Friends of Portland Community Gardens

Mission

Friends of Portland Community Gardens supports and expands community gardening opportunities for all Portland-area residents to grow healthy food and build community around gardening.

Bottom Line for Portland

Portland’s Community Gardens provide residents with access and opportunities to grow food for families and the community.  Portland Parks & Recreation hosts 60 gardens spread across the city serving gardeners who speak over 100 languages.  Through the Produce for People program, community gardeners grow and donate over 25,000 pounds of produce to more than 24 food pantries, helping feed Portland families. 

With our limited budget and all-volunteer board and membership, we provide financial support to each garden, supply plant starts and soil amendments for the Produce for People Program and help to install and maintain mason bee houses at many community gardens. We partner with three service agencies to build tub gardens or raised beds at shelters/villages/apartments for our houseless neighbors.

And thanks to 2022 Give!Guide donors, we increased our cash support for tools and other needs to community garden managers by 50%.

When you donate you help gardens grow across the city.  Thank you for your support.

Quote

" This project is not only therapeutic for our folks- it also gives them something to care for and to call their own, we are so grateful for our garden! It gives our folks a chance to get to know each other and the staff." [Staff member, Market Street Shelter] 

“ Frazer Community Garden's Produce for People (PFP) program provides healthy vegetables and fruit to Hollywood Senior Center's weekly food distributions to low-income seniors in North-east Portland. Essential to our program are the tools and plant starts that Friends of Portland Community Gardens  generously sends our way throughout the year.” [Jeff Wright, Frazer Community garden]

"Friends of Portland Community Garden's donations to our PFP program have reduced the financial burden on volunteers and enabled more gardeners to participate. This important component makes growing vegetables for the PFP program accessible to all." [Marianne Dickinson, Fulton Community Garden]

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We advocate for readily accessible community gardens throughout the city and through community-based partnerships. The Community Gardens Program consists of 60 gardens, with over 2,500 plots.  About 30% of gardeners are foreign-born or live as part of communities of color. Many of the newer gardens are in outer east Portland and serve a population disproportionately higher in communities of color and other historically underserved groups. Through our support for Produce for People and garden opportunities for shelters and safe villages, we help our Portland neighbors enjoy fresh food and our houseless neighbors share in the benefits and joys of gardening. As Portland's community garden program grows across the city, we provide financial support for each garden so that gardeners have the support they need to grow food for their families and neighbors. We celebrate the Hunger organizations in Give!Guide and invite you to join us all in helping everyone enjoy fresh food.

Incentives

Donations of $25 will receive our membership coupons for 15% off on a one-time purchase at Portland Nursery and Concentrates and a FPCG bumper sticker.  

Donations of $45 receive the same benefits as above and a family membership to FPCG.

Donors of $300 or more will receive a Mason Bee house and optional training and working sessions to keep a healthy Mason Bee population. We must have contact info to deliver your bee house.

Under 35? Participate in $35<35! We have great “Let’s get dirty!” T-Shirts for you. Donate $35 and give mailing contact info and size (s-m-l-xl). 

The incentives listed above are mailed in January, and the bee houses when the cocoons will survive outside, usually March.

On Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28th, the first and fifth donors will receive a $50 gift certificate to Portland Nursery.

During the week dedicated to fighting hunger, Dec. 3rd - 9th, our first and last donors will receive a 12 ounce bag of K&F Coffee Roasters beans. 

On Dec. 29, Portland Nursery's Plant Palooza Big Give Day, the fifth and last donors will receive $50 gift certificate to Portland Nursery.

Partner(s)

Portland Nursery - Portland Nursery has everything you'll need to make your garden and home your favorite destination. 

Concentrates, Inc. – Organic Agricultural Professionals Since 1938 (concentratesnw.com)– Organic Agricultural Professionals Since 1938, specializing in organic soil amendments, fertilizers, feeds, minerals, and salts.

Sustainable Northwest Wood (snwwood.com) – local wood for the greater good.  We believe it is not only possible, but also vital, to protect and restore ecosystems, to salvage and upcycle wood from the waste stream, and create economic opportunities when supplying the wood products our community needs.

K&F Coffee Roasters (kandfcoffee.com) At K&F Coffee Roasters, we're part of the fabric of Portland with our roots deeply planted here. It's important to us to engage with our community, to contribute, support, encourage and give back.

And a special thank you to New Seasons New Seasons Market | Grocery Stores in the Portland Metro area for their support of Friends and every Hunger fighting organization through Give!Guide.