"HUNGRY, ANYTHING HELPS"

Cardboard signs abound on many corners in Portland, Oregon. And behind them are invisible people. Some profit handsomely, some take turns working shifts, and many are exploited.  Handing people money rarely solves a problem. The best way to help is to financially support local pantries, shelters, and churches that are set up to serve the public or volunteer your time.

This is an update on consulting work with a church in S.E. Portland. Their initial goal was to launch a community pantry in a diverse neighborhood with higher than average food insecurity.

After nearly a year of probono work, it has been well worth the small investment of time.

The pantry team has doubled in size, and added several community partners. The pantry served 12 families in January. Growth has steadily increased and in the month of September, the pantry served 73 families.

This group is mirroring Jesus's words to feed the hungry. Hunger is what happens when a person doesn't have enough to eat. And it begins to impact a child in school, or a parent at work.

Food insecurity refers to a long list of problems that contribute to hunger-job loss, no high school diploma, loss of housing, no affordable child care and more.

Addressing food insecurity requires building relationships, identifying needs, assessing readiness, community partnerships, financial resources and a huge core of trained volunteers. 

Pantries offer emergency assistance, and give families time to improve their financial circumstances to prevent food insecurity as a way of life.

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What is Neighborhood Resilience?

Neighborhood resilience is built one person and one family at a time. Before long, an entire block may benefit.

Here are some ideas:
Share a garden space anywhere you can find one. Share knowledge, labor, cost (including a tool sharing agreement), produce and seeds.
Create a kitchen tool sharing plan for larger items that are only used a few times a year. Examples include food dehydrators, canning equipment, sealing equipment, commercial grade mixing bowls and pans.
Plant themed flower or herb gardens on the entire block. It shows neighborhood pride.
Exchange gently used toys or children's clothing to save money.
Hold a neighborhood jobs club.
Have a neighborhood clothes and accessory sharing clothes closet to help job seekers land the perfect job.
Trade services such as cleaning gutters in exchange for sewing alterations. Build the neighbor a fence, or chicken coop in exchange for work on your car.
Consider a monthly book club, book exchange, or book sale.
Teach a variety of skills at a neighborhood craft fair.
Teach basic home or auto repair classes to your neighbors.
Start a neighborhood choir.
Host neighborhood celebrations.

January is Seed Exchange Month

Open pollinated seeds grow crops that allow for seed saving. Smart growers, urban and community gardeners and cooperatives understand that access is one way to help neighbors become more food secure.

Portland gardeners can harvest year round if they have a space to grow a garden, basic know how, understand concepts like seed selection, planting and harvest times.
 
January is the perfect time to pour over seed online or paper seed catalogs, but frugal gardeners must learn to save seed, barter and make savvy purchases.

Barter comes in a lot of packages. If growing space is insufficient, consider sharing seed for a small share of the harvest. If conditions are such that you can't tend a garden in 2015, consider loaning seed to another grower, who in turn will collect and share seeds for 2016.

Finally, pay it forward. Donate seed to a local grower who plans to provide produce to a local food bank, soup kitchen or pantry.

Food Pantry Partnership in SE Portland

Hamilton Darnall, LLC recently partnered with a church in SE Portland to help launch a community food pantry. They intend to partner with Oregon Food Bank, which requires demonstrating operational sustainability.

Our role is to help engage community partners, identify funding opportunities and help position them for funding.

Even before the first meeting they had received their first grant.
Small businesses have begun sending donations.
Within two days they managed to leverage volunteers to help collect food.

This is an exciting project and we are pleased they are stepping up to meet needs in this under served Portland neighborhood.

From Trust to Treasure: How to Assess Character

Whether it is a boss, co-worker, tenant or community partnership, some level of trust is required. Without it there is no respect or reciprocity. Here are some simple guidelines to evaluate whether trust is worth the risk.

How severe was the problem? Recent or remote? Outside of the persons control? So prevalent it is not worth regarding? Extenuating circumstances? Clear pattern of improvement? A road back?

If trust is a starting point, then perhaps treasure is optimal. We invest in others with the hopes of a good outcome. Think of high cost of turn over in business. Training costs can be enormous.

Severe problems might include whether to hire someone with a pattern of violence. Everyone deserves a chance, but a person with this history might do well stocking shelves rather than working with the public.

What about if some details come out decades later? It might depend on a variety of factors. How reliable a track record does the person have? Have they made amends? Has the problem been repeated since?

Forbidden Fruit: Improving Access

We share many interests. We are busy planting vegetable starts. Currently we have leeks, pak choi, gourmet lettuces, mesclun, edible pod peas, and more in addition to  many types of herbs, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, currants, grapes. We also have delphinium and hollyhocks germinating. Gardening and eating fresh is a way of life for us-one we would like to pass on. 
Historically one to three of us have participated in a plant swap. This year it is early May. This allows us to plant more diversely and minimize cost.
For gardeners forbidden fruit is tantamount to that which is just out of their reach. 
One of today's projects is propagating lemon grass. Who can resist Asian food? Lemon grass plants from a nursery are costly, however lemon grass cuttings put on shoots in 1-2 weeks and can be planted outdoors in 3-4 weeks. A single stalk makes a good container planting, or plant 3 or more stalks in the garden. Lemon Grass does not tolerate cold temperatures below 45 degrees, so when we transplant it, we will need to provide protection from the cold. Lemon Grass multiplies rapidly, but is not invasive. It can be purchased inexpensively at an Asian grocery store. We paid $1. for bunches of four to five stalks. To use lemon grass cut back the outer green leaves. Crush the bulb and a most wonderful aroma fills the air. This is the valuable part of the plant.
Forbidden fruit has another meaning. Lack of access. Obesity, nutrition education, food security, buying fresh, locally sustainable food, and helping the poor become more self sufficient are important topics. As our company grows we hope to do our part by passing on over 200 years of combined gardening experience. In the interim we continue to network with others. Today this writer donated fresh parsley, and a large volume of culinary sage and rosemary to Meals on Wheels, a program that helps senior citizens with affordable access to nutritious meals, and decrease social isolation.  

What Is Success?

Businesses and nonprofits have one thing in common. Both are run by people. By design we as people have limited time and resources. Therefore we must prioritize our time. For the last three months this writer has been learning the specifics of government contracting.  It is no elusive, but it does require knowledge of practical elements in order to achieve success.

What is success? And who determines who or which business is successful. Often the determination is made by the numbers on the balance sheet. There are however other measures of success: fulfillment, number of people served, impact if the business or nonprofit ceased to exist.

Our business is about people, bringing value to those we serve and personal enjoyment. We come from a belief that if doing what you do well, or are called to do will in turn be profitable. Therefore, recent curricula was developed for a three part nonprofit course. Following that design we turned to our love of gardening, nature, people, education, and sustainability and designed a comprehensive course on gardening, soil building, handicap access that can be taught to groups, in a classroom, apartment, church or other nonprofit setting etc. and lastly, a community action course for churches that wish to become naturally engaged by serving on behalf of and along side community partners.