Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
March 21, 2018
‘Plate and Pitchfork’ helps
feed hungry Oregonians
While a growing push to link consum-
ers with their food has become the norm,
one Oregon agritourism business is stretch-
ing the local food movement further by
sharing its proceeds with the hungry.
Each summer since 2003, Plate and
Pitchfork has offered on-farm, gourmet
meals around Oregon featuring tours of the
land from which the meal was harvested
and an opportunity to interact with the
host farmers. Since its inception, Plate and
Pitchfork has shared a portion of its profits.
“Plate and Pitchfork has always sup-
ported hunger relief — in the beginning
we divided our support between hunger
and environmental causes,” said founder
Erika Polmar, who splits her time between
Joseph and Portland.
As her business grew and the message
of eating locally produced food became
well known, Polmar said she wanted to
make a more dramatic impact by sharing
her profits with those who don’t get enough
to eat.
“One-in-five Oregonians is food inse-
cure,” Polmar said.
For the past six years a portion of ticket
sales and profits from merchandise were
sent to Farmers Ending Hunger, a group
that solicits crop donations from farmers
for the Oregon Food Bank. In 2016 those
donations added up to more than $22,000.
A donation of $150 to Farmers Ending
Hunger is a year’s supply of fresh vege-
tables for a family of four, providing Pol-
mar a way to make the dramatic impact she
sought.
“I wanted to work with them because
they are so cost efficient with so little over-
head,” Polmar said.
In addition to her work with Plate and
Pitchfork, Polmar is also marketing and
operations consultant for Carman Ranch
and previously worked to cultivate agri-
tourism with Travel Oregon.
Some will remember her as the volun-
teer coordinator for the Joseph City Park
Playground Renovation in 2016-17.
Farmers Ending Hunger was one of
three nonprofits to receive funding recently.
Community Connection of Northeast Ore-
gon’s food bank, which serves Wallowa
County, was another.
John Burt has served as Farmers End-
ing Hunger’s executive director for 10 of its
11 years. The retired Oregon State Univer-
sity Extension agent said in 2015 his group
helped get more than 4 million pounds of
donated food to the Oregon Food Bank and
3.5 million pounds last year.
“We help get food from point A to the
food box,” Burt said.
Potatoes and onions make up half of
the fresh food that Farmers Ending Hun-
ger steers to the food bank, totaling 1 mil-
lion pounds each. A major cherry producer
in the Columbia Gorge is donating nearly
100,000 pounds, delivering bins every
week during the season, and a large cattle
farm donates hamburger.
Three years ago a wall-size display
featuring Farmers Ending Hunger was
installed at SAGE Center in Boardman, a
FOR THE RECORD
March 12
2:54 p.m. – Violation of
no contact agreement in
Enterprise.
3:35 p.m. – 911 call report-
ing a grass fire. Lostine Fire
responded and extinguished
the fire.
3:47 p.m. – 911 call report-
ing a shed on fire. Wallowa Fire
responded and extinguished
the fire.
4:38 p.m. – Civil dispute in
Joseph.
March 13
12:05 p.m. – Hit and run
call from Wallowa County.
March 14
2:42 p.m. – Josie Jordan
Makens, 28, of Lostine, turned
herself in on two Wallowa
County Circuit Court warrants
for unauthorized use of a motor
Rawls, Enterprise
come to agreement
Rebuilding of
city hall, fire
station to be
memorialized
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Courtesy Plate and Pitchfork
Plate and Pitchfork farm dinner participants tour a host farm.
sustainable agriculture and energy interpre-
tive center. The center’s interactive displays
describe the food and energy businesses at
the Port of Morrow and their impact on the
region.
“To be asked to have space on the wall
felt like we’d arrived,” Burt said.
For Polmar, finding worthy causes to
share her profits was easy, but collecting
more than 100 donations from each of Plate
and Pitchfork’s events was generating an
administrative nightmare for nonprofits with
small staffs. Burt is part-time, running an
entire program on roughly $125,000 year.
To alleviate the paperwork burden for
the organizations she supports, Polmar
started the Plate & Pitchfork Fund to End
Hunger in 2017, under the umbrella of the
McKenzie River Gathering, a community
foundation. The donations go into the fund
throughout the summer months and at the
end of the year checks are cut to different
organizations.
“This was the first year we awarded
$15,000 to Farmers Ending Hunger,
$1,000 to Lower Columbia School Gar-
dens and $3,500 to Community Connec-
tion of Northeast Oregon’s food bank,”
Polmar said.
Polmar is preparing her 2018 Plate and
Pitchfork calendar.
The closest one to Wallowa County
will be Plate & Pitchfork Raft Trip June 28
through Hells Canyon,
Chef and owner Ben Bettinger from
Laurelhurst Market & Big’s Chicken in
Portland will serve meals featuring prod-
vehicle and menacing. She
was sentenced and released.
March 15
10:29 a.m. – Requesting
road be plowed in Enterprise.
11:45 a.m. – IRS scam call
reported from rural Enterprise.
12:04 p.m. – Traffic crash in
rural Enterprise.
4:55 p.m. – Offensive litter-
ing in rural Wallowa.
March 16
10:48 a.m. – Report of
negotiating a bad check in
Enterprise.
4:17 p.m. – Report of a sex
offense in Enterprise.
March 17
8:43 a.m. – Report of civil
dispute in Enterprise.
12:05 p.m. – Phillip Milton
Evans, 40, of Enterprise, was
arrested on charges of proba-
tion violation, original charge
restricted weapon. He was
transported to Umatilla County
Jail.
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ucts grown and raised in Eastern Ore-
gon. Enterprise’s Terminal Gravity Brew-
ing will provide ales including a special
custom-brew made in collaboration with
Bettinger.
The trip also includes whitewater adven-
tures, incredible scenery, wildlife viewing
and fishing opportunities.
The venture includes transportation
from Joseph to and from the river,
All necessary rafting and camping gear,
including life jackets, dry bags, spacious
tents and super-thick, comfortable sleep-
ing pads.
Winding Waters River Expeditions,
owned and operated by Paul and Penny
Arentsen, helps coordinate the trip.
An event at Smith Berry Barn in Hill-
sboro, Ore., featuring chefs Joel Stocks
and Will Preach from Holdfast, with Chef
Carlo Lamagna of the soon to be opened
Magna and wines from Grochau Cellars, is
July 22.
The feast moves to the Diggin Roots
Farm in Molalla with Chef Mona John-
son and Jaret Foster of Tournant with wines
from Walter Scott Wines on Aug. 5.
Two other events, one at Sun Gold
Farm in Forest Grove, Ore., and another
at Domaine Drouhin in Dayton, Ore., are
planned in August.
Learn more about Plate and Pitchfork at
plateandpitchfork.com.
The City of Enterprise
has unanimously approved
hiring Grady Rawls, Living
Sky Productions, of Enter-
prise, to film the rebuild of
city hall and the fire hall.
Rawls appeared before the
council at the regular March
12 meeting to answer ques-
tions about the project.
Emergency
Services
Manager Paul Karvosky had
approached Rawls about the
idea and Rawls, whose busi-
ness office is on Main Street
in Enterprise, had written
a rough proposal for two
films, high-end photogra-
phy and “many extras” for
the council to consider, with
a total cost of $5,000 (plus
any special travel expenses
out of the county). Karvosky
presented the rough proposal
to city council at a February
meeting.
“This will be a piece that
will last forever,” Rawls
said. “A project like that out-
side of the county would
cost tens of thousands of
dollars.”
The hometown dis-
count is significant, with
Rawls estimating the cost at
one-quarter or less the usual
commercial charge.
He emphasized that as a
hometown project, he would
be on call as much as possi-
ble to capture moments that
might have been unsched-
uled. He will follow the
work throughout the entire
year or however long the
rebuild project takes.
“This contract and pro-
posal is not done until your
story is complete,” he said.
The city will also have
access to high quality photo-
graphic stills for their histor-
ical collection. Rawls also
uses archived film clips of
the downtown area, which
he has collected from other
jobs, to build a full picture of
Enterprise.
“This will be a passionate
presentation,” he said.
City
Administrator
Michele Young has investi-
gated funding and informed
the council that it would be
appropriate to fund the job
with money from the city’s
opportunity fund.
“That’s what the fund is
for –– these one-of-a-kind
opportunities. We can share
this with the public and it’s
a great opportunity. This is
going to be an opportunity
for everyone to see how this
has happened,” she said.
Beam yourself up for Big Read
What does the TV pro-
gram, Star Trek Voyager have
to do with the Big Read book,
“Station Eleven?” It turns
out, quite a bit.
The novel is set 20 years
after a devastating flu pan-
demic destroys civilization.
It follows a traveling troupe
of actors and musicians dedi-
cated to keeping the remnants
of art and humanity alive
through their performances.
Painted on the side of
their horse drawn wagon is
the phrase, “Survival is Insuf-
ficient.” This quote comes
directly from a 1999 episode
of Star Trek Voyager.
Fishtrap will screen the
episode “Survival Instinct”
Thursday, March 22 in the
Fishtrap living room 400 E.
Grant St., Enterprise. A dis-
cussion follows to explore
why author Emily St. John
Mandel chose this phrase as
a central theme for her book.
Admission is free. The pro-
gram is appropriate for all
ages and includes popcorn
and soft drinks.
Fishtrap celebrates one
great work of literature annu-
ally by providing events, dis-
cussions and free books to
Wallowa County schools,
libraries and community
members.
The program is supported
locally by neighborhood busi-
nesses and individual dona-
tions, including Community
Bank and Pacific Power.
A version of this story, written by Katy
Nesbitt, appeared previously in the Chief-
tain’s sister publican Capital Press.
209 NW First St., Enterprise • 5414264567
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