Rural food systems struggle to provide for residents
In the tiny town of Dayville (pop. 138), the general store does a lot more than sell groceries. It’s a feed store, a liquor store, a variety store and—like many rural mercantiles—it also does duty as the community center. Mugs with their owners’ names scrawled on them hang on the wall, waiting for local residents to head to the back room for a little coffee and company. It's a reminder of how important food is to rural Oregon—not just the consuming of it, but its availability and distribution. At the same time, it serves as a reminder of how these food systems are at risk.
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Community Vitality is a storytelling publication published since 2000. Send article ideas, questions or requests for past issues to communityvitality@tfff.org.
© 2000-2021 The Ford Family Foundation. Anne Kubisch, President; Mandy Elder, Editor; Megan Monson, Assistant Editor
True leaders understand civility
Our world has many issues—abortion, war, climate change— that generate intense and often uncivil debate. Our communities also have many issues—taxes, public works projects, zoning—that also can... Read More
School activities provide focus
I grew up in Sherman County in the fourth generation of a farming family. We didn’t have a stop light in the entire county. It was a 75-mile round trip to school on the bus, and we were 64 miles from... Read More
Sharing space leverages resources
There’s only one thing better than visiting the offices of a thriving community organization, and that is visiting two at the same address. Or three, or four. Sharing space is a concept that has been... Read More
Collaboration yields results
Differences of opinion about the management of Oregon’s natural resources have led to a lot of very public conflict over the last 20 years. They also have led to the creation of highly collaborative... Read More
Making the most of his potential
For 28-year-old Ryan Dutton, the path to higher education has been anything but straight. After graduating from Siuslaw High School in Florence in 2000, Dutton attended one term of school at Lane... Read More
‘taking care of the water’
Participants in the north Curry County leadership class of Fall 2008 faced a bit of a challenge as they tossed around possibilities for their class project. They wanted something that put their newly... Read More
A safety net for children
Whatever it Takes is a no-holds-barred look at one of the greatest social experiments ever taken: a 97-block laboratory in central Harlem where educator Geoffrey Canada is hard at work exploring new... Read More
Civility reigns in living rooms
In 2005, the Coos Watershed Association launched an outreach program directed at landowners in the lowland areas surrounding the Coos estuary. Unlike the large timber acreages of the uplands where... Read More
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