Portland, September 15th. Portland Fruit Tree Project marked an exciting milestone with a big multi-site urban harvesting event. There were four harvest sites and one team was entirely bike powered – a new harvest method for the nonprofit.
Over 640 pounds of fruit was sent to the NE Emergency Food Program & to Urban Gleaners. (Photo Credit, Amanda Rohde)
Over 40 volunteers harvested 1,281.5 pounds of fruit (photo credit Kimi Nam)
About half of the fruit was shared with the harvest volunteers – half of whom are low income themselves.
The event ended with a celebratory lunch while representatives from the NE Emergency Food Program & Urban Gleaners spoke about the impact the fruit from Portland Fruit Tree Project has on their organizations and the people they serve.
The grapes were ripe for the picking! (Photo credit, Kimi Nam)
200th Harvest (Photo credit, Amanda Rohde)
Since 2007 Portland Fruit Tree Project has brought together thousands of diverse Portlanders to harvest and distribute more than 100,000 lbs of fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste from hundreds of neighborhood fruit trees. 50% of fruit harvested by PFTP goes to local food pantries, and the rest goes to harvest participants, the majority of whom are living on low incomes. Since 2007 PFTP has provided fresh fruit to more than 10,000 low income families.
Portland Fruit Tree Project is a grass-roots non-profit organization that provides a community-based solution to a critical and growing need in Portland and beyond: Access to healthy food. By empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of urban fruit trees, we are preventing waste, building community knowledge and resources, and creating sustainable, cost-free ways to obtain healthy, locally-grown food. Because money doesn’t grow on trees… but fruit does!
“We organize people to gather fruit before it falls, and make it available to those who need it most. We register fruit and nut trees throughout the city, bring people together to harvest and distribute thousands of pounds of fresh fruit each year, and teach tree care and food preservation in hands-on workshops.”
Portland, September 14th. MIKE Program supporters enjoyed an upbeat fundraiser at the Multnomah Athletic Club. The nonprofit raised over $50,000 to help empower youth to be health leaders—ambassadors for health—through education, mentorship and community outreach. (Photo credit, Anna M. Campbell)
MIKE Program Board of Directors member Brent Barnett, Roy Jay, An Autumn Evening Chair Kathe Fradkin, and Keith Lyons presided over the successful evening.
Former Oregon State Senator Margaret Carter, who serves as director of Community Engagement with Oregon Health & Human Services, and Bobbie Dore Foster, executive director of The Skanner News and member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Board of Directors, joined in the fun during the festive evening.
MIKE is an acronym for: Multicultural Integrated Kidney Education. The program works to fight chronic disease conditions which harm kidneys including obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. These health issues are are increasingly impacting our children, especially low income and minority children.
Supporters work to empower more youth to be health leaders to counter chronic diseases of diabetes, high blood pressure . They explain that By 2020, Medicare expenses for kidney failure in the U.S. are expected to reach $54 billion.
Annually, MIKE Program empowers over 160 diverse youth in the Portland Metro Area to be ambassadors of health. MIKE Program recruits and trains caring adults to match with the youth on a 1:4 ratio, supporting them in the teens’ educational and experiential environments. The customized curriculum meets national health promotion and career related learning standards, as the teens develop individualized health promotion projects for their communities. MIKE Program provides critical interventions to the dire health consequences of poor nutrition, physical inactivity, risky behaviors, and poor access to health care.
Portland, September 21st. Guests gathered under the big top to support Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Oregon and Southwest Washington for the 2012 Hearts & Hands Auction. The event at the Portland Art Museum raised over $375,000 to support more than 1,500 families served by RMHC each year. (Photo Credit, Naim Hasan)
David Stoller and Mike Brown were inducted into the RMHC Hall of Fame. The Portland Trail Blazers (here represented by VP and RMHC Board Member Mike Fennell) were recognized as RMHC’s Partner of Distinction.
Ronald McDonald was front and center at the Benefit
Cooper & Laleya Christianson – House guests at Ronald McDonald House Charities since December 2011 while Cooper undergoes chemotherapy treatment for leukemia. Laleya spoke about her experience of staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland.
Masks added to the mystery and merriment at the Portland Art Museum
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Oregon and Southwest Washington provides a “home away from home” for families with seriously ill children, and supports initiatives to improve pediatric health.
To accomplish this, we rely on the generosity of thousands of donors, the ingenuity of local volunteers, and the dedication of our staff.
Portland ‘s two Ronald McDonald Houses are located steps away from some of the best hospitals for children in the Northwest. The West House is adjacent to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) and Shriners Hospital for Children. The East House is located on the campus of Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
During their visit, guests stay in comfortable and lovingly decorated private rooms where they can get a peaceful night’s rest, knowing their child is close by. Volunteers arrive daily to offer support by greeting guests with a smile, cleaning, and cooking. By providing a setting in which families connect with other families, and children can meet other children going though a similar experience, our houses ease the isolation of what can be a stressful and frightening time.
Portland, August 19th. The St. Johns Community Center was the site of a special event called Kids Cook. It was a free, kid-focused exploration of tasting and cooking with healthy, fresh, seasonal produce. The Portland Kitchen chefs were happy to partner with Portland Parks and Recreation for the Kids Cook event. Pictured are Portland Kitchen founders and board of directors: Wendy Kent, board secretary; co-founder Earl Frederick, co-founder Abby Herrera; and board member David McIntyre.
The Portland Kitchen is an emerging culinary after-school program providing high school youth the business skills and nutritional education needed to budget, plan and prepare for life.
The Portland Kitchen created marinated tofu wraps for Kids Cook attendees. Recipe can be found at http://www.facebook.com/ThePDXkitchen
KOIN news at 6 p.m. watched the demo, too.
From The Portland Kitchen:
The Oregon Culinary School generously offered up their restaurant, appetizers and a four-course meal to help us raise money to fund 45 ServSafe certificates to our high school youth, when we open. More info about the event is located here.
Mission
Our mission is to help youth experiencing adversity establish a framework for success in the workplace, and the dinner table, by offering them the business skills and nutritional education needed to budget, plan and prepare for life.
Company Overview
We knew there was a disconnect from farm to table. We knew about Portland’s low on-time high school graduation rate. We knew the economic climate was weighing heavily on our older youth, affecting hunger rates, class attendance and the opportunity for an after-school job. We knew we wanted to create long-term positive change in Oregon.
Description
The Portland Kitchen, an Oregon 501(c)(3), is an emerging comprehensive culinary after-school program to help high school students, age 14 to 18, establish success in the workplace, and the dinner table. Students learn how to cook, and try new foods through fun activities, games and working with guest chefs. This is a free program that provides the opportunity for students to become trained and certified for future employment — in addition to positively impacting their health.
General Information
Registration for The Portland Kitchen does not open until we raise year one’s operating budget. Interested students are invited to email [email protected] to add his or her name to the program’s contact list. Inquiries are always welcome.
Portland, September 16th. Julie Vigeland, PCPA Foundation member, Gary Maffei, PCPA Foundation board chair and Jeanne Newmark, donor and namesake of PCPA’s Newmark Theatre, celebrated Portland Center for the Performing Arts 25th Anniversary. Opened in 1987, Portland Center for the Performing Arts launched with the “New Theatre Building”, renamed Antoinette Hatfield Hall in 2008. Developed as a public/private partnership to create much-needed performance spaces in Portland, the building houses three distinct theatres—Newmark Theatre, Dolores Winningstad Theatre and Brunish Theatre.
There were live performances on Main Street and in the Antoinette Hatfield Hall Rotunda.
For the 25th Anniversary celebration, PCPA hosted an afternoon filled with free, family-friendly activities open to the public. The day included live performances by Portland Taiko, Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre, Festival Brass and Portland Opera To Go! Visitors were also able to visit with PCPA’s resident arts groups, and take behind-the-scenes tours of the theatres.
The Portland Center for the Performing Arts Foundation is the nonprofit organization that helps PCPA maintain high-quality theaters that attract premier performances to our community. The PCPA Foundation raises capital funds and supports PCPA through region-wide community outreach and advocacy.
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