Let’s build a food forest
at Hughes Community Church!
May 9, 2025 — Historically, Northeast Portland is known as once being the heart of the city’s Black community, but today those families have been forcefully displaced through redlining, with many far removed from where they once called home. Don’t Shoot Portland seeks to uplift and sustain Hughes Community Church, its congregation and the surrounding neighborhood through implementing this Food Forest as a symbol of common unity!
We hope to engage people of all backgrounds and ages through empowerment, skill sharing and supporting access to fresh, healthy produce for an elderly congregation that has been part of North East Portlands’ history for generations.
This community program is hosted in partnership by Don't Shoot Portland, PDX Food Forest and other coalition partners. Contact us to get involved by emailing hughesfoodforest@dontshootpdx.org!
Goals:
Our ultimate goals for this food forest is to support the elderly congregation that has made Hughes their home for generations. It’s in this spirit that we want to invite the surrounding community into this process to bridge the gaps between those impacted by food instability and rising costs.
We hope to engage communities of all ages through empowerment, skill sharing and access to fresh, healthy produce.
We hope to sustain this congregation and their families through harvesting the forest and preserving cultural heritage through documenting traditional processes and heirloom recipes.