‘Grow Anywhere Tour’ – Portland, Oregon
Burpee Edible Gardening Team Members
Our scenic trip to Portland started early on Saturday morning, as it would be a long drive up the coast from San Francisco. Our travels took us along the coast so we could experience the Pacific Ocean and the famous redwoods in California. The Burpee Truck made many stops along the coast to take pictures of the ocean and have our picture taken in front of a 2,400-year-old redwood.
On Sunday we drivers had some downtime to explore the Portland area. We chose to check out the local zoo, shopping mall, and also took a train ride into downtown Portland for dinner that night.
Monday we started out early once again for our plant pick-up at Hart’s, where we loaded some beautiful cucumber, tomato, zucchini and pepper plants onto the truck to hand out later in the day. Then it was off to a local Kmart to visit with early-spring garden shoppers. We strategically placed the Burpee Truck in front of the garden center so we could talk with customers as they came and went from the store. The staff from Kmart were very excited to have us there, and were proud that they were specially chosen as a Burpee truck stop on the Grow Anywhere Tour.
Soon we were off to Charlie’s Produce to pick up our vegetables for the school event that afternoon. De La Salle North Catholic High School was waiting for our arrival, and we already had community members showing up for the event. Onsite helpers included a group of students, teachers, administrators and even a parent volunteer. There were many community members who had heard about the event through the school’s great promotion tactics.
We quickly put the volunteers to work placing the plant trays on the tables, and sorting the fresh vegetables into bags to prepare for the crowd. Our event was scheduled for 4-6 pm, but we started early in order to accommodate those already waiting. As the event went on, we had students coming from the school, returning with parents later, community members arriving in taxis and buses, as well as people walking by and noticing the event. What a great turnout! Some local media interviewed the teachers and students, and some other local gardener community members showed up to share information and help with the event.
The school kindly donated their 50 plants to the giveaway, and in the end we handed out all but one tray of plants. The remainder of the vegetables was donated to a local shelter to be shared with the community. The event was incredible because of the volunteers and also the community members that showed up to take advantage of the giveaway. It was heart-warming to see the gratitude of the community for helping provide education and the means for growing their own produce. The response was overwhelming and exciting, and that made the event more amazing than we could have imagined.
Follow the truck as it travels the country this spring! Real-time updates on Twitter @BurpeeHG, #BurpeeTruck, #GrowAnywhereTour.