Growing, Educating, and Connecting Communities
Multnomah County MG Dennis Brown has been instrumental in providing gardening classes at the June Key Delta Community Center in North Portland to day laborers with the Voz Workers Rights Education Project. This project is the continuation of an earlier collaboration with the Oregon Food Bank and the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District (EMSWCD), which is funding the project with a grant. The 4-hour, bi-weekly classes are held at the community center garden. In addition to one MG educator from our Chapter, six workers (four laborers, a translator and a supervisor from Voz) and an EMSWCD staff member attend the classes. The garden educators prepare handouts in Spanish and English on gardening topics such as the names of fruits and vegetables, planting blueberries, transplanting vegetables, mulching, testing and amending the soil pH, cover crops and more. The workers learn and improve their language, gardening and landscaping skills and take home the produce they grow or share it with other workers.