Learning from our Partners May 13, 2013

Few could guess the amount of work that takes place in this humble building in Forest Grove–the office of Adelante Mujeres

Two weeks ago, four of my co-workers and I got to take a field trip to Forest Grove, Oregon to visit Adelante Mujeres, a fantastic organization that helps thousands of people every year through a variety of programs.  A few of these programs are similar to those of Nuestra Comunidad Sana, including our Raices/Roots Greenhouse and Community Garden and our Promoting Prosperity Business Services program.

Six employees at Adelante Mujeres took time out of their busy day to tell us all about their community garden and their small business development program, called Adelante Empresas.  We learned a lot and most importantly learned that we are on the right track with both of our programs.

We hope that we can return the favor and host our counterparts from Adelante Mujeres in Hood River someday soon.

Here is La Esperanza Farm’s greenhouse on a beautiful day in late April

Great to put on a Job Resume August 7, 2012

That’s what one corps member said about his experience helping plant and harvest the Klahre House garden, a project funded by the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps.  Klahre House Garden Coordinator, Maya Trook, worked hard all year to make it a significant learning experience for the participants.  Evaluations filled out by the corps members showed that it was universally liked.  Other comments included:

“It is a  great experience for you to learn about the environment.”

“You learn a lot about how plants live  and what kind of stuff help plants grow[…Also]…it is fun and you work on leadership.”

“I would say that [the Klahre House Garden project] is fun, interesting, and educational. I’ve learned a lot while apart of the program, and would encourage others to do the same.”

Growing their own vegetables, giving them to Foster Parents and then eating them in cooked meals is very meaningful to the students

Work Day at the Greenhouse April 9, 2012

Thanks to the Northwest Area Foundation, an Anonymous Grant and to NALCAB, Nuestra Comunidad Sana has had a greenhouse and garden for the past three years.  Each year, the work of the Invernadero de Raices/Roots Greenhouse project expands. This year, we will be moving out of our rented greenhouse and moving to an acre of land that is being donated to us by a generous land owner.  In the beginning, we will not have a greenhouse on the land, but we will have garden plots.

Before the move, NCS, the Raices/Roots Colectivo and community volunteers have worked hard to plant starter plants that they will sell at local markets and through a preschool  fundraiser.

Here are photos of the work party on March 24th.  I can’t wait to pick up my tomato, pepper, cucumber and eggplant starters for my garden in May.

Veggies! July 15, 2011

My daughter, Elana, accompanied me to the market. Hopefully someday soon she'll eat cucumbers and snap peas...

Once again this year, Nuestra Comunidad Sana (NCS) is selling vegetables and starter plants at the Gorge Grown Farmers Market in Hood River. These are all grown at the NCS Raices (Roots) Greenhouse, which is staffed by volunteer families who benefit from the produce.  NCS hopes to expand the greenhouse operation in the future.

I blogged about the Farmers Market in the last post and then realized I hadn’t been to visit this year.  So, last evening I went to take some photos and found NCS Health Promotoer, Toña Sanchez, selling our pesticide-free products.  Of course, I couldn’t resist buying some chicharros y pepinos (snap peas and cucumbers), which I later ate in a yummy salad. 

Toña showing off some amazing radishes for sale at the Farmers Market

Gardens and Partnerships January 21, 2011

I got these photos from Jacob Kellert and Kieran Connolly, teachers at the Klahre House. 

I wasn’t sure what I was looking at until Jacob told me,

“In the pictures we were placing a cold frame at the OSU extension office.  The office is allowing us to use the plots at their learning garden to grow veggies.  We have also connected with a couple of Master Gardeners through them.  The kids in our garden class worked with Master Gardeners to build cold frames so that we might experiment with winter gardening. So far the garlic is doing well underground and the lettuce, while not happy, is still alive.”

How cool is that?!

Saying Thank You to an Anonymous Donor October 22, 2010

I received a letter today, attached to a check for $20,000.  Here’s what it said:

“I’m happy to enclose a check to The Next Door, Inc. in the amount of $20,000 to assist you in your charitable work…As the Trustee for an anonymous donor advised trust, and on behalf of the donors to the trust, I wish to encourage you and your fellow workers in your good work.”

It was a very concise letter.  I’m not sure if the Trust understands just how much it did encourage me and my co-workers at Nuestra Comunidad Sana.  This money will help our Greenhouse project continue to provide mircoenterprise education, leadership development and nutritious food.  In our line of work, a check goes a long way to encourage us to keep going. 

The part that is always hard for us with an anonymous trust is that we have no one to thank. It means a great deal to us to thank people, foundations, businesses, government departments and community partners. 

So, I decided that a blog posting is a good way to publicly declare my gratitude to those who appreciate our work and help encourage us to keep going. 

Now here’s what I did when I opened the letter:

Another Successful Fair August 2, 2010

Can you get any cuter than this prize winning bunny?

This year I had the best time I’ve ever had at the Hood River County Fair.  My daughters are the perfect age to enjoy the little kids’ rides, which they did about three times each!  Also, the animals were a big hit.

The weather was perfect as well–usually it is very hot, but this year it stayed in the 80s with just enough wind to cool things down.

I also love the diversity at the Fair–all ages are present and all of the cultures of our county are represented, from windsurfers to cowboys to farm workers.  It’s awesome.

Toña Sanchez and Liliana Farris staffed the NCS booth this year

This year’s Nuestra Comunidad Sana tent was decorated to the hilt with greenery.  The starter plants from the Raices’ greenhouse were for sale as well as the Smooth Mover, an ingenious invention by Dave Martin, who has given The Next Door permission to sell them and keep the profits.  The Smooth Mover is a rake attachment that enables the rake to move much more soil, leaves or bark chips–just about anything that needs to be moved–it’s a cross between a rake and shovel.  We are selling one package of two attachments for $15, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting NDI.  Very cool!  Stay tuned for more information about the Smooth Mover.

Here’s a typical view of the fair–already I’m excited about next year’s!

Planting, Growing and Selling June 28, 2010

A Nuestra Comunidad Sana leadership group has been working hard in this greenhouse

Nuestra Comunidad Sana (NCS), a program of The Next Door, has been working to promote organic home gardening within the Latino community for the past six years.  This Spring, with a grant from the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB), NCS was able to move one step further than promoting home gardening, by assisting a leadership group of Latinos in renting an un-used greenhouse, planting hundreds of seeds and selling starter plants at two local markets.

The idea for the greenhouse grew out of a leadership class sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation.  The community’s leaders decided to move beyond simply gardening for their families and into the realm of gardening as a cooperative to promote healthy eating.  This is a micro-enterprise project that will hopefully expand.

From soil:

To sales:

“Every Family Should Learn How to Produce for Themselves” March 18, 2010

I love that statement!  It was made by one of the 40 families who are part of the Nueva Cosecha/New Harvest project (part of Nuestra Comunidad Sana).  Our partners at Oregon Health & Science University have helped to evaluate the fifth year of this organic home gardening project, and we got some of the results yesterday.  This is always an exciting time for me.  Every year, we ask each family involved in the project 18 questions before the growing season starts and 24 questions after it ends.

Here is some of what we found out:  over 4 times more families eat vegetables several times a day during the garden season, with 2.5 times more children in the households eating more vegetables during the season than not.  Also during the garden season, families are less worried about running out of food before they have enough money to buy more.

Here are some more statements from families:

“The most important things are that there are no chemicals in the vegetables.”

“We have so much pride about the vegetables.  We love to work with the earth – it is a family tradition.”

“Garden[ing] for me is important because for a while you have everything you need.”

In response to a question about what it was like to involve OHSU researchers in the project, people stated, “Having people from Portland coming makes us feel valued and we want them to know how much work the gardening is – it is good that they care about us and want to learn from us – we can support each other.”

To get us in the mood for our sixth season, here are some great photos of vegetables and gardens from last year.  Personally, I can’t wait for fresh veggies again!

The Bounty of the Harvest October 6, 2009

On September 22nd, Nuestra Comunidad Sana celebrated the harvest for the 5th consecutive year with families involved in its project, Nueva Cosecha/New Harvest.  I’m proud to say that I have been a part of the project for all five years and it helped me to plant my very first home vegetable garden in 2006!  This year I had so many zucchini (among other yummy veggies) that I didn’t know what to do with them all.  Can you say zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, zucchini brownies, zucchini soup…

Our Harvest Fiesta was just wonderful.  This year it was held at Tucker Park on the Hood River and so many of the 40 families involved in the project came out to celebrate.  Here’s a story that Lorena Sprager, one of the project’s coordinators, told me,

“As the party was wrapping up, Doña T. came and gave me a big hug, thanking me for the Fiesta.  She had come home from working a long shift at the packing house with a terrible headache.  She felt down and was in pain.  But Toña [NCS Health Promoter] had personally invited her to the Fiesta the day before, and her adult daughter was going to be joining her and giving her a ride.  She told me her headache was completely gone.  She was giddy and smiling. Her voice was filled with enthusiasm. She was clearly overjoyed to be a part of the gardening group, to enjoy sharing food, conversation, the music and nature.”

Lorena has also been involved with this project since its inception.  She helped write the grant that originally funded it from the Office of Minority Health to La Clinica del Cariño (with a subcontract to us).  She writes, “The meetings and the Fiesta are a time for people to come together, support each other and enjoy each other.  This program supports our mental health as well as our physical health through the physical activity of gardening and the healthier nutrition of eating vegetables.” 

We’re lucky to be funded this year by the National Institutes of Health  under a Partners in Research grant that we received in collaboration with Oregon Health Sciences University.  We’re looking forward to this year’s evaluation of our pre and post surveys to see how the families are increasing their healthy food consumption, physical activity, saving money and learning about health.  The data should be more comprehensive than in the past thanks to our research partners!