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March 20, 2024
Ecotrust's New Director
of Food Equity
A Conversation With
Eric Rodriguez
A Festival Float. Photo courtesy of the Rose Festival Website
What is Your Dream
for Portland?
Rose Festival
Announces 2024
Theme
The Portland Rose Festival is just around
the corner, and the 2024 theme is “Dream
Forward”. The Festival is asking everyone:
What is your dream for Portland?
This year, the Festival invites every-
one to Dream Forward with an increased
focus on regional artists, food, communi-
ty groups, and family fun opportunities.
The Festival team invites everyone to
mark their calendars for May 24 through
June 9 to celebrate the incredible diversi-
ty and vibrancy of our region with Port-
land's official Festival.
Opening day of the Rose Festival is Fri-
day, May 24, at Tom McCall Waterfront
Park, starting at 5:00 PM. All are invited
to enjoy the carnival rides, food, and ac-
tivities, with opening night Fireworks at
9:50 PM that evening. The Festival will
continue for three consecutive weekends,
including the Starlight Parade, Fleet Week,
Junior Parade, Queen Coronation, Grand
Floral Parade, and more.
Join us for the 147th Portland Rose
Festival Season and Dream Forward
together. For more information visit
RoseFestival.org.
Eric Rodriguez is originally from New
York City and now a Portlander of two
years, to Ecotrust as Director of Food Eq-
uity. In our latest blog post, Eric shares
his perspectives on urban agriculture,
community-centered programming, and
what he’s looking forward to in his new
role. In a conversation with Emilie Chen
she asked “what are you looking forward
to as you move into the role?” Eric then
stated “I like being part of projects where
you’re building something from its be-
ginning, like the FSA urban agriculture
cooperative. It seemed rare that you could
just walk into something where the [the
organization says], “We have the fund-
ing, the networks, all of this. Just make
it go. We can design something collec-
tively.” That was super exciting for me.
I’m really excited to put together infor-
mational documents that streamline all of
these complex governmental programs. I
really like taking information and making
it simple. That also, to me, speaks to eq-
uity and accessibility.
I’m really excited to relaunch [the Vivi-
ane Barnett Fellowship] in whatever form
it takes. I’m excited to think about ways
that we can create connections between
different programs we have at Ecotrust.
Eric Rodriguez. Photo by Emilie Chen
I like designing programs where nobody
ever really leaves, even if they go off and
do something else, because it’s a part of
this larger ecosystem of social justice.
I really appreciated Ecotrust’s per-
spective on indigenous food pathways,
environmental care, and ecoregions.
These are all things that I love, but hav-
en’t quite found a place where all of those
conversations are happening simultane-
ously. That felt like, “Yeah, this is a place
I would love to learn more and grow.”