Help! Local Portland non-profit needs your help-- and why you need theirs.

My name is Tim and I've been a member of this site for nearly two years now. Like many of you, I have found that being "Peak Oil Aware" is a process. Sharing knowledge and thoughts on many of the issues that Peak Oil will force us to face is very important-- and every once in a while we have to actually do something. This is one of those moments.

Among the many things I have done since having my eyes opened is to join the Board of Directors this summer of a non-profit group called "Growing Gardens" that works in Portland. The non-profit mentors (low income) people on government assistance to grow some of their own food in raised bed or container gardens. The mentorship program last for three years because this kind of knowledge is slow to create in people. Given the crisis brewing with Peak Oil-- this kind of work that Growing Gardens does needs to happen more, not less.

At our September budget meeting-- some of the grants Growing Gardens rely on to survive and teach are either slow in arriving or wont come at all. This means we need help from right here at home or are forced to cut back on the number of new people in the program. We only have a small budget anyways-- so donations of 100 dollars go a very long way. And even 5 or 10 bucks helps immensely. The next few weeks is when Growing Gardens does the fall installs of raised beds for the next season-- so the time to help is right now. It's super easy to donate-- and if everyone reading this donated five dollars a month-- we'd be back on track.

If you're reading this, you are like me and live in the Portland area and have a vested interest in navigating the very rocky course that lies out there sooner than most of us want to admit. One of the most de-stabilizing factors in society is when food disappears. You've seen it on some news programs and perhaps read it in the paper: food riots in many countries in the last year, shortages in others, angry hungry mobs destroying infrastructure and property. Scenes like those could happen here too.

My hope that the work that Growing Gardens does in providing food security to the people that need it most can help us avoid some of the worst of what might lie ahead.

Help Portland. Help Growing Gardens.

http://www.growing-gardens.org/donate/make-a-donation-now.php

The community we save may be our own.

Thanks for listening.

Tim Joyce
Member, Board of Directors
Growing Gardens
www.growing-gardens.org