By Esther Lerman Freeman | Contributing Writer

Living in Northeast Portland, most of my neighbors are committed to doing what they can to improve our environment and keep Portland and the world healthy. Since I had been recycling, composting and donating to The Community Warehouse, The Rebuilding Store and other reuse organizations for quite some time, I thought I knew everything; that is, until I participated in the City of Portland Metro’s Master Recycler Program (MRP).

Developed in 1991, MRP is a partnership between Metro, three counties, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and lay community members. MRP educates community members on best practices for recycling in Portland while also providing a workforce for community initiatives. There are three courses held annually and each is eight weeks long.

Upon graduation, MRP students are asked to spend time sharing what we learned, and through this column I hope to fulfill that obligation.

I will start with the number one thing that I learned.

The program should be called How To Bring Less Stuff Into The World rather than Master Recyclers. The first words from the instructor were, “Reduce and reuse BEFORE recycling.”

The very active Buy Nothing Group in our community is an example of folks trying to share with one another rather than supporting consumption. I watch as Buy Nothing members share extra food, clothing and lend one another items to use. They truly embody the Reduce ethos.

In terms of physical and financial effort, reducing is quite easy; it takes no resources to “not buy”. It does, however, take psychological energy. I often spend time scrolling through online offers that have found their way into my inbox.

Luckily, these companies usually have a cart on their websites that I can fill to my heart’s content until I wake up from my hypnotic consumer state and am able to just walk away from them. It is an experience of shifting from thinking wouldn’t that be nice? to do I actually need that?

However, sometimes you really do need to buy something; like a pair of waterproof pants for a hiking trip. In these instances, consider whether it is something you can borrow, something you can buy secondhand, or if you indeed need to buy it new. Taking the time to go through this thought process means you will have done the the first part of your basic training; going from automatic pilot to considering other options.

When we recycle, we are still not compensating for the energy and materials that went into producing the article. We get some return savings of energy and materials by recycling, but only a small percentage of what would be saved if we did not produce unnecessary things in the first place. A good example of this is food waste. While I have tried to be careful about not letting any food go to waste, I have always felt OK about it because at least I can put spoiled food into the green compost bin. Again, even though recycling food waste separately decreases the volume of waste at the dump and decreases the methane gas emitted from the dump site; the amount of labor, water, earth, and energy that went into growing and producing this food is not recovered by composting. So composting is great, but not wasting food is even better.

Tips for this month:

1. Before you buy, ask yourself if you need it. Can you borrow it? Can you buy it secondhand? If the answer is that you do need to buy it, go ahead, knowing that you have considered the options.
2. When buying food, consider using a shopping list and planning your meals for the week. Pay attention to what is most perishable in the refrigerator and keep it in the front of the shelf to increase the chance of using it before it spoils.
3. Freezing is a great option to save food that is in danger of not being used before it goes bad. Cutting up fruits and vegetables and freezing them is easy and saves money.
4. The ends of carrots, beet greens, the stems of mushrooms, etc., are all great to keep in the freezer until you have a good amount and then make a delicious broth, which is free! You won’t need to pay for broth and you won’t have any packaging from the broth to dispose of.
5. Find a neighbor you can share food with so that when either of you overshops or overcooks, you can help each other make meaningful use of the overage.
6. The type of food we eat also impacts the environment. One doesn’t need to become a vegetarian to decrease the impact of their diet, but perhaps cutting out one or two meals of beef a week would be a start.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Next month’s article will focus on REUSE.

Esther Lerman Freeman is a certified Master Recycler and Concordia resident.

By John Fitzgerald, CNA Board Chair

Greetings Neighbors, It has been a busy entrance into spring, and we had a great Egg Hunt on Easter Weekend! I wanted to thank all who helped with this event, which is our biggest event of the year.

However, it is not our only event of the year. A major part of our mission as a neighborhood association is to create a community where all feel welcome and part of something special. One of our avenues to achieve this goal is to provide gatherings to celebrate all of the cultures, ethnicities, and identity groups within our neighborhood.

To make these events possible, we need you not only to attend events, but to help in the planning and execution of them. For example, as of this writing, the Muslim holiday of Ramadan concluded with the final Iftar meal. We had neighbors express interest in attending an Iftar meal and learning about the traditions which accompany the breaking of the daily fast during the month of Ramadan.

Unfortunately, we did not have anyone in the neighborhood step up to organize this event. Thus, I am blowing the horn, making the call, and shouting to the mountaintops (or at least to the crest of the hill at Alberta) for volunteers who are willing to take the lead or work with others on planning an event for the Concordia Neighborhood Association. I am asking for your time on just one event which ignites your passion or piques your interest. You can certainly work on multiple events, but I am only asking for your time for one event. We can provide assistance with event organization; we simply need neighbors who are willing to devote their time to initiating making an event happen.

In addition to planning events, we are asking people to serve on committees. We have different committees for different things; for example, at our April meeting, the board created an ad hoc committee to explore the possibilities of a name change / rebranding of our association. The Concordia Neighborhood Association was formed in 1975 and eight months from now, will have its 50th anniversary.

Thus, we would like to ensure our name, our brand, and our identity are what we need for the next 50 years. I would love to see a good many of our neighbors reach out to be a part of this committee and help us gather the feedback necessary to move forward with confidence that we are serving the will of Concordia. Please contact us through any of the avenues to express your interest in being part of this research and action. You can also reach out to the committee chair, Patricia McMahan at AL2@ConcordiaPDX.org, or to me at Chair@ ConcordiaPDX.org. We look forward to some great conversations about how we present our identity and image in the next chapter of our neighborhood association.

Let’s all have a great rest of the spring, get all of our plants and veggies planted for the wonderful neighborhood gardens, and I look forward to a wonderful summer season of backyard gatherings, street parties, and fun in the sun.

Cheers!
John Fitzgerald

After a 16 year run as a high school English teacher on the International School circuit in six different countries, I am excited to be back home in PDX. My wife Michelle and I are back getting enmeshed into the community and developing our real estate careers.

Marbott’s Greenhouse & Nursery (1808 NE Columbia Blvd.), which first opened in 1930, will close this spring due to third generation owner Larry Marbott’s complications with his recent eye surgery.

Marbott’s sells annuals and perennials, trees and shrubs, unique houseplants and home goods. 90% of the plants sold at Marbott’s are grown onsite in one of eight greenhouses.

Marbott’s was started by Larry’s grandparents, Ernest and Anna Marbott, who lived with their children on the property and ran the nursery. At the time, the area surrounding the nursery was filled with dairy farms, produce markets, and other agricultural businesses.

In its early days, Marbott’s faced significant environmental challenges. The year that the greenhouse opened, the Columbia River froze. In 1948, the Columbia River flooded Vanport, the then largest housing project in the U.S., located between Vancouver and Portland. Ernie Marbott (who was Ernest’s son and Larry’s father), remembered how close the water came to the nursery during the Vanport flood.

Ernie took over the nursery in 1954 and was one of the first growers in Portland to grow poinsettias, still a specialty of Marbott’s. Ernie also created a new gloxinia color and named it Marbott’s Pink. The gloxinia was listed in seed catalogs when it first came out.

Ernie died in 2022 but even towards the end of his life, he enjoyed sitting at the nursery’s outside counter and giving advice to customers.

Larry Marbott has announced that Marbott’s Greenhouse & Nursery will be closed at least for this April, May and June, and maybe longer. “The future is a little bit hazy, just like my eye is,” Larry Marbott told Willamette Week last month.

By Micha Wolf | Contributing Writer

Climate change and Pacific Northwest hazards are changing the environment for all of us in the Portland metro region. Over the past few years, we have experienced heat waves, floods and hazardous ice storms during the wintertime.

The Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) as well as the Neighborhood Emergency Teams (NETs) are continuously striving to educate and help neighbors navigate any possible disaster. Additionally, during annual City Wide Deployment Exercises (CDE), NETs brush up on their skills to search and rescue.

In order for you and your family to adequately prepare for possible emergencies, it is important to be aware of these potential local hazards:

• Earthquakes
• Landslides
• Wildfires
• Flu, pandemics or fallout from chemical disasters
• Floods
• Volcanic eruption

Discuss with your family where you plan to go should you have to evacuate your home. Take into consideration which routes you might take and plan alternatives in case freeways or local streets are impassable. If possible, involve your neighbors as much as you can so they know where you will be and how to reach you. This may also be achieved with an email list, provided the neighborhood still has power or cell service available. Most importantly, reach out to those neighbors who might need special assistance, such as a visually impaired person or someone in a wheelchair.

Here are the steps to take during an emergency evacuation.

1. Listen to a battery powered radio.
2. Locate emergency supplies, including extra batteries (radio/hearing aids/ etc.), medications and pet food.
3. If time allows, unplug electrical appliances.

To best prepare to execute your plan, practice it on a regular basis. Especially with children involved, practicing will ensure that they are less frightened and know how to calmly evacuate.

Here are tips for preparation so you are ready.

• Download the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) app for a list of shelters and local alerts (available for both Android and iPhone).
• Stock up on necessary medications and medical supplies and also have them available at your possible evacuation site.
• Place emergency phone numbers at a prominent location in your home.
• Identify emergency contacts and their location.
• Check smoke and carbon monoxide detectors regularly.
• Have an emergency kit handy.
• Teach children how and when to call 911.
• Take a First Aid/CPR class. Emergency Preparedness is the key to a good outcome should disaster strike.

Micha Wolf has retired from teaching primary school, loves being in nature and believes in building community through engagement.

Ever wanted to help others feel beautiful? With a beauty course at a new multicultural esthetics school, you can. Champions Beauty Institute, located at 424 NE Killingsworth, is Portland’s first multiculturally owned, influenced and led esthetics program. It offers training on beauty services for all skin types and its first cohort of students began the program in February.

Jamal and Christina Lane spent seven years learning barbering and launched Champions Barbering Institute earlier this year. The curriculum prepares students to have their own businesses and provides mentorship before and after obtaining certification.

The program is designed so students can keep their obligations to jobs and family; classes run two evenings and Saturdays for 28 weeks. The cost of the program is $15,000 with $4,000 scholarships available. The curriculum includes treatments such as facials, waxing, the use of facial devices, chemical peels, hair removal, makeup, lash tinting, brow tinting, lift and extensions and also provides certification in eyelash extension, lamination, sugaring, and dermaplaning, a treatment to treat deep acne scars.

Concordian Amantha Hood of Lash Lab PDX is the Lead Educator at Champion. Hood holds a B.A. in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Linfield College. After graduating from college, she obtained her esthetic certificate and license in 2018 and has been working in the industry since then.

A woman of color, Hood realized there was a lack of training in the industry on multicultural differences and a lack of treatments serving people of color.

“Champion is filling an equity gap in esthetics curriculum standards. By molding and graduating students educated in all skin types, we increase the number of estheticians that can confidently service all of Portland’s population. It starts with this program, but my hope is to eventually influence the standards for curriculum requirements statewide, and nationally. It should be a requirement that students know how to consult, service and educate clients in all skin types in the field of esthetics,” says Hood.

Of the Champion program, Hood says, “Our students learn how to confidently service melanin-rich skin, atypical to most curriculums. As Oregon’s first multiculturally driven esthetics program, we are setting a new standard in what it means to be a licensed esthetician.”

After living east, south, north and west, Marsha Sandman is home at last. And she wants to hear your story. Contact her at MarshaJSandman@gmail.com.

For this month’s photo feature, we learned firsthand how newspapers are printed.

Every month, the media team at Concordia News finalizes the layout of the newspaper and sends it for printing. Blake Jensen is the Operations Manager at Pamplin in Gresham, where the majority of Concordia News editions have been printed.

“The printing process has changed very little in 70 years,” says Jensen.