This month’s meeting was held online; we expect the one in May will also be virtual. Keep an eye on Facebook for the link – we may be able to notify more people after having this month as a trial run.

Introductions:

Board: Melody Randolph, Beth Heins, Dennis Kennedy, Nancy Flynn, Anjala Ehelebe, Maija Spencer, Shirley Minor, Keith Baich

Neighbors: John, Michael & Chida, Jessica, Erin, Stephanie, Rick, Krista, Liz

• Move to approve the minutes: Beth moves, Dennis seconds, all in favor.

Discussion items:

• There’s a library bond measure coming up on the November ballot – friends-library.org to read more.
• Erin: is a neighborhood coordinator for the Portland Food Project. Usually every other month members leave a bag of food donations out and the coordinator comes to pick up. They’ve had to cancel their pickup in April; alternate local options to donate (among many others):
  • Johns Food Share: Send checks to: 8100 N. Lombard St., Portland, OR 97203                              (Attn. Kathy Saunders) Online donations: https://stjohnsfoodshare.org/
  • Lift Urban Portland Food Pantry: Send checks to: 2701 NW Vaughn St. Suite 102, Portland, OR 97210 Online donations: https://www.lifturbanportland.org/
  • Sharon Church Food Pantry: Send checks to: 5209 NE 22nd Ave., Portland, OR 97211
• We’d like to help coordinate a mutual aid system called a pod system that doesn’t rely on technology and is open to everyone in our neighborhoods. We can get people to volunteer for different roles – coordinator, phone chat, grocery runs, etc. There’s a form that another group pulled together.
• Some useful resources have been pulled together on a national scale – go here and browse around to find local resources: – Covid-resources.com
• Another good source of information for Covid resources in Oregon: https://blumenauer.house.gov/
• As of March 17 there will be no residential or commercial evictions in Multnomah County
• Are there other things we can do to help our neighborhood businesses?
  • We’ve been keeping a running list on the WNA facebook page
  • We’ll see about getting gowoodlawn.com updated too.
  • We’re open to other ideas too and are happy to get the word out.
  • Yelp and GoFundMe are offering matches for donations to small businesses, so it’s worth donating to help businesses get those matches.
• Updates from the Oregon unemployment office, from Shirley:
  • The unemployment office has a very large volume of claims coming in right now.
  • Unemployment benefit claims can be backdated two weeks if they are filed by the end of this week – by the end of Friday April 3^rd
  • Self-employed people can also now file for unemployment
  • It’s best to file online, then call a couple of days later to check on it and ask for your claim to be processed. Call in about 1 minute after 8am to get through.
  • employment.oregon.gov

Updates from past meetings:

• Last two WNA meetings are uploaded to you tube – waiting for closed captioning before making them public.
• Stride for Seniors (the Meals on Wheels fundraiser) is going to be held virtually this year – let us know if you want to contribute or participate – will update the facebook event.
• The Emanuel Displaced event that was scheduled for 3/31 was postponed – date TBD.
• Maija was going to join the monthly Prosper Portland meetings for the Home Forward project – the meetings are postponed, new schedule TBD.
• For future reference: Land Use & Transportation will be looking for a quieter meeting space once they can meet in person again.
• Community garden spent the donation from the board, trying to figure good ways to distribute produce that would ordinarily go to the food banks (food banks can’t accept physical donations right now). The garden team may coordinate with the farmer’s market group to see if they can donate that way somehow without affecting the farmers.
• Farmer’s Market is still planned to begin on June 1^st. If social distancing is still recommended, they’ll find out with other markets are doing to comply with those guidelines.
• Cancelled events: the egg hunt and the neighborhood cleanup are cancelled. Suggestion: how about coordinate neighbors hanging up art or drawings in their windows so kids can walk around and look for eggs, bunnies, other spring things.

General updates and information sharing:

• Ashland group has formed the Rogue Valley Plague Theatre – reading sonnets daily – contact Anjala if you want to be connected with them.
• Question: are construction projects considered essential? Maija’s understanding is that the projects are allowed to continue with social distancing.
• Classic Foods won’t be doing their pop-up, but neighbors can place an order by calling 503.324.9387 – hours to pick-up are 10-2.
• Ps & Qs are selling groceries, order online, and will start selling some meals for takeout on Friday & Saturday
• Maija checked in with Woodlawn Elementary to see if there’s any way we can volunteer or do video chats with students.
  • Rick and Liz and Nancy have all volunteered at Woodlawn Elementary so can check in with the principal, librarian, and other contacts to see how we can help out.

The next meeting will be online on May 6^th.