S moke S ignals
FEBRUARY 1, 2016
11
Attention full-
time students
All full-time students must submit verification that they have applied to
a scholarship outside the Tribe before funding will be released for the term/
semester. Verification can include a scholarship award or denial letter, e-mail
verification that an application was submitted, a copy of the application or the
financial aid award letter that lists an outside scholarship. Please contact Ed-
ucation at 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2275, if you have any questions. n
Garden starting up third year
By Patti LeClaire
Food Sustainability Administrative Assistant
Good morning, Garden peeps and Happy New Year! 2016 will be
our third year with the Grand Ronde Tribal Community Garden.
The garden has made a lot of progress since 2013, when the garden
was totally eradicated of weeds and we rebuilt the beds, repaired the
water lines, re-laid cardboard and topped it with cedar chips. This
preparation needed to be completed before planting of numerous
vegetables in 2014.
Other projects finished in 2014 included the greenhouse being
close to completion. In 2015, we started all the garden vegetables
from seed in the greenhouse, built the pole barn and a water line
was placed at the greenhouse and the pole barn.
And we can’t forget about our chickens. They were a day old when
we got them and they now will soon be a year old. We built the
chicken coop (aka Chicken Taj Mahal) and extended the chicken
run into the garden.
They have done an awesome job. The chickens started laying
eggs in the middle of July. Total amount of eggs in 2015 was 3,271
eggs. The total harvest in the garden for 2014 and 2015 was 5,003
pounds, which was distributed between the Food Bank, preschool,
foster care and our volunteers.
This year we have many educational series that will be coming,
such as learning the importance of amending soil for gardening and
advanced composting and its benefits. Dates will be posted on the
Tribal Community Garden Facebook page soon,
We are starting a list of individuals interested in volunteering at
the garden this year. For the garden to be successful, we need at least
10 to 20 volunteers. The last three years we have had four dedicated
people who still volunteer. We had numerous garden days where we
had a pretty good turnout each time. Yet we need to ramp up our
volunteers so we can do a weekly schedule. With more volunteers
we could accomplish so much more.
A huge thank you and appreciation goes out to Scott LeClaire, Rob
Wiggs and Mike Wiggs for being so dedicated and helping the garden
become successful. We wouldn’t be this far without the three of you!
Kristy Deloe and Patti LeClaire would like to thank everyone who
has contributed to the garden!
Groups form Helping Hands
The Clothes Closet, iskam mfkhmfk haws and A Cause For Paws have
started an ad hoc group called Grand Ronde Helping Hands and are in-
viting community members to join the effort of supporting local families.
“The goal is to bring those of us together who are supporting families
in Grand Ronde to share the services and resources we provide and
create a resource guide we can all use,” said Food Bank Coordinator
Francene Ambrose.
The next meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, at the Grand
Ronde Food Bank, 9675 Grand Ronde Road.
“If you provide any type of services to families in our community,
please consider attending,” Ambrose said. “We are looking for meal site
calendars, food box sites, clothes closets, showers and laundry services.
We are asking churches, church groups, departments and support groups
to share with us.”
There also will be a collection day at the Food Bank from 10 a.m. to
2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13. Items being sought include blankets, pillows,
sheet sets, warm clothing and pet items.
If you are interested in joining the effort, contact Ambrose at 503-879-
3663 or at fambrose@marionpolkfoodshare.org. n