Nice website: TheCityChicken.com

Nice.

Speaking of food and food security

Good day friends of Food Share Gardens,

Marion Polk Food Share is marching fourth toward a busy spring of garden activity. With a groundswell of sustainable community garden project support, we are deepening the scope of the program to ensure that the health, self-reliance and sustainability of our communities are cultivated through visionary work and concerted action. Below I am including an important update on volunteer needs and garden projects, with highest priorities listed first. Thank you for participating in this deep partnership with our two county community. Together we can imagine no hunger. Together, we can imagine a region that is interconnected and thriving.

Volunteer needs:

Grant-Highland Health Fair – THURSDAY, March 5th from 5:30-8:00

Tomorrow I am setting up a table at the Grant-Highland Health Fair which will be located at Salem Alliance Church (1490 5th St NE, Salem, OR.) I am in need of one or two volunteers to be at the fair while I head over to the Hoover Elementary family night. The main objective for both of these events is to get the word out about the April 4th Spring Garden Fair here at MPFS, as well as to provide information about important Food Share services. Please email or call me if you would like to volunteer for this fair.

NO HUNGRY CHILD Spring Break Lunch Program

We are desperately in need of a few volunteers who can give a couple of hours of time over the lunch hours (approximately 11:30-1:00) over Spring Break, March 23-27. Sites needing staffing include Stephens Middle School in NE Salem, Hayesville ES in NE Salem, Auburn ES in NE Salem, Parkway Village Apartments (3143 7th Place NE), Washington ES in NE Salem, Mary Eyre ES in SE Salem, Washington ES in Woodburn, Henry Hill ES in Independence, and Monmouth ES in Monmouth. Drivers are also needed to pick up left over lunches and deliver them to area pantries or meal sites. If you or any one you know would be willing to help, please contact Kat here at the Food Share as soon as possible.

Kat Daniel 503.581.3855x kdaniel@foodbanksalem.org

Garden Projects:

Seed Starting @ Pringle Creek Greenhouse– Tuesday March 10th from noon to 4pm

Following a lunar gardening calendar, we will be planting a plethora of vegetable and herb seeds just before next weeks’ full moon. The thousands of seeds that we sow will sprout and emerge as vigorous plants that will be planted in the many food share sustainable community gardens in the coming months. Once mature, these vegetable and herbs will be harvested and their nutrition will be made available to the communities that we serve. Come down to the newly refinished Pringle Creek Community Greenhouse for an afternoon of community work and garden learning. (2110 Strong Road SE Salem)

Community Potluck/Garden Planning Session @ MPFS –
Monday, March 16th from 6-8pm

We will be coming together at this potluck to focus on the spring garden fair and youth garden program, as well as to create a time line in connection with resources and volunteer projects.

If you have questions or need information, email or call me. Stay tuned in, for there are many amazing garden project on the horizon!!!

Thanks,
Jordan Blake
Garden Project Manager
Marion-Polk Food Share
(office) 503.581.3855 x 323
(mobile) 503.798.0457
...because no one should be hungry!
...porque nadie debe tener hambre!

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. -Arabian proverb

Corvallis Tour d'Coops: A little inspiration for Salem

Cooped Up in Corvallis

Corvallis's Self-Guided Chicken and Duck Coop Tour

Sunday, March 15th, 12-4pm

Visit 8 chicken and duck coop sites in the Corvallis community and talk with backyard fowl keepers. Get tips for integrating fowl in your backyard! In addition to providing eggs, chickens and ducks eat garden pests and weeds, they help fertilize the soil and chickens can be good rototillers.

Early ticket purchases: $6/person or $10/family

Day of event tickets: $8/person or $14/family

Get your map/ticket starting March 2 at:

First Alternative Co-op (North & South Locations) or
Corvallis Environmental Center

Thank you to our supporters and sponsors:
Robnett's Hardware
Slow Food Corvallis (slowfoodcorvallis@comcast.net)
First Alternative Co-op

Contact: leslie@corvallisenvironmentalcenter.org.

Why would we pour billions into roads and bridges?

(click on graph to see full view)

In a nation just moving from an agrarian society to an industrial one, roads spur wealth.

In a nation that must move from a post-industrial society to a much more agrarian one, pouring money into roads is like burning it in a pit, only with much more environmental harm.

Anyone who proposes to tax you to spend more money on cars and roadways is in deep denial about what this graph shows -- and that denial is going to hurt you.

The era of roadbuilding for endless automobility is over. The only question is how much harm the road lobby, elected officials, and transportation planners will cause before they acknowledge this reality.

After the fall of Louis XVI, people then shook their heads and wondered how anyone could have possibly been so stupid as to bankrupt a wealthy nation like France with obviously pointless and wildly extravagant spending that qualified as little more than vast, costly monuments to the royal ego. Funny, few were making the point while the money was still flowing freely. Well, here we are, an ocean away and hundreds of years later, faced with the same dilemma --- a debased currency, overstretched military commitments, and wildly extravagant spending, only our Versailles palaces are called "highways."