Author: Ashley Adelman

Meet Our RARE AmeriCorps Members: Eva Kahn

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Eva grew up in Portland, OR and Hood River, OR. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2019 with a degree in Planning, Public Policy, and Management. In college, Eva was the coordinator of the University’s student community garden, studied sustainable development abroad in Ecuador, and completed an Honors Thesis on student farming. She has a passion for sustainable and equitable food systems, which is what brought her to the Columbia Gorge Food Bank and RARE. When she’s not working with food, Eva likes to ride her bike long distances, draw, listen to bluegrass, and revel in this beautiful state.

Community and Organization:

The Dalles sits on the banks of the Columbia River, straddling the border of Oregon and Washington. Most know the Columbia River Gorge for its astonishing beauty, the emerging tech and engineering industry, craft beer breweries, outdoor recreation opportunities, and fruit orchards. Despite all its glory, the Columbia Gorge struggles with similar issues facing many rural communities in Oregon. Economic disparity, lack of housing, poverty, and hunger pervade. Columbia Gorge Food Bank seeks to challenge hunger and its root causes across three counties (Hood River, Wasco, and Sherman). It partners with 25 agencies in the Gorge, distributing food to 33 sites. These sites directly assist people in need of food. The food bank also coordinates with the state network of food banks and works on regional-level policy and community issues relating to the root causes of hunger.

Project:

Eva will be assisting the food bank on a variety of projects, including opening two new school food pantries in Hood River County, a Harvest Share program at Hood River Valley Adult Center, and organizing community outreach events. She will also be helping the food bank transition to an independent nonprofit entity by helping assemble a founding Board of Directors and helping write the 501(c)3. She will also be coordinating the food bank’s volunteer program, developing its Disaster Plan, and supporting work around housing security in The Dalles.

Email: ekahn@oregonfoodbank.org
Organization: Columbia Gorge Food Bank
Community: Columbia River Gorge
Population: 82,608
Counties: Wasco, Sherman, Hood River

RARE AmeriCorps Applications for 2020-2021 Now Available!

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Are you interested in community building, natural resources, food security, natural hazard planning, economic development or land use planning?  Does your organization have community building, natural resources, food security, natural hazard planning, economic development or land use planning projects that you do not have resources to complete?  If so, you should consider applying to the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) Program. Continue reading “RARE AmeriCorps Applications for 2020-2021 Now Available!” →

Talent Plans To Drop Fossil Fuels

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Talent Energy Efficiency Coordinator Michael Hoch is busy these days answering questions about the city’s clean energy action plan. In November Talent became the first city in Oregon to include such a document in its city’s comprehensive plan, a set of guidelines for development required by state law.

Hoch’s research has found no other city in Oregon that has a clean energy plan as an element of its comprehensive plan. Rianna Koppel, a citizen who helped create the plan, reported her research found the same.

“Several cities and counties have contacted me directly,” said Hoch. They are seeking everything from basic nuts and bolts information on how the plan got created and incorporated … to more detailed information.

While in Klamath Falls Friday for a training session, Hoch met with residents there who are interested in getting clean energy components into their comprehensive plans.

Besides Klamath Falls, Hoch has received inquiries from cities in the Columbia Gorge, including Hood River, and from the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, which includes three Oregon and two Washington counties.

Among plan goals for Talent is achievement of 100% independence from fossil fuel sources by 2030 to help combat climate change.

City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Nov. 20 that amended the comprehensive plan to include the clean energy element. Talent’s Planning Commission had recommended adopting the element.

With support from Rogue Climate, a group of Talent residents started work on the plan following an October 2015 envisioning workshop. Volunteers worked for more than 1,000 hours to create a plan that became Talent Clean Energy Action Plan 2018-2030.

“When we started this plan, a big focus was climate change … and to step away from fossil fuels and come up with a plan B or C,” said Ray Sanchez-Pescodor, who participated in the plan development from the start. “We also wanted it to make common sense financially. The suggestions we are making make good financial sense, some in the short term and especially in the longterm.”

The element is a basis for policy and not policy itself, said Community Development Director Zac Moody. But it spells out potential implementation strategies in a number of areas, including transportation, housing, energy efficiency, conservation, city facilities, education, the economy, infrastructure and energy generation.

While work was done for plan adoption, the city and groups also focused on acquiring clean energy installations for Talent. That has included solar panels for the Community Center, an EV charging station and work with Oregon Clean Power Cooperative, which led to $149,000 in grants for solar installations at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production building, Jackson County Fire District No. 5 headquarters and the downtown civic center campus.

The latest clean energy upgrade for the city will bring four EV charging stations to city-owned property behind Camelot Theatre on Seiber Street. Pacific Power awarded a grant of up to $10,000 to assist with the project. While the city will purchase and install the stations, they will be operated by a commercial charging company.

Hoch helps coordinate the energy projects and is involved in other efficiency efforts, such as a LED light bulb give away that took place last spring. He monitors energy consumption and reports that energy use in city facilities is on track to achieve a 30% reduction in use by 2020 compared to 2015.

One element of the plan calls for a feasibility analysis on a transition from the current investor-owned utility model to a consumer-owned or community choice aggregation model. During the public hearing, Pacific Power General Business Manager Christina Kruger voiced concerns about that language.

“Pacific Power assets in this community are not for sale,” said Kruger. She said the firm applauds many parts of the plan and that some of the implementing strategies would require partnerships with Pacific Power and other entities such as Energy Trust of Oregon, with whom they work. She asked that language on creation of a city utility be dropped from the plan.

Council members and Mayor Darby Ayers-Flood said that feasibility studies would be conducted prior to any decision on changing utility providers, but that it could create competition where none exists.

“It sort of lifts us out of the monopoly situation we are in and creates an opportunity for us that may motivate us all to work in a partnership way we haven’t before,” said Ayers-Flood.

Reach Ashland freelance writer Tony Boom at tboomwriter@gmail.com.

Originally published in The Mail Tribune

Mescher to battle blight and preserve Lincoln City with Urban Renewal Agency

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

The newest addition to the City of Lincoln City is coming off a stint as a Peace Corps Rural Aquaculture Extension Agent in Zambia, and will now turn her attention to historic preservation and improving our economic development toolbox.

Jodi Mescher will spend 11 months working as Economic Development Coordinator alongside Urban Renewal Agency Director Alison Robertson doing what Urban Renewal does: attracting job producing private investments that will improve property values, improve the area’s visual quality and establish a positive linkage between the area and the Pacific Ocean.

“I’m happy to be here,” Mescher said. “I’m excited to see what we can do while I’m here.”

Mescher is here as part of the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) program, connecting trained graduate-level people with rural communities for an 11-month period. Administered by the University of Oregon and funded by Americorps, Meshner is here to assist Lincoln City in the development and implementation of plans for achieving a sustainable natural resource base and improving rural economic conditions while gaining community building and leadership skills.

Mescher will focus on the economic development toolbox and identifying underutilized properties. She’d also like to make Lincoln City a Certified Local Government (CLG) to qualify for federal grants from the National Park Service to promote historic preservation.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio State University in 2015 for Environmental Economics and Sustainability and was a Student Assistant in the Department of Planning and Design at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio in 2016. She spent time in Africa with the Peace Corps, providing technical assistance selecting and constructing fish and rice farm sites, increasing the local economy and nutrition.

Mescher is overflowing with ambition as evidenced by traveling halfway across the world to teach people how to farm fish and rice. It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for this go getter.

Originally published in the Lincoln City Homepage

BLUECHIP: Dedicated organizers, thriving business hub build community strength in Cottage Grove

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Food at the root

People are talking about food in several ways these days in Cottage Grove. Conversations are happening at the farmers’ market, at community meetings, even at a commercial kitchen, where the dream of succeeding with a food business is front and center.

Sustainability builds community

Sustainable Cottage Grove, for one, is facilitating engagement about the local food system and is providing workshops and education about food preparation, food preservation and healthy meals as part of its greater mission to promote sustainable living practices, enhance mental and physical health, and foster interdependence among community members. The project, formed in 2011, operates beneath the nonprofit umbrella Another Way Enterprises, and Rob Dickinson, Beth Pool and Richard Sedlock are among Sustainable Cottage Grove’s core organizers.

They host a monthly potluck on the first Friday of every month at the Rural Organizing Project building. “It’s really more of a social gathering than a meeting,” Dickinson says. “We welcome anyone.” Ideas are shared and plans are made to fill in the gaps where the community food system is concerned.

Sustainable Cottage Grove sponsored the “Southern Willamette Valley Community Food Assessment” in 2016, together with the Oregon Food Bank, Resource Assistance for Rural Environments, and Americorps. The numbers within the published report reveal the need for ongoing community engagement regarding food: 19.2% of the population in Cottage Grove and Dorena live below the poverty level, with 29% of children living below the poverty level and 65.3% participating in Oregon’s Free and Reduced Lunch program. The assessment also looked at the communities of Drain, Curtin, Elkton, Creswell, Lorane, and Yoncalla. Its findings helped to galvanize community efforts toward organizing the weekly outdoor South Valley Farmers’ Market, which has since expanded to include fall hours indoors at the Cottage Grove Armory.

“Certainly, the farmers’ market and farmer cooperatives have been success stories,” Sedlock reflects. Providing ongoing adult education about nutrition and healthy habits also has been at the top of the list.

“I’ve always been passionate about food,” admits Pool, who taught home economics in the Bay Area before retiring and moving to Cottage Grove with her husband, Richard Sedlock.

A certified Master Food Preserver, Pool teaches a series of classes about canning fruits and vegetables, smoking and drying meat, pickling and fermenting, and making food gifts for the holidays.

The other way Sustainable Cottage Grove has had an impact in its community of more than 10,000 people, has been to encourage food production via backyard gardening. They’ve also worked to improve healthy nutrition in local schools, which has included installing gardens and greenhouses. In fact, a greenhouse kit currently awaits assembly at the Al Kennedy Alternative High School, where Sedlock serves on the school’s Gardens/Orchard/Greenhouse advisory board and tends to the school’s 53-acre orchard.

There are long-range plans, too.

“In addition to our food system efforts, we see ourselves as much more in the community-building business than anything else,” Dickinson says.

For example, Sustainable Cottage Grove is one of several community partners that has been involved in helping to secure economic development planning assistance for the city of Cottage Grove from the USDA through the national Rural Economic Development Innovation (REDI) Initiative. The initiative draws on four national partners to deliver the assistance to communities who applied through a competitive process: One of those partners, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, will be providing Cottage Grove with technical assistance for up to two years using Wealth Works, a model by which communities identify and market their local assets rather than focus on an individual business.

This is where Kim Johnson and the Bohemia Food Hub – a main benefactor of the REDI Initiative’s assistance – come into the bigger picture.

Hub with heart

Community building is at the center of Johnson’s goals, too. She has created a line of food-related businesses along 10th Street that includes the Bohemia Food Hub, the Coast Fork Farm Stand and the Food Truck Hub, just next door to the farm stand.

“This is my dream,” says Johnson, a well-connected and experienced food entrepreneur, who has been developing her food hub idea for the past six years as owner of the long-neglected warehouse space that now serves as a 3,500-squarefoot commercial kitchen for several food businesses. (You won’t see a sign at the food hub yet, but you can’t miss the building with Roger Pete’s resplendent mural of the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly.)

“When I bought this place it had been empty for years and years,” Johnson says.

At the time of the purchase, she had owned Tsunami Sushi with a friend and wanted to grow the business. She sought advice and mentorship from RAIN Eugene, now The Eugene Accelerator. When her friend decided to move on, Johnson renamed the business Real Live Food, installed a small kitchen in the warehouse to start, added fresh collard wraps to the menu, and then expanded her product reach into the Portland market. That’s when things really scaled up quickly.

“I kept growing the kitchen to accommodate the growth of the business,” Johnson says.

Since then, Johnson has sold Real Live Food to a fellow tenant at the food hub, Sohr Foods, and is focusing on developing the food hub concept. Based on a Lane County public market and food hub analysis completed in 2014, elements of a food hub conceptually include a wholesaling outlet, a food lab and demo kitchen, cold and dry storage, food prep space, a meat processing space, along with technical assistance and office space. Some of these elements are already in place.

Johnson’s vision, however, is even more deliberate, encompassing local entrepreneurial efforts to produce food and helping to foster her community’s food-centric economic development.

Her Coast Fork Farm Stand provides a critical retail link for the community and the food hub, not only stocking local produce and products, but also selling everything that’s made inside the commercial kitchen: Real Live Food’s collard wraps and sushi rolls; Hot Winter Hot Sauce; Lola’s Fruit Shrubs; herbally infused Wildfire Elixirs; Dirtballs snack balls; Ketovore Life, foods to fit a Keto diet; and Boho Boto organic and herbal tinctures. Looking ahead, Johnson says, she’d love to have a baker join the food hub.

At the front end of her warehouse space, she envisions at least two restaurants, where customers can enjoy locally made fare, as well as what she calls “pilot pods,” or trial spaces, for budding restaurants or food trucks not quite ready to go it alone. Three food trucks are already in place at the Food Truck Hub, with developed space for four more.

The kitchen still needs work, admits Johnson, who is in the process of trying to secure funding from Oregon Business out of its Strategic Reserve Fund. Johnson believes that more kitchen equipment will diversify the type of tenants the food hub could support, including food producers in the local Guatemalan and Latino communities.

Only connect
Other elements integral to her food hub,Johnson says, are maintaining strong ties to the community’s farmers and growers, and including value-added events and opportunities, such as pop-up restaurants, or a mentorship program for high school and college students with food business ideas – or food preservation workshops.

Beth Pool of Sustainable Cottage Grove is 100% committed to that food preservation education.

“Making people aware that food is fundamental to everyone’s functioning – physically, mentally, spiritually – is critical for me,” Pool says.

“Beth is a dear friend of mine,” Johnson says. “We’re trying to figure out how does Sustainable Cottage Grove connect more at the hub; and when we build office space, is this maybe a home for Sustainable? Could Sustainable become the nonprofit umbrella of those sorts of activities at the food hub?”

No doubt these many ideas are fodder for more community building within Cottage Grove’s growing alignment around food.

”I’m really proud of my community here and the way people rally to work together. Those partnerships are really important,” Johnson says.

Originally published in the Register Guard

Grovers Gobble Up Return Of ‘Turkey Drop’

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Grovers relived a downtown tradition on Nov. 23 as plush turkeys were thrown off the roof of the Axe & Fiddle building to eager, outstretched arms.

The Turkey Drop, a tradition extending back to 1930, gives locals a chance to win a Thanksgiving dinner or dessert. Though live turkeys were used in past iterations, modern sensibilities have since seen a transition to stuffed animals.

“This event is to promote Small Business Saturday, which is to encourage people to shop locally and support your local business owners,” said Cottage Grove Main Street Coordinator Molly Murai.

On Saturday, 45 stuffed turkeys were thrown to a crowd of young and old, all hoping to snatch a doll with a winning number.

In the subsequent drawing, two turkey dinners and a large chocolate turkey were awarded to a few select winners.

Grocery Outlet provided coupons and the fixings for the turkey dinners while Sanity Chocolate provided the chocolate turkey prize.

“I’d also really like to thank Alyssa Gonzales for helping and agreeing to let us use her building (the Axe & Fiddle),” said Murai.

Originally published in The Cottage Grove Sentinel

RARE, a Privileged Flock

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Privilege is synonymous with the saying, “it’s not what you know but who you know.” We’ve all heard these words and invariably, been on both sides of this coin. We live within the comforts of our privilege or on the outside looking anxiously in, perhaps enviously. Privilege is both earned and undeserved, inherited and bestowed, constant and permeable. I often reflect on my own personal and professional journey and its relationship with privilege to find there are important moments in time, people and places, toil and luck, that create my story, or at least the one I tell myself. Within this story is an archive of memories, individually unique, simply complex, and ever-changing. And while distinct, my story is intrinsically linked, inseparable to yours. We’re part of a unique group, a civic congregation bounded by common purpose. Together, we share Oregon’s diverse landscape, have an overlapping rolodex of memories and relationships, and together hold still-visceral reactions to having been called an ‘intern’ when we were most definitely something else, something more important. Our connection, of course, is none other than RARE.

The RARE Family, as commonly referred, is a hodgepodge collection of people and experiences to which we’re all privileged to participate. Each of us have earned our RARE credentials. We earned our membership through nights of solitude as we found ourselves in far-flung strange places far from the comforts we once knew. We earned it through our hours of service as we worked alongside the communities, organizations, and people we barely knew. We earned it through the connections we made, relationships kindled, and occasional late-night revelry during RARE trainings. And yet, we owe so much of our privilege to those that came before us.

Personally, I hold my privilege accountable to the legacy of folks like David Povey, the visionary with an idea to form a rural capacity building service corps. To Megan Smith, RARE alumnus and unabashed rural champion who raised RARE from the ground up, serving as our fearless leader for 24 years. And now, Titus Tomlinson, unequivocally the soul of our family leading us into our next storied chapter. And while not all of our experiences and memories are held in the same accord, we share a responsibility of service to not just the aforementioned leaders, but to ourselves, our peers, to those who come next and, perhaps more importantly, to the communities at the center of the RARE program. We share this responsibility and I’m honored to have the opportunity to keeping the RARE legacy alive by volunteering with the newly created RARE Alumni Association. Our goal, novel and still forming, is to create a platform for RARE members to formally connect with each other, deepen professional relationships, and mentor the next generation of leaders that come through the RARE program. We’re eager to grow the Association’s steering committee, need champions, and hope some of you will join this effort. Every contribution and ounce of volunteerism matters.

I love walking into every small town in Oregon knowing there’s chance I’ll find a fellow RARE or someone who’s been impacted by our reach. I love the curious amalgam of the past and present members of this network, 600 strong and counting. I relish the privilege of the RARE family. And while systems of entitlement aren’t typically revered, I’m honored to be part of this privileged lot and to having the chance to get to know so many of you over the years. It was great to see each of you, new and old friends, at the RARE 25th Anniversary Celebration.

In Service,
Michael Held, Year 18

Library Maker Space To Provide New Learning Environment

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Roseburg Public Library is excited to announce plans for a maker space that will engage people of all ages.

A maker space is an environment that provides technology equipment and tools for a wide range of skills and abilities. The emphasis is on learning and collaboration in an encouraging, nonjudgmental, self-paced setting.

Roseburg Public Library’s space will feature three permanent items: an LX3817 Brother sewing machine, a one-inch button maker and a LulzBot Taz 3D printer. We anticipate supplementing the space with items on loan from the Umpqua Valley STEAM Hub.

The project is being spearheaded by this year’s Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) AmeriCorps Participant, Katie Fischer. Fischer is a University of Oregon graduate who volunteered for two years at Eugene Public Library’s Maker Hub. She selected the sewing machine and button maker because they were popular at Eugene’s library.

The 3D printer is made available through partnership with the Oregon Technology Access Program (OTAP), which is sponsored by the Oregon Department of Education and works out of the Douglas Education Service District. Many thanks to OTAP for sharing this amazing tool.

At this time, we are recruiting volunteers who have technology experience and would be comfortable working with the public on their projects and troubleshooting the equipment. Training on the three permanent items will be provided. A commitment of two hours per month is required.

The volunteer application is located at www.roseburgpubliclibrary.org; click on Policies and Forms. Contact Circulation Supervisor Liz Hendershott with questions or send a completed volunteer application to her at ehendershott@cityofroseburg.org.

We will introduce the public to the maker space at drop-in community open houses on Dec. 4 from 3-5 p.m. and Dec. 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fischer will lead tours and demonstrations; there will be no hands-on activities during these sessions.

We will launch the space Dec. 20 from 1-5 p.m. and anticipate providing one session per month. Equipment will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Participants will be limited to making a 3D project that takes no more than one hour to print; this limits the size of the project and allows multiple people to try the technology.

Participants also will be limited to making 10 buttons during a session. There is no time limit on using the sewing machine; we will evaluate that as we proceed.

The library has set nominal fees for supplies used in the maker space, from five cents per gram of 3D printer filament to 10 cents per button. Payment is by cash or check only.

We look forward to providing the opportunity to play and learn in this new environment. See you at the library!

Kris Wiley is the director of the Roseburg Public Library. She can be reached at 541-492-7051 or kwiley@cityofroseburg.org.

Katie Fischer is Roseburg Public Library’s RARE AmeriCorps Participant. She may be reached at 541-492-7052 or kfischer@cityofroseburg.org.

Originally published in the News-Review

Cooking Up A Southern Oregon Food Trail

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Local tourism agencies want to create a Rogue Valley food trail to highlight the popular culinary institutions that have root in one of the best agricultural areas of Oregon.

A two-day culinary and agritourism workshop is being offered to Rogue Valley residents who want to increase tourism to their culinary business and to the Rogue Valley in general.

The workshop is being offered by Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism commission, and is supported by local tourism branches Travel Southern Oregon and Travel Medford.

It’s scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 23-24, at the Phoenix Plaza Civic Center, 220 N. Main St., Phoenix.

The two-day event includes an educational component offered to anyone in the Rogue Valley who has a food-related business and wants to gain some traction. This component will help business owners and farmers learn more about the food tourism niche in Southern Oregon and how to market their products and services more efficiently, as well as the farmland use regulations and codes that must be adhered to when inviting the public to events on agricultural land.

There’s also time for networking, touring of various businesses and a discussion for the development of a “food trail” in the Rogue Valley that would highlight local markets, farms and eateries.

Kristy Painter, Travel Medford administrative coordinator, said Travel Oregon has helped several other regions in the state create food trails, and they’ve all been successful in attracting visitors.

“We have such a rich agricultural background,” Painter said. “We can grow pretty much anything here — the pears, grapes, pretty much anything you can name. Our seasons are so well defined and with all of that diversity we can create a way of marketing it all.”

She said the idea for the food trail is to include businesses and farms focused around culinary experiences, not wine or beer. Although Southern Oregon is well known for its vineyards, the Southern Oregon Winery Association has created a system of wine trails within the region. She said a hope is that the food trail could pair well with some of the wine trails.

“We want this to enhance and work with the vineyards, but not really encompass them,” Painter said. “We have so many heritage farms — Roxy Ann, Hillcrest Orchards, Eden Valley Orchards, Harry and David — we have a rich history of farming in Southern Oregon. We want to showcase the makers in the area and the farmers.”

Painter noted that the Rogue Valley Grower’s Market was listed in the top 10 farmer’s markets in the U.S. by USA Today in a Sept. 14 article.

The workshop is open to residents of both Jackson and Josephine counties and costs $10 a day.

The first day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., consists of “culinary and agricultural tourism development in the Rogue Valley region focused on rural culinary and agricultural tourism product development, assessment of the local tourism industry, overview of food and agricultural travel markets, and discussion on top opportunities in this area,” according to a press release.

From 4:30 to 8 p.m., a free networking event will give attendees the opportunity “to hear from influencers who are developing culinary and agricultural tourism projects or business ventures; local initiatives and opportunities to inspire action and collaboration, all while enjoying a taste of local food and beverage,” according to the press release. Locations are to be announced, and transportation is provided.

The following day, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., will be a discussion of development of a food trail itinerary, an opportunity to learn how to enhance customer experiences and identify project funding and resources.

The events are facilitated by consultant Erika Polmar of Plate and Pitchfork. Polmar is an Oregon agricultural policy expert who specializes in farm-to-table-style dinners.

Painter said Polmar will help attendees understand the legal side of regulations and policies for planning events such as farm-to-table dinners.

Painter said many tourists plan their vacations around culinary experiences.

According to a 2017 Southern Oregon Visitor Report compiled by Travel Oregon, visitors spent $144 million on restaurant food and beverage in Southern Oregon that year.

About 20% of visitors participated in a fine-dining experience, 18% participated in exceptional culinary experiences, 12% visited a brewery or had a beer tasting, another 12% had a winery tour or wine tasting, and 5% participated in agritourism.

Travel Southern Oregon Director Brad Niva said there are six food trails around the state, and four more are underway. He said the Rogue Valley food trail is a two-year project that will be updated the second year.

He said the food trail will be released by the summer of 2020. Maps will be available at the state welcome centers and online.

Josias Escobedo, an AmeriCorps member through the University of Oregon’s RARE (Resource Assistance for Rural Environments) program, will spearhead the project.

Escobedo said committees will be created from the workshop event and the committees will determine which farm stands, farms and eateries will be incorporated into the food trail. He said the goal is to take an agricultural approach so restaurants that have an association with sustainable farming such as Ashland’s Standing Stone will likely be prioritized over those that don’t. But ultimately it will be the decision of the steering committee.

“We want to highlight farm stands, farms that have the capacity to invite visitors and food establishments that have their own farming aspect,” Escobedo said.

Morning refreshments and lunch are served both days of the workshop.

Space is limited so registration is required. More information can be found at industry.traveloregon.com/RogueValleyCATS.

Originally published in the Ashland Tidings

City, Grassroots Team Honored For Downtown Improvements

Posted on by Ashley Adelman

Downtown Warrenton was recognized during a statewide conference of Oregon Main Street.

The city, along with Spruce Up Warrenton, were named “The One to Watch.”

There were 20 businesses, projects, and people recognized at the annual awards event held late last week in Tillamook.

“The city and Spruce Up Warrenton have been working hard on revitalizing downtown (and) South Main Avenue and it is getting noticed!” the city exclaimed on its Facebook page.

Brenda Hoxsey, director of the grassroots Spruce Up Warrenton group, was surprised they’d won an award. She and others from their group had attended the conference to pick up some tips.

“I had no idea and, when we registered, they had little nametags that hung around your neck. Norm (her husband) and I both got one. And it said we were an award winner. I thought there must be a mistake here,” Hoxsey said.

Spruce Up has been working separately but in cooperation with the city. Together they’ve helped revitalize more than a dozen downtown properties, removed weeds and trash, and encouraged businesses to add planters and flowers.

The city has worked with property owners to remove blight at dozens more properties throughout the city. Marina staff created a successful Fish and Farmers Market on Thursdays. Commissioners created an area for a food truck court next to City Hall and its Urban Renewal Agency embarked on a landscaping plan at the four-way stop, near the high school and along South Main Avenue.

“We’ve got a lot to do yet,” Hoxsey said. “People taking a lot more pride in the community. It’s been very rewarding.”

The group plans several large projects in the spring and is working with Warrenton High School’s welding class on decorative trash cans and art students to do some murals.

Also recognized:

** Sarah Lu, Astoria Downtown Historic District Association’s executive director, was named Main Street Manager of the Year.

** Marcus and Michelle Liotta, owners of the M&N Building, 248 Marine Drive, for Best Historic Preservation Project.

“The award winners serve as inspiration to communities across our network and reflect some of the highest level of revitalization success,” said Sheri Stuart, state coordinator of Oregon Main Street. “We are so inspired to see how our historic downtowns across Oregon are coming to life through the creativity, passion, and plain hard work of community members.”

Originally published by the Columbia Press