Throughout 2024, the community group APANO will work to create up to five new East Portland community gardens. Currently, Portland State University (PSU) students working in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) program are gathering public input that will guide site selection. Residents have until May 10th to complete a survey before the MUPR team compiles submissions, discussion results, and research data into a proposal that APANO staff can implement east of 82nd Avenue.

APANO developed the Community Gardens project specification based on interest expressed by people living along the 82nd Avenue corridor and in East Portland. “There were many people asking for places to garden, gather, and connect in the Jade District, a neighborhood that APANO heavily works in,” explained Sam Guthman, Policy Manager at APANO. The organization identified a lack of public green space and a scarcity of produce diversity as an issue APANO wanted to address in 2024. “Our members were asking for places where they could grow culturally relevant produce, as most western grocery stores aren’t going to have Thai basil or galangal and other staples common in Asian American and Pacific islander cuisine,” remarked Guthman. However, garden placement and organizational structure require planning and partnerships when creating that type of community resource. For that part of the project, APANO looked to the graduate students at PSU working to complete their final project.

PSU MUPR students participate in a Planning Workshop where they apply their skills in real-world endeavors. This two-term grad-student project provides clients with professional recommendations based on direct community consultation and situational assessments. APANO saw the Community Gardens project as fit for the workshop process and submitted a request at the beginning of the year. “They sent a request for proposal to help them find and develop community gardens with a focus on culturally specific food, particularly with an emphasis on BIPOC (black, indigenous, and other people of color) and low-income individuals,” said Tyler Smith, one of the PSU MUPR students working on the project. Early engagement sent the MUPR team to food pantries and other places where people seek food assistance. They also spoke to community garden operators to learn about the efficacy of their models.

Smith explained there are many models to consider with different approaches to organizational structure. Outgrowing Hunger, for instance, uses a grassroots, bottom-up system that keeps organizers out of operational decisions, letting the mostly refugee and immigrant participants manage gardens. With a top-down approach that assigns space and manages access, the Portland Parks Community Gardens program is on the other side of that spectrum. Other groups, like the Ethiopian Eritrean Cultural Resource Center, work within different models, maintaining a few plots at the Dharma Rain Zen Center with others housed in Portland Park run locations.

Operational modeling is an integral part of this project. However, it is secondary to identifying site opportunities and narrowing them down to three to five viable locations. Smith points out that properties not owned by public entities are rapidly redeveloping in East Portland. Consequentially, nearly two-thirds of community gardens exist in Park bureau sites. Securing the half-acre or full-acre needed for the garden is challenging.  It is also difficult to find property near the communities interested in working the land and accessible for people who may not have a vehicle capable of accessing remote sites. Smith also notes that relying on Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) run sites poses other obstacles and keeps some users from participating in those programs. “Accessibility can look like a lot of different things. I think there were some access issues around needing background checks to garden, and that could be a barrier. [Also], the knowledge that the garden exists and the ability to get a plot. Portland Parks have these immensely long wait lists. You also have to know about those wait lists and a lot of people with limited English language proficiency are not necessarily in the know about those things. Sometimes those wait lists can tend to privilege certain demographics,” explained Smith. He noted that PP&R is doing its best to address equity imbalance in its systems. However, limited staffing in the Community Gardens department restricts how fast they can improve the program for all Portlanders.

The MUPR team has already made progress surveying the community and existing landscape, identifying design alternatives that could affect site placement. Considerations around soil conditions and accessibility for gardeners with limited mobility could dictate using raised beds at the cost of available planting space. Access to transit and sidewalks is also a key consideration. They need more public input through the survey at this phase to begin shaping community priorities. “We want to get more people to weigh in on the survey. It asks questions about what kind of things they would like to see in a garden. Would they like the garden to be more educational focused, food production focused, or have space for community gathering,” said Smith. “We’ve been hearing about how it’s more than just growing food; it’s about growing community.” He explained that many immigrants and refugees came from places where they farmed land. They no longer have that option when moving to Portland because gardening space is often a luxury in the American urban environment. They miss the process and the human interaction that comes with growing their own food.

The PSU MERP students and APANO hope more people can participate in this process, lending their input and knowledge of potential sites to team members. The MURP group will complete their report by early June, just before graduation. Then, APANO staff will use that siting work to advance their goals of creating places for people to grow culturally relevant produce. “Our goal is to set up as many Community Gardens in East Portland as funding allows and ensure that the community has full and equal access to these spaces. We are hoping to lay the foundation for at least three to five gardens by the end of this year, but I suspect our ambition and need for these spaces will extend far beyond that,” said Guthman. As plans transform into action, look for more information about this project later this year.

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