The Resilience Hub is committed to building a more localized food system and mutual aid networks in our community. One of the ways we can be of service during this time is to support the building of food growing spaces for people who have been impacted by the pandemic and are seeking greater food security. 

To this end, we have decided to sponsor and organize in-person permablitzes / work parties again. We’ve come up with a list of guidelines for these events to lower the risk of transmission. Mt. Joy Orchard has already begun hosting work parties with good success.

Here is the evolving list of guidelines we’ve mapped out (with special thanks to the Mt. Joy Organizing Team for working out most of these):

• All volunteers are required to wear masks and carefully keep at least 6 feet apart. 
• To help make it easier to maintain 6 feet or more between all volunteers, work parties will be split into 2 shifts of 3 hrs each. There will be 10 people allowed on each shift – volunteers can sign up for shifts using Sign-Up Genius.
• Hand washing and hand sanitizing stations, as well as materials to sanitize tools between uses will be available at the site.
• Participants are required to bring their own water bottle and work gloves.
• Participants are encouraged to bring their own tools and use them for the duration of the event. We will provide guidance on which tools will be useful depending on the tasks to be completed at the permablitz / work party. We will request that volunteers stick to one job as much as possible to minimize the amount of tool sanitizing that needs to happen.
• Materials piles will be spaced well apart so that people can keep distance easier.
• Please stay home if you are feeling sick or have had recent exposure to anyone with symptoms of respiratory illness.

If you are interested in participating and have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email info@resiliencehub.org.

Permaculturists have a saying that “the problem is the solution”. Since its inception, the Resilience Hub has been committed to creating alternatives to the parts of culture we’d like to see change – and building more resilience at the individual, household, and community levels. When the seriousness of the pandemic became clear, we saw the opportunity to act in concert with this vision and take steps to design a better future.

The response is a work-in-progress and has truly been a team effort. Once we identified some ways that our network could potentially be helpful, we sent out a survey to everyone in the Meetup group. The response we got was massive and encouraging, with many offers of time, land, materials, and skills. We want to update you on some of the ways we’ve begun to respond:

• We’ve been talking for a while now about our desire to connect people who are seeking land to grow food and medicine with people who have it and would like to share. It turns out that Land in Common has been working on the Maine Land Share Project for over a year now – they have a fully fleshed-out plan in place and a working group dedicated to the project. We have joined efforts with them to match land seekers and land owners in an intentional and mutually beneficial way. The project is committed to supporting the matches that are made throughout the growing season and beyond. If you are interested in getting involved, fill out one of these forms – whether Seeking Land or have some Land to Offer.
• We have instituted a Garden Mentorship Program – connecting more experienced growers with those who are just getting started. We offer introductions and a set of suggested guidelines for mentors and mentees to build relationships and learn from one another. So far we’ve matched over 70 people based on geographic location and interest.
• We are in the process of coordinating a “pandemic gardens” response for people who are already growing food and/or medicine and would like to grow extra in service to greater food security. We’ve had 80+ people express interest so far, and are working out how we can get this food and medicine from the generous folks who grow it to the people who need it.
• The Education Working Group continues to offer workshops and skillshares virtually. We have identified a few people in the community who are interested in serving on a Communications Working Group so that we can better serve people remotely during this time and in the future.

If you would like to get involved in any of these efforts, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Send me an email at kate@resiliencehub.org or fill out the original survey here.

Here’s to our continued solidarity, health, and resilience in the face of change.

Dear friends,

Given all of the chaos of this moment, we wanted to offer some points of connection and reminders of the resilience that we’ve been building as a wider community over the last ten years.

One of the foundational tenets of the Resilience Hub is to support individuals, households, and communities in becoming more resilient, and in our collective ability to bounce back from disruption. We acknowledge this is a time of severe disruption. Over the past 15 years, the Hub has built a 3,000+ person network of people who are interested in this work. Together, this body of people holds a massive amount of knowledge, diversified skills, land, food, and resources towards how to build a world that is healthy, just, and abundant. The Hub has supported many residential and community spaces to plant food forests and to build resilient systems with massive food growing capacity. While there are still not enough of these sites, their existence is a glimpse into one component of a decentralized, accessible food system. 

The Resilience Hub is, at its core, a network made up of people. We need your input regarding how to show up for our community. What do you want and need from this network in this uncertain time? We invite you to fill out this survey asking what needs you see for yourself and the community, as well as what services and resources you might be able to offer to assist others. We welcome your ideas.

This moment lays bare both the inequities and the interconnectedness amongst us. It is an opportunity to acknowledge resources and recognize them as privileges: be that access to land, financial resources, food growing capacity, skills – and to leverage them in support of our community in the spirit of solidarity. We also acknowledge the very real material needs that many of us may be experiencing, and the range of emotions present. The Resilience Hub has been committed to the practice of mutual aid and reciprocity since its inception, and we’re calling for that from each other now. How can we put our beliefs into practice? 

Asks:

• We’re looking for people with skills in social media, communications, or technology to join our communications working group in order to support communications and logistics during this crisis and beyond. 
• Are you gardening in your backyard? Would you be willing to commit to planting extra this year to support food access in the greater Portland area?  
• Do you have available space in your yard but don’t feel like you can do the gardening on your end? Would you be willing to share yard space in support of food security in your community? 
• If yes to any of the above, please complete the survey or don’t hesitate to reach out. 
• If you have available financial resources in this time, please consider giving to one of the mutual aid funds that have been set up. Please share information about these funds and mutual aid networks widely. 
  • People’s Emergency Fund: This is a locally-based people’s emergency fund to raise money for the most vulnerable people in our communities. The funds will be used to purchase basic survival goods (food, medicine, etc) and distribute those goods and money during the COVID-19 crisis to people most marginalized in this crisis, with the least access to other forms of aid.
  • Southern Maine Democratic Socialists of America Assistance Fund: Assistance fund and mutual aid network.
  • Maine People’s Alliance Assistance Fund: state-wide assistance fund and mutual aid network. 

We take seriously the threat COVID-19 poses, and as such will not be hosting in person gatherings for an indefinite period of time. Please take adequate precautions and gentle care of yourselves. Our individual actions as part of the whole will be key to stemming the spread of the virus. Here are some things that we’ll be offering over the next few months:

• Our Education Working Group is working to put together a series of virtual talks, workshops, and educational offerings particularly geared towards building resilience in this crisis. If you are interested in offering a talk, or have something specific you’d like to learn about, please let us know. 
• We are still planning for a season of permablitzes, even if we have to modify them in some fashion. We will have more details about this over the coming weeks.
• We’re looking to expand communications and information sharing and will be exploring the best way to do this.
• Platforms to support gardening mentorship, yard-sharing, and food production and distribution. 

There’s no good way to sum up this moment. When we look to nature for guidance, we see disruption creating devastating loss and creating opportunity for growth and regeneration. May we continue to build a community that can hold each other through both. 

With you in Community, 

Kate, Toxtli, Eli, Josh, and Heather

The Resilience Hub is seeking proposals for projects to build community-scale resilience:

•Are you part of a community group that could benefit from increased access to your own fruits and vegetables? From reduced water or electricity bills?

•Are you an organization doing community organizing or direct support work that has an idea for the way that small-scale energy or food/medicine production could support your work?

•Are you a tenant or a renter in an urban area wanting to increase your access to fruits and vegetables, decrease water or electric bills, and learn about and demonstrate urban gardening techniques?

•Are you a property owner in a rural, urban, or suburban area looking to build your household’s resilience and also committed to building equity in your community by leveraging your property towards community benefit? (This could look like land sharing agreements, building a community gathering space, creating a neighborhood food distribution network with surplus, running a community research project on soil remediation, etc.)

The Portland Permablitz Network organizes work parties to build projects that increase resilience through backyard or neighborhood food production, energy generation, water catchment, and community-building. We take a permaculture approach – a way of designing that mimics nature’s patterns. Together, we can accomplish in a day what it might take an individual or small group a whole season to complete. We will convene 5-6 permablitz work parties from June through November this year.

If you would like to apply, please fill out the Permablitz Host Form by April 3.

To learn more about permablitzes, visit https://resiliencehub.org/projects/maine-permablitz/

The Resilience Hub is offering a 13-part Garden School Series starting in mid-February. The series is a collaboration between the Hub, Rooted in Resilience, the Cumberland County Cooperative Extension, Fedco Seeds, and Edgewood Nursery.

This “seed to storage” series will be a chance for beginning gardeners to connect with more experienced growers and learn the basics of growing food at home. We believe that gardening is a life-long pursuit and there is always more to learn.

These hands-on, participatory workshops will be held from 6:00 to 8:00pm at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension unless otherwise noted – see below for a full list of the series workshops. The gardens at Tidewater Farm will provide an opportunity to follow the progress of a garden tended by Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners. Participants will come away with practical knowledge that can be applied in the home garden, and there will be time to check in with questions during every class.

Cost is $10 – $25 sliding scale.  The true cost of this workshop is $20 per person. Our aim is to have this series accessible to all people, contact us about scholarship opportunities. To sign up, become a member of our Meetup group: https://www.meetup.com/maine-permaculture/.

February 18: Garden Design and Planning with Mary Wicklund from Rooted in Resilience

March 10: Seed Starting with Heron Breen and Buddy Thomas from Fedco Seeds

April 14: Overview of Soil – Soil Biology and Sheet Mulching with Mary Wicklund from Rooted in Resilience and Aaron Parker from Edgewood Nursery

May 12:  Composting and Vermicomposting Made Easy with Mary Wicklund from Rooted in Resilience

June 9 : Water Systems: Drip Irrigation and Rain Barrels with Mary Wicklund from Rooted in Resilience

June 30: What’s Possible with Guilds/Companion Planting & Forest Gardening with Aaron Parker from Edgewood Nursery

July 14: Problems and Pests: Summer Garden Status for Success with Heron Breen from Fedco Seeds

July 28: Freezing Green Beans and Canning Dilly Beans with Mary Wicklund from Rooted in Resilience

August 25: Taste Trials – Summer Bounty of Tomato and Melon Varieties with Heron Breen from Fedco Seeds

September 1: Season Extension Techniques with Mary Wicklund from Rooted in Resilience and Heron Breen from Fedco Seeds

September 22: Root Cellaring with Jason Lilley from Cumberland County Cooperative Extension

October 13: Fermentation Techniques with Kate Wallace of the Resilience Hub

October 27: Planting Garlic and Season Review with Mary Wicklund of Rooted in Resilience