Jackie gives me suggestions. She’ll see things outside that I don’t see and give me ideas, like the need for a safety class.

Upside: Jackie, you were here before Jim purchased the property?
Jackie: Yes, I’ve been here since 2000. At that time it had two owners and the managers changed every six months. So there was no time for continuity, there was no time to build anything. This clubhouse sat empty most of the time.

When I first met Jim (the owner of Cherry Blossom Estates), he told me about his childhood. He said that he grew up in income-restricted housing and he made a commitment to himself that if he ever was able to give back, he would.

Upside: (I emailed Jim Keefe, who lives in California, and asked him some questions about his role in Cherry Blossom Estates.) How has your childhood inspired you to want to help youngsters and their families have a positive living and learning environment?
Jim: I grew up in a government-assisted housing project in Massachusetts. [My brother, three sisters, and I] needed to be outside… since there was not a lot of room inside. I feel that I greatly benefited from after school and summer youth programs in our local community. These programs always had a strong educational component and access to education changed my life. Now that I am able to do so, I believe that I have a duty to sponsor programs like ours at Cherry Blossom and to staff them with enthusiastic and caring people like Tia.

Upside: What do you hope to achieve with the club?
Jim: Our educational programs have four main goals: to supplement resident access to educational resources, to insure that our children are fed and have a place to go after school, to link our resident families with other resources in the area and to foster goodwill at our community.

Upside: Was Cherry Blossom Estates’ Kids Club your first attempt at implementing an educational program for youth?
Jim: No. Our programs…are modeled after those being done on a larger scale by Project Access, Inc., a nonprofit [that strives to increase communal resources and improve the livelihood for low income families]. It was founded by my partners ten years ago.

Upside: How do you define your role with the club?
Jim: Cherry Blossom Estates is owned by a partnership with two general partners: my company and Affordable Housing Access, a Southern California nonprofit. Our role is to provide funding and overall management for the program.

I believe that our programs at Cherry Blossom should stand on their own. I would rather see you focus on and celebrate the daily achievements and successes of our children. Lots of people I never knew (let alone never thanked) put the programs that helped me in place. I am content to simply return the favor for the children we can help.

Upside: A prime example of Cherry Blossom’s communal cohesiveness was when one of Jackie’s neighbors couldn’t find her child anywhere on the complex. Along with the three police officers called to the scene, all of the residents got involved in the search.
Jackie: It was very touching to see the diverse community rally around a common need.

Upside: Turns out the young girl had hid under some blankets in the bedroom.
Tia: It was like our very own Amber Alert. (Laughter).

We live in a big city and I’d always wanted to know what it felt like to be in a smaller community… just by living here I get that feeling like the TV show Cheers, “where everybody knows your name.”

Jackie: My hope is that someone will read about this and realize they can do what Tia has done with the club. There are so many diverse income-restricted communities. The seeds that Tia plants on a regular basis at Cherry Blossom can be planted anywhere.

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Nicole Morales strives to connect people via multicultural education and writing. She teaches ESL at a private university outside of Portland and welcomes your inquiries at
nmorales.writes@gmail.com


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Old computers diverted from dumpsters to desks

Story and photo by Faye Powell
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Free Geek, an innovative computer and electronics reuse/recycling nonprofit, is one of the best places to take unwanted electronics, says production manager Dave Haskins (pictured).

We Oregonians are so green we practically exude chlorophyll. In fact, I have a friend who is so conscientious that she accumulates only one small bag of landfill-bound trash a month. Indeed, recycling is such a well-established way of life in Portland that “Renew, Reuse, Recycle” could be our regional motto.

Convincing Oregonians to recycle may be a no-brainer, but locating the right collection site for the right items can be daunting. And once we drop off our discards, how many of us know what happens to them afterwards?

Electronic products—computers and cell phones, as well as peripherals like keyboards, mice, modems, printers, cartridges, and cables—pose a particular environmental problem because of the toxic materials they contain and the frequency with which we replace them. This year’s conversion from analog to digital signal also added thousands of out-dated televisions to the electronic waste stream.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the United States produces 300 million tons of electronic waste annually. About 80% ends up in domestic landfills or is shipped overseas to developing countries where children and adults often pick barehanded through smoldering piles of e-waste with known toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury and flame-retardants. These carcinogens shorten lives as well as pollute the atmosphere and water supplies. Although the U.S. Congress has considered a number of bills to deal with responsible disposal of e-waste, none has passed.

Oregon, however, is again ahead of the curve. In 2007, the legislature passed a bill that established Oregon E-Cycles, a program financed by electronics manufacturers and jointly implemented with the Department of Environmental Quality.

Beginning January 1, 2009, the law permits consumers to recycle, free of charge, up to seven computers, monitors and televisions at a time, at various statewide collection sites. The sites meet rigorous guidelines for safe handling and environmentally sound practices. In addition, starting January 1, 2010, Oregon law will prohibit any electronics from being discarded as trash.
According to Penny Erickson of Metro, 320 tons of computers, monitors and televisions have already been recycled this year under the Oregon E-Cycles program. While the current law mandates that only computer, monitor and television manufacturers pay the cost of recycling, it is hoped that future modifications of the law will include other electronic products as well.

Free Geek, one of the most innovative of the Oregon E-Cycles collection sites, is a Portland nonprofit and pioneer in the area of technology reuse and recycling. Established in 2000 by former architect Oso Martin, Free Geek began with a room full of cast-off computers and a group of volunteers who sorted, separated, tested and rebuilt them. This was the beginning of Free Geek’s adoption program that remains a keystone of the organization today.

Through his work with various community organizations, Martin saw a need to get usable technology into the hands of those who otherwise could not afford it. Around the same time, e-waste came on the radar of municipalities, and soon the City of Portland was passing its old computers on to Free Geek. Since they began nine years ago, Free Geek has put over 15,000 computers back into the community. Last year Free Geek provided 1200 computers free of charge, and this year they have already given away over 2,000.

Located in southeast Portland, Free Geek is a freewheeling, high-energy whirl of activity in a large building divided into areas for donation collection, teaching, computer building, sales, and warehousing.

ave Haskins, Free Geek’s production coordinator, is a tall, lean, twenty-something who fits right in with his geeky generation. He started as a volunteer in 2002 and joined the staff six months later. His enthusiasm for the Free Geek mission is contagious.

“I picked up computers like a bad habit over the years,” Haskins says. “I strongly believe the best thing anyone can do with their unwanted computer is bring it to us. If it can’t be reused, it will be recycled in the most environmentally sound manner … through Oregon E-Cycles.”

At present Free Geek engages about 1,000 active volunteers, including an 85-year-old former Royal Air Force World War II veteran with no previous computer experience. He has now built over 500 computers. According to Haskins, once people get past the fear factor, anyone can build and repair a computer. He says you can’t pay for this kind of education and experience at any computer school. And volunteers are eligible for a free computer after 24 hours of working in the adoption program (no hands-on experience) or after building five computers for Free Geek.

Although only manufacturers of computers, monitors and televisions fund recycling through Oregon E-Cycles, Free Geek recycles all non-reusable electronics through responsible companies at its own expense. Printers, complex machines made to be disposable, are one of the largest areas of e-waste right now, and hopefully will be added to the E-Cycles program through future legislation.

Most of the computers Free Geek refurbish are around three years old. In the thrift store they sell from $90 to $250. All kinds of computer-related products are also available. In addition to getting a bargain, Haskins says you have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve bought a product with a neutral carbon footprint.

“I feel we [Free Geek] are really a social change organization,” Haskins adds. “We take what some view as a waste stream, take amazing volunteers, have a synergy with them, rebuild and recycle this technology and recycle it right back out there into the community.”

In addition to Free Geek, several other organizations participate in Oregon E-Cycles, including the 90 Goodwill donation sites (See sidebar), Far West Fibers, Total Reclaim, Inc., and Metro.

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Free Geek is located at 1731 SE 10th Ave, Portland, OR and online at www.freegeek.org They can be reached at 503-232-9350. For a complete list of organizations that participate in the Oregon E-Cycles program, go to www.deq.state.or.us/ecsearch

Faye Powell is a retired librarian who now feels challenged to peek inside the mysterious CPU. She can be contacted via phaysee1@gmail.com

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From the Editors

By Sara & Rob Bednark
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Wow! It’s been a year since we started work on creating The Portland Upside. We had no journalism or publishing experience of our own, only a dream to create what we couldn’t find—a publication with all positive news from the Portland metro area. Now a year later, we’ve published over 50 articles spanning six issues starting with the first in May 2009.

It feels like The Portland Upside is really catching on and gaining momentum. We’re getting a great response, more copies are being picked up at our distribution sites, and we’re seeing more hits on our website. It turns out that we’re not the only ones who want to read positive news.

As always, we want to thank those who volunteer their time and talent to share the inspiring stories from around Portland. Without their help, this paper would not exist.

Because of them, we are able to spread the word about Cheryl Lohrmann’s quest to reduce the use of single-use plastic (“Cheryl Lohrmann leaves no plastic behind”), City Repair’s successful community-building ventures (“Do-it-yourself neighborhood building”), Jim Keefe’s commitment to giving the kids at Cherry Blossom Estates more opportunities to thrive (“Kids Club pulse of community”), and Oso Martin’s creation of Free Geek, an innovative organization for reusing and recycling discarded electronics (“Old computers diverted from dumpsters to desks”).

We look forward to hearing your comments as we continue to unearth more of Portland’s upside and share it with you.

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If you would like to be added to our email list for volunteers, call us at 503-663-1526 or email us at editors@portlandupside.com and we’ll keep you updated with our deadlines, get-togethers and general needs.

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Find your passion, take action

Springboard Innovation supports Portland’s budding social entrepreneurs

By Rebecca Robinson
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Springboard Innovations’ changeXchange website is designed to get good ideas launched by exposing social projects to a community of potential investors.

Although the world’s problems can feel overwhelming at times, more and more ordinary people are stepping forward with creative ideas and a passion to make a positive impact in their local community. Rather than focusing on making money, they focus on making a difference. These innovative thinkers—who seek social rather than financial profit—have earned the label “social entrepreneurs.”

Yet even when the will is strong, the knowledge and skills are often missing. Many aspiring social entrepreneurs lack the business and marketing know-how necessary to bring their visionary ideas to fruition, let alone sustain them over time.

So how does Portland nurture these new social entrepreneurs?

One local organization, Springboard Innovation, has two signature programs to do just that. Local Agenda and changeXchange dovetail to benefit communities by nurturing sustainable, innovative ideas into reality.

Local Agenda is a 12-week course that anyone can take. For those with a passion for social change but no specific ideas, Local Agenda helps them find their niche. For those with a dream, like Cheryl Lohrmann, Local Agenda provides leadership skills and the support necessary to keep a great idea going.

Cheryl created Leave No Plastic Behind (LNPB), a community arts initiative that focuses on reducing the consumption of single-use plastics. LNPB was a successful start to Cheryl’s work, but she knew she wanted to expand her vision. After taking Local Agenda, she fleshed-out her ideas and founded a broader-reaching organization called Create Plenty (See “Cheryl Lohrmann leaves no plastic behind,”).

“I was looking at the Mercy Corps Northwest website for information on their business model,” says Cheryl, “because I had an idea but it came to the point where I realized I had to start some kind of work on developing it. I saw a description for Springboard’s Local Agenda program, and I clicked on it.”

Cheryl signed up for Local Agenda in the fall of 2008, where she learned how to put her ideas into action through the development of a sustainable business model complete with organizational name, purpose and budget.

“I am not a business person; I am an art major,” explains Cheryl. “But I don’t want to be a nonprofit dependent on grants from foundations which may fail. Which is why it was great to work with Springboard to develop a sustaining strategy… and get listed on changeXchange.”

changeXchange is a website designed to get good ideas launched by exposing projects to a community of potential investors. Seed funding is one of the biggest challenges social entrepreneurs face, and changeXchange helps bridge the gap by putting ideas together with start-up capital.

changeXchange allows anyone to review the projects listed and invest shares of $5 each in any of them. Once investors purchase shares, they can connect with the project launchers through an online forum called the Roundtable. Here they interact with the launchers and fellow investors, strengthening community ties and creating dialogue between the social entrepreneurs and their financial backers. Being included on the website gives projects like Cheryl’s Create Plenty the visibility and funding opportunities needed to get off the ground.

Cheryl sums up her experience with Springboard Innovation:

“It’s great to have Springboard to help build energy for the projects and keep the momentum going. They’re a great support network.”

Started in Portland, Springboard is a pioneer for educating and supporting social entrepreneurs, and its message is spreading. In March 2010, Springboard will hold a training to teach other cities around the country how to use Local Agenda to benefit their own communities.
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For more information about Springboard Innovation and changeXchange visit
www.springboardinnovation.org and www.thechangexchange.org or call 503-452-6898.

Rebecca Robinson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor based in Portland. Have a story that needs telling? Contact her at rebecca.michelle.robinson@gmail.com

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Cheryl Lohrmann leaves no plastic behind

By Rebecca Robinson
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Leave No Plastic Behind volunteer Adina Menashe (left) and founder Cheryl Lohrmann display a portion of the National Plastic Quilt Project, one of their programs to raise awareness to reduce plastic.

“I foresaw a more traditional life for myself,” says Cheryl Lohrmann, describing her unforeseen transition from nonprofit staffer to social entrepreneur. She pauses, reconsidering. “Then again, I’ve always liked getting people to think differently.”

While working at the conservation nonprofit Oregon Wild, Cheryl founded a community organization called Create Plenty, a waste-prevention and food production initiative that arose from a Portland-based project, Leave No Plastic Behind (LNPB).

From planting seeds at her church’s Soil and Conservation Days as a child in rural Michigan to taking photographs of garbage and junkyards in Chicago after college, Cheryl has always cared about the environment. But she traces the inspiration to found Create Plenty to reading a single book.

“Elizabeth Royte’s ‘Garbage Land’ changed my life,” Cheryl says, her eyes lighting up as she describes the book’s in-depth exploration of landfills, shredders, and other final destinations for our mountains of trash.

“The section on plastic was so much worse than any of the others. There are so many chemicals that we’re introducing into our lives with plastic that we haven’t studied fully, and [reading about it] made me realize I had to spur more people into thinking we don’t have to accept things the way they are now.”

Armed with the new information, Cheryl started brainstorming creative ways to engage and educate the public about waste reduction and alternatives to single-use plastics. She came up with Leave No Plastic Behind (LNPB), a project blending art, activism and community-building activities.

LNPB’s mission—“to sharply decrease the demand for single-use plastic through the development of creative awareness campaigns”—finds expression in the National Plastic Quilt Project. It’s a collection of foot-long squares made of single-use plastic joined together to create a collaborative work of art. The quilt illustrates the ubiquity of plastic and asks people to reduce their consumption.

Contributing artists are asked to walk their talk by adopting a “plastic-observant lifestyle” for three months. They agree to refrain from purchasing or using any items composed of or packaged in single-use plastic. The list is lengthy: prepackaged foods, to-go coffee lids, shampoo, bottled water, and many other staples of everyday life.

he Create Plenty venture hoping to get funding through the changeXchange social venture capital website (see “Find your passion, take action,”) is the Action Center, a “community hub” with a store, container reuse station, garden and workshop where cooking, gardening, building and food storage skills are taught and exchanged in an environment which builds a cooperative, low-waste community.

“A place where you can have a café and a market and a deli and everything food-related without sending the consumer home with more trash,” is how Cheryl sees it.

Her long-term goal is to have Action Centers around the city “as prolific as 7-11 and Plaid Pantry,” to promote a sustainable, healthy lifestyle and create local jobs. The Action Center will show that Portland is moving beyond the plastic bag and tackling single-use packaging in creative ways.

“It won’t be easy,” Cheryl concedes. “We have to invent a new infrastructure. But not a high-tech one, just a practical one.”

Which, in her estimation, may mean looking to the past to guide the future.

“Maybe progress isn’t something no one’s seen before; maybe it’s something behind us that happened already,” says Cheryl. “It’s communication and sharing resources with each other.”

_____


To learn more about Create Plenty and Leave No Plastic Behind, visit www.createplenty.org

Rebecca Robinson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor based in Portland. Have a story that needs telling? Contact her at rebecca.michelle.robinson@gmail.com

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The Chapman School Vaux’s Swifts

By Edie Sidle
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Photo by Steve Warner

Every September since the late 1980’s, the chimney at Chapman Elementary School in Northwest Portland is home to thousands of migrating Vaux Swifts, small birds who circle the skies before sunset as hundreds of people come to watch them file into the chimney for the night.

The Swifts spiral downwards, then swing up, up.
Their wings fluttering, a syncopated rhythm,
avoiding a million crashes, with something magical.
They play, they eat, they soar.
It is time to perch on the long column of the school chimney,
the dusk deepens.
Hanging tenaciously in the narrow darkness, now silent,
a thousand wings, now still.
They rest, they wait, forty thousand strong.
Answering to an unknown code, a silent destiny.
Then, the dawn breaks and the Swifts again fly up, up,
with something magical.
Nature’s song.

For years, Edie has been involved in “business writing” but more recently has been exploring creative writing, even trying her hand at poetry. She may be reached at edeegee@yahoo.com

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There’s a bakery where the library used to be,

By Judith Arcana
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Photo by Jonathan Arlook

In the fall of 2007, I asked Greg Mistell, baker and owner of the Fleur de Lis Bakery & Café in the Hollywood District, to donate a cake for an event. Because it was a literary event, our conversation led to writing. Greg mentioned he’d been an English major, a happy coincidence and perfect fit for a bakery located in Hollywood’s old library.

Perhaps because I’m a writer who eats a certain number of cookies each week, and perhaps because I live in an apartment above the new library, we wound up collaborating on a poetry-as-performance event, The Bakery Show, featuring local poets plus delicious dinners, drinks and treats from Fleur de Lis.

What with all that melding of words and bread, poetry and cake, I wrote this poem.

There’s a bakery where the library used to be,

so the baker is an English major, and his
gingerbread’s shining lemon glaze rhymes
with apricot scones, cinnamon rolls, thick
brownies demanding haiku-size bites. And
those fat doughnuts are classics, their holes
suggesting absent clues in mystery novels
whose pages flutter like flaky pastry around
sticky elements of the plot. Each berry tart
tells a story, each cookie’s a simple sentence
its crunchy sugar sparkles scattered like
commas through paragraphs, like dashes
for emphasis – and the very last crumb
on the plate is a period or exclamation point
or formally postmodern question mark.

When the baker is an English major, then
stoneground grain can be a metaphor, and
characters can be yeasty, strong salty citizens
who grow thoughtfully into goodness, work
to make it come out right, study recipes, learn
to combine necessary flavors and textures.
One character gets punched down but rises
shapes up, reveals a heart as rich as dark rye.
The narrator is sharp as a well-kept knife
every chapter seems a slice of real life, all
its ingredients mixed well. All the words are
folded carefully into fiction, memoir, sonnets
cooling on stacked metal trays, shelved there
like the books were, always bound to feed us.

Judith Arcana writes poems, stories, essays and books. Sometimes she stops writing and walks over to Fleur de Lis Bakery for cookies or bread. Visit her website at juditharcana.com

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Out of the shadows and onto the big screen

Locals create the documentary “Papers” highlighting problem of undocumented youth

By El Grupo Juvenil,
The “Papers” Youth Crew
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Director Anne Galisky, (first row, second from left) and members of El Grupo Juvenil worked together to document the struggles undocumented youth must deal with after they turn 18.

On Sept. 26, the documentary “Papers” launched its national tour at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon. That’s because the filmmakers, both youth and adults, wanted to showcase their extraordinary adventure in their hometown.

“Papers” is a film about undocumented youth and the challenges they face as they turn 18 without legal status. The film highlights the approximately two million undocumented children who were raised and live in the U.S., but were born in other countries. They were educated in American schools, know only the U.S. as home, and upon high school graduation, find the door to their future closed because it is against the law for them to work or drive. It is difficult, if not impossible in some states, for them to attend college.

Currently, there is no path to citizenship for most of these young people. They must begin adulthood living in the shadows, when they desire deeply, like most young people, to pursue their dreams and contribute their skills and abilities to our communities.

Portland-based Graham Street Productions made “Papers” in partnership with Film Action Oregon. The filmmakers worked with undocumented youth who wanted to tell their stories, as well as with national and local community organizations working to change immigration policy on behalf of them.

The “Papers” crew includes adult and youth, gay and straight, Latino, Jewish, Japanese-American, African-American and Anglo, ages 17 to 72. Director Anne Galisky is of Polish decent and has a rich immigration story of her own that stretches from the Ukraine to Mexico to Los Angeles. The producer, Rebecca Shine, of Jewish descent, was also inspired by the struggles and successes of her own people.

The five main characters in the film represent the diversity of young immigrants in the U.S. today: a Guatemalan-American girl who risks deportation before her eighteenth birthday; a Mexican-American student who lives on two borders as both a gay Latino and as an undocumented student; a Korean-American student who dreams of college but encounters only stone walls; a Jamaican-American young woman who wants desperately to use her college degree but finds herself exploited in dead-end jobs; and a Mexican-American teenager who wants to leave life in the streets for something more positive, but lacks the papers to take the next steps.

By choosing to tell their stories of being undocumented in America, the youth depicted in the film risk arrest, detention and deportation to countries they do not even remember. Aware that they no longer tell their stories for their own relief or even for the benefit of people they know, they have nevertheless taken responsibility for representing all the undocumented children who go to American schools only to live in the shadows of society after graduation. The characters in the film talk about possible solutions to this dilemma.

The project is not only about creating a compelling film, however. It is also about training young leaders in social justice.

One unique aspect of the film’s production is the three youth producers, founders of El Grupo Juvenil, who were involved in every aspect of the project, including planning, fundraising, public speaking, filming, interviewing and outreach. Ages 18 through 20, the three grew El Grupo Juvenil to include young people from seven different school districts in the Portland metro area as well as dozens of youth from around the country who participated in the film.

Although the three founders of El Grupo Juvenil are Mexican-American, they work with youth from many cultures and ethnicities. They have spent the last couple of years working hard to do something positive with their lives. Not only have they produced this film, a companion book and a discussion guide, they have also designed and facilitated workshops about immigration, discrimination and storytelling at local schools, including George Middle School, Madison High School, Beaverton International School, Southridge High School, and Portland Community College. They have mentored at-risk youth, including homeless youth, young adults with developmental disabilities, and high school students in danger of dropping out.

In the process of making the film, El Grupo Juvenil has found allies in U.S. Senators and Representatives, national immigrant rights leaders and other powerful individuals around the country. They have received over 1400 donations from 24 states, as well as requests for screenings from colleges, community groups and independent theaters across the country. The filmmakers have also submitted their work to film festivals and television broadcasters.

The “Papers” crew believes that as a society we risk losing the immense passion and talent of these immigrant American youth and that a change can be made, a hopeful and uplifting message in a country with a long tradition of immigration.

_____

Tour dates can be found online at www.papersthemovie.com For more information, call 503-282-8683 or email el.grupo.juvenil@grahamstreetproductions.com

El Grupo Juvenil was started by three young people who wanted to represent the 2 million undocumented youth in the country. They have grown to include over 150 youth from around the country who are participating in this project.

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Voices around town

What do you like to do for fun?

The Portland Upside
October 2009

“Downhill skiing in the morning, sunbathing on the beach in the afternoon. Only in Portland can we do that on the same day!”

–Berry Kruijning
Lake Oswego, OR

“Disc golf at Pier Park! Hiking the Gorge, and eating anywhere.”

–Randolph King
Cedar Mills neighborhood
Portland, OR

“I like hanging out at Edgefield for an afternoon. Watch the glass blowing, eat outdoors, and enjoy a microbrew while listening to a local band—good times!”

–T. Burgin
Gresham, OR

“I love to blow glass at Elements Glass in NW Portland. I also like to play frisbee with my dog, Happy, in local area parks.”

–Marvin K. Dean
Portland, OR

“Hunting for fall mushrooms on the forest floor is adventurous and fun!”

–Alan Benson
Southeast Portland, OR

“I like to go to concerts and festivals around town to listen to and dance to good music.”

–R.M. Lloyd
Troutdale, OR

“Going to downtown Portland and experiencing everything that downtown has to offer. I love what they’ve done with the Pearl district, and there’s something going on every weekend.”

–Rho Weyhrauch
Pleasant Valley neighborhood
Portland, OR

“Since the season has changed, with all the fall colors, my husband and I take our convertible for drives up the Gorge and to the coast, sipping on some good cups of coffee along the way.”

–Kay Crane
Troutdale, OR

“I like soaking in a big soapy bathtub, with a great bottle of wine, and a whackin’ good book.”

–Donnie Endicott
Springdale, OR

“I enjoy traveling to the National Parks to camp, and hiking the waterfall trails along the Gorge”

–C. Strobel
Damascus, OR

“I love spending a little time at the library, then a coffee shop, then out for a hike in the woods or to the zoo.”

–Howard Abrams
Beaverton, OR

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The journey from inspiration to entrepreneur

By Sally Murdoch
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Martin Magnia’s inspiration for converting vintage Beetle’s into modern electric cars has evolved into a new business.

We have all heard stories about a layoff spurring a new business or a mortgage payment becoming the mother of invention. For some, not fi nding a job can jumpstart a latent entrepreneurial urge, while others work decades in a career before the enterprising spirit takes hold.

No matter how one gets there, the change in thinking from worker to entrepreneur can be fascinating and inspiring. Here are some snapshots of local people breaking out on their own amidst turbulent economic times.

Bringing electric cars to the Northwest

Martin Magnia’s reputation as the go-to guy on vintage Volkswagens was well established by 2002 when he started The DDB, his VW restoration business. Visiting his shop is like entering a VW Type 3 museum: fastbacks, squarebacks and Karmann Ghias span 50 years of car technology. Business has been steady for Magnia in his shop on 78th and Northeast Halsey. Nonetheless, he recently came upon a new opportunity that fast-forwarded his skills into the future: turning vintage VWs and other European makes into electric vehicles.

Magnia had long dreamed of making the cars he loved into efficient, carbon-neutral vehicles. He outfitted Beetles as electric cars until two years ago, when he and his friend Matt, owner of Ecos Motors, brainstormed on how to widen the technology. The two put their ideas to the test by placing an electric Beetle on eBay, and watching as it sold for $26,500 within an hour. They formed a partnership that will bring three Ecos electric car models to market in 2010, with Magnia as the western distributor for all three: an electric VW beetle, the Ecos FUN which looks like a jeep, and a luxury sports car called the Ecos Harbinger.

While Magnia can build and sell new Ecos cars, he can also convert cars to electric. There are a number of charging stations in town, and with Magnia’s onboard self-charging apparatus, he says you can charge your vehicle at home for less wattage than a hairdryer. The tax credits, he points out, save money as well. Ideally, he says, it’s the European lightweight metal models from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that make great conversions to electric engines.

With his thorough knowledge of vintage European car models and electric conversion technology, Magnia’s business is steady.

“No more oil changes, no more tune ups,” Magnia says.

All parts and manufacturing are done in the U.S., except the batteries, which are made of 50% recycled parts in China.

From craft brewing to screen printing

Tim McFall was the vice president of marketing for Widmer Brothers brewery for 15 years and an active part of helping the iconic brothers grow a small batch brewing operation into one of the country’s largest craft brewers. With Widmer looking for ways to scale back in December of 2008, McFall decided to resign his position. After a decade and a half in the beer business, McFall and his wife Robin thought about the next chapter in their lives and were now looking for an opportunity to do something different.

In January 2009, he considered running an e-commerce beer merchandise site, but didn’t see a good fit for Oregon’s smaller beer company needs. His next choice was to look for a business to buy.

McFall found a screen printing shop for sale and the more he researched it, the more he knew he could use his marketing experience at a large company to help others. At Widmer, he had observed that many screen printers began as artists and graphic designers before falling into business ownership. Some were great screen printers and artists but didn’t necessarily understand the business side of things. Widmer sought out the artists that were also good business people and kept them as vendors. Having been on the client side for 15 years, McFall knew what makes a good vendor.

“High quality product and fair pricing, but to be in business you have to know customer service and get it done right, and those were the vendors I used on a regular basis. Whether it’s a coach from a local school or parent volunteer or a marketing manager at a brewery wanting to order a product or service,” he said, “this is the job they have to do, and as a vendor it’s your number one role to help them.”

McFall’s aha moment came while the screen-printing offer was wavering. The gap in momentum allowed him some pause for thought. With some small capital investments, he could build a shop from the ground up, rather than buying one. Infinity Impressions was born.

McFall believes that a thorough understanding of business and client’s needs is what sets his company apart. They now have three employees, including a full time pressman and a team of freelancers and they just completed their first 800-piece screen printing order for a local school, ahead of schedule.

The Frying Scotsman

James King was born and raised in a small town west of Glasgow, Scotland, his home for 40 years until a chance meeting with a Portland girl (that’s me) led him to Oregon. Two years ago they married and had a baby while King kept his UK-based job on an offshore oil rig.

King’s job kept him away for 4 weeks and home for 4 weeks. When the pressure of maintaining a career overseas and a home and family in Portland became too great, he decided to look for a job here this past June.

A chef manager for 22 years in Scotland, he figured he’d be a natural in Portland’s rich restaurant scene. But proving his experience on paper, conducting interviews with a thick Scottish brogue, and competing against hundreds of other applicants, proved difficult. By mid August, he was ready to explore other options.

Encouraged by frequent Portland food cart dining as well as a New York Times article proclaiming that food carts are changing Portland’s culinary landscape, King’s entrepreneurial wheels started spinning. A visit to the British Fish and Chip Shop had him missing tastes of home, and the two ideas melded. Why not, he thought? He’d always really wanted his own chippy some day. A converted trailer showed up on craigslist one Saturday and by Tuesday the trailer was his.

Named The Frying Scotsman, the trailer opened on Sept. 14 in Portland’s eastside industrial district at 22nd and Raleigh. By 12:30 p.m. on day two, King had to post the closed sign in order to catch up with demand. By the end of the first week, he had sold 75 servings of fresh fish sourced locally from Pacific Seafood. What makes his business unique, he says, is the authentic British fish and chips made by a true Brit.

_____

Fourth-generation Portlander Sally Murdoch has a two-year-old daughter and two stepsons. She has owned a marketing consultation firm for over 4 years, specializing in beer, action sports and art. Contact Sally at sally@sallymurdoch.com


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Bus Love

By Kara Maslen
The Portland Upside
October 2009

One of 400 entries in Forest Grove’s Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival.

The Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival in Forest Grove has occurred on the third Saturday of September for the past 19 years. It began when the Board of the Valley Art Association was inspired to emulate Santa Barbara’s street painting festival as a way to encourage creativity and community. Unlike other Chalk Art Festivals, the artwork is not judged, so all drawing is done purely for the sake of creating art.

Lillian Read has volunteered at all but two of the festivals, and will co-chair next year’s event with her mom.

For more information, visit www.valleyart.org or contact Lillian at Lillian.Read@gmail.com

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