A model for Salem: Responding to Hunger with More than Words

Kudos to Multnomah County Commissioner Cogen and all the others involved!

Wonder if there's any fertile city-, county-, and state-owned land that could be similarly turned into food for Salem? Why, yes, yes there is --- acres and acres of it! All that is needed is leadership.

Volunteers to grow organic produce on surplus county land

. . . A blackberry-infested plot of land once farmed by indigent people at the former Multnomah County Poor Farm is being reclaimed to feed the poor again.

Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen is spearheading a campaign to convert one to two acres of county surplus land north of McMenamins Edgefield Manor in Troutdale into a temporary organic farm to combat hunger. Volunteers will harvest enough fresh produce this growing season to feed 240 people for 24 weeks, Cogen estimated.

Cogen will ask fellow members of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on May 28 to approve $22,000 in county funds to buy materials. But he’s already secured commitments for private donors to repay $15,000 of that, and expects the rest of that sum will be raised privately.

“We all know Multnomah County is broke,” Cogen said. “I’m committed to not saying: ‘We can’t handle the problems because we’re broke.’ ” . . .

Cogen’s chief of staff, Marissa Madrigal, came up with the idea for the garden three months ago. The notion came from Victory Gardens that sprouted during World Wars I and II.

Much has happened quickly since then. The county’s alternative community service program provided workers to remove blackberries and perform other manual labor. That program organizes volunteers who agree to do service work after convictions for nonviolent crimes and other low-level offenses.

AmeriCorps has hired someone to coordinate the farm project and earn a stipend from the federal service program. Other community volunteers will be recruited to plant and harvest the produce. Organic mulch and fertilizer were donated by private companies. . . .