Recipient Organization
GROW PORTLAND
4706 NE 10TH AVE
PORTLAND,OR 97211
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Our project helps meet the food needs of low-income families by providing the opportunity to grow and sell healthy food, purchase organic food at a low cost, and by sourcing more culturally appropriate food through the emergency food system. The need for improved access to healthy food in Portland, Oregon is well documented by multiple planning and community food assessments. Our partnership creates a comprehensive strategy to improve our local food system to better meet the food needs of low-income families in East Portland and Northeast Portland. A special focus is placed on refugee and immigrant groups. Our project involves incorporating food security work into two public agencies and two school districts.This comprehensive response to local food access, farm and nutrition issues involves multiple sectors of the food system: producers, consumers, suppliers, government agencies, school districts and emergency food providers. Our integrated farm, education, and food purchasing programs will not only address immediate food needs, but also increase the self-reliance of communities in providing for their food needs. Our project will allow significantly more low-income families to purchase locally grown food using SNAP. We will help to make healthy food more available and more affordable by creating two urban farm stands and offering bulk harvest shares. We will build three new community gardens, three collaborative gardens, and help 20 new market gardeners access land, training and markets. Developing nutrition education programs for at-risk school students will increase food-growing knowledge among urban youth and heighten their awareness of the connection between diet and health.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
GOALSBy the end of 2016, increase food security and healthy food access by developing three new collaborative growing sites with 2.5 acres and a total of 300 people growing food collaboratively under the instruction of an experienced farmer-educator.By the end of 2016, increase the supply of healthy food at local emergency food pantries by donating 5,000 pounds and 20 types of fresh produce annually. By the end 2017, increase the access to low-cost healthy, culturally appropriate food for 350 families by developing two urban farm stands: one in Cully and one in East Portland.By the end of 2017, increase food security and healthy food access by developing three new community gardens with growing space for a total of 300 enrolled families (on plots size 200-1200 square feet); provide 50 larger plots over the standard 400 square-foot size.By the end of 2017, improve knowledge of healthy foods amongst 1,500 elementary school students and 75 high school students through hands-on, garden-based education.By the end of 2018, develop land access and a training program for 20 refugee and immigrant growers to sell for market on plots sized 5,000 square feet and greater. Help market growers improve their growing and marketing skills.GOALSBy the end of 2016, increase food security and healthy food access by developing three new collaborative growing sites with 2.5 acres and a total of 300 people growing food collaboratively under the instruction of an experienced farmer-educator.By the end of 2016, increase the supply of healthy food at local emergency food pantries by donating 5,000 pounds and 20 types of fresh produce annually. By the end 2017, increase the access to low-cost healthy, culturally appropriate food for 350 families by developing two urban farm stands: one in Cully and one in East Portland.By the end of 2017, increase food security and healthy food access by developing three new community gardens with growing space for a total of 300 enrolled families (on plots size 200-1200 square feet); provide 50 larger plots over the standard 400 square-foot size.By the end of 2017, improve knowledge of healthy foods amongst 1,500 elementary school students and 75 high school students through hands-on, garden-based education.By the end of 2018, develop land access and a training program for 20 refugee and immigrant growers to sell for market on plots sized 5,000 square feet and greater. Help market growers improve their growing and marketing skills.
Project Methods
Market Gardening is an entrepreneurial approach designed for immigrants and refugees to increase their incomes and improve food access for their communities. Our planning work identified at least 30 families interested in developing market gardens. We will develop 20, 5,000 square foot market garden plots at the Headwaters Farm with around three acres of total growing space. These plots are designed for entrepreneurs looking to sell food they grow within their community networks (families, friends and faith-based groups). We will provide five annual classes and field mentoring sessions to train market gardeners on professional growing practices.Community Farming is our new collaborative growing approach where members work together on a larger scale (1/2-3/4 acres) and share the harvest. We designed this program to respond to request from agencies and community members. Grow Portland provides a skilled coordinator at each session to guide participants in professional growing practices. A learn-by-doing approach is emphasized and some formal instruction is offered in short format. The program helps participants learn new skills, save money and access exceptionally delicious and healthy food. Membership is free and open to all. Community farm members take home a share of the produce worth about $20/week for free. Members can also purchase additional food from with cash, credit or SNAP. Grow Portland is an authorized to accept SNAP, and we have a mobile transaction capability through our smart phone. We grow adiversity of vegetable and fruit crops that are defined by the members. In 2015, over 100 people participated in our inaugural community farming program. We are now planning to add three additional community farming sites in East Portland and Northeast Portland in 2015-6.Community Gardening development: To respond to the huge unmet demand for community gardens, we will develop three new community gardens in East Portland (finishing one each year in 2016, 17, and 18). In this program approach, families work their own plots with sizes 200-1000 square feet. Grow Portland provides shared tools and bulk purchasing of discounted growing supplies. Our volunteer lead gardener is available weekly to offer mentoring on growing techniques. We have two long-term leases secured and will work with the City of Portland to develop a third. The 80-plot, Floyd Light Community Garden with David Douglas School District is our focal project. The garden will be located at the Floyd Light Middle School where 800 students attend. Floyd Light Middle School is diverse ethnically with approximately 65% minority population and 80% free/reduced lunch rate. The site is centrally located next to public transportation, shopping centers, a Community Center, and a large health care facility.Planning for community garden expansion. Waiting list numbers at Grow Portland, Outgrowing Hunger and City of Portland community gardens show the huge unmet demand for community gardens plots in East Portland. A long-term construction plan is needed to ensure that current and future demand is met in East Portland. The population is East Portland is projected to grow, and the majority of refugees resettled in the Portland area live in East Portland. We will work with the City of Portland and Outgrowing Hunger to identify twenty private, nonprofit and government owned properties for potential future community garden construction. We will select priorities and make plans for construction based on population densities, the level of neighborhood needs and by identifying areas with insufficient access to garden space.Harvest Shares are a method to provide the community with high-quality food at a low cost and in an easy-to-use format. In 2014 and 2015, we sold around twenty-five harvest shares each year. We will expand this effort to offer up to 100 storage shares annually. The food will be grown on our community farms and by our market gardeners. We will offer both a summer and fall harvest share where community members purchase foods in bulk (50-100 lbs. at a time). Pickups will be held at our East Portland sites and can be purchased with SNAP. The harvest share model is an alternative to community-supported agriculture, which requires members to pick-up weekly and be especially flexible with what types of foods they receive.Urban Food Stands are a promising distribution channel for foods grown on our community farming sites. We will create two urban farm stands at our community farm sites, one in East Portland and one in the Cully neighborhood. We will develop this model as an alternative to a full farmers market, which is quite expensive and time-consuming to manage and involves a great deal of risk in terms of financial sustainability. Every week during the growing season, we will offer a diversity of foods for sale at the stands for a reasonable cost. We will promote this opportunity widely with community groups, signage and flyers. At the stand, customers may also order in advance, or U-pick bulk quantities of crops for preservation. With no natural foods stores and limited farmers market access in East Portland, this offers a way to connect low-income families directly with extremely fresh food grown close to their homes.Emergency Food Distribution is another promising method to help needy families source healthy food. Food pantries in our areas are working to offer more fresh food, but a more diverse and consistent supply is needed. In addition to Oregon Food Banks' central warehouse, several neighborhood food pantries have asked us to grow more leafy green and root vegetables focused on fall distribution. In 2015, we supplied 2,500 pounds of crops to three local food pantries, including the pantry at our partner David Douglas High School. Crops favored in certain ethnic minority groups such as daikon, cilantro and collards are often in short supply. We will work with three food pantries to grow specific crops that they need at certain times of the year. This supply will help close the gaps between other surpluses they source from commercial farms.?Garden and Nutrition Education (Elementary Schools): Grow Portland is working to develop opportunities for low-income students to heighten their awareness of the connection between diet and health. The benefits of school gardening are well documented by research--participating in school gardening improves student knowledge of nutritious food and improves eating habits. Creating a thriving garden education program is challenging for teachers, parents and volunteers to do alone. Our plan is expand our placement of highly skilled educators in schools to offer bi-monthly nutrition education in school gardening. Our professional educators help to raise the quality and consistency of school garden management.Youth Development (High Schools): Through our partnership with David Douglas School District we are creating for-credit class on sustainable agriculture and healthy foods for at-risk youth. We developed this in response to the request from the principal at the continuation high school campus. Grow Portland will co-instruct the class with school staff using a hands-on and career development focused curriculum. Students will come three days per week by bus to our largest urban farm site, located a five-minute drive from the school. From talks by weekly professional guest speakers and through academic readings, students will learn about growing food, healthy eating and career opportunities in the food and agriculture sectors. Students will take home food they grow at the site to share with their friends and family.