Monday Mailing - June 29, 2020

Monday Mailing

Year 26 • Issue 42 29 June 2020 1. Food Systems Pivot in Wake of Pandemic 2. Rural Oregon Opens to an Uncertain Future 3. New Health Center Strives to Fix Healthcare Provider Shortage in Rural Oregon 4. Tribes Learned Lessons in Measles Outbreak 5. From the Lab to the Field, Agriculture Seeks to Adapt to a Warming World 6. Restructure Your Organization to Actually Advance Racial Justice 7. How Internet Outrage Led to A Change in Lincoln County’s Face Mask Policy (Katie McFall) 8. RESOURCE – Reopening America: How to Save Lives and Livelihoods 9. PODCAST – Out West: Reimagining the Rural Narrative 10. PODCAST – Two States, Two Approaches to a Resurgence of Coronavirus (Emily Bradley) 11. PODCAST – Home School (Hannah Fuller) 1. Food Systems Pivot in Wake of Pandemic There’s nothing like a pandemic, closed restaurants and masked lines outside grocery stores to make Oregonians rethink the food system.

Quote of the Week:

“It always seems impossible until it is done.”

- Nelson Mandela

Oregon Fast Fact

Since 2012, GLAPN and Portland’s Q Center honor an Oregonian Queer Hero every day in June as part of a celebration of Pride.

Check out Queer Heroes 2020.

In response to the Covid-19 outbreak, urban consumers, rural producers and mid-line distributors had to adapt on the fly.

Local Ocean Seafood, a Newport restaurant shut down by the virus, began selling boxed, uncooked seafood meals for two complete with a recipe and seasonings. “DockBox” sales kept owner Laura Anderson’s employees busy and provided a continued outlet for 50 to 60 local fishing boats that had lost key markets.

The Portland Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (PACSAC) reported a 25 to 30 percent increase in harvest share sales this spring compared to last year. Some consumers turned to CSAs because they were worried about grocery store crowds and the availability or even safety of “factory food,” PACSAC Executive Director Holly Hutchason said.

Under the CSA model, consumers pre-pay for a share of a farm’s harvest.

The spike steadied the coalition’s 81 farms, most relatively small, that sell and deliver produce and protein directly to consumers.

To access the full story, click here.

Page 1 of 5

2. Rural Oregon Opens to an Uncertain Future

A few miles southeast of Crater Lake National Park, the store at Jo’s Motel & Campground is open again — limited to two adult customers from a single household at one time, with face masks mandatory. But co-owner Robin Hurt has been in no hurry to reopen lodging for travelers passing through Fort Klamath.

“It’s a tradeoff for us, because we are a true mom and pop. We are the only people who work here and we’re both in our 60s, so we want to see how things are going out there,” Hurt said of the potential spread of the coronavirus. “Getting back to business as usual is a terrible idea for the whole world anyway.”

Up in Umatilla County, organizers of the Pendleton Round-Up & Happy Canyon hope this year’s event can go on in September with additional health safeguards. General Manager Erika Patton said organizers are in a fact-finding mode as they work with local and state officials.

The event brings a $50 million economic boost to the region, more than tripling Pendleton’s population. Civic leaders say cancellation could devastate already struggling local businesses.

These are the paradoxes of rural Oregon in the time of COVID-19.

To access the full story, click here.

3. New Health Center Strives to Fix the Healthcare Provider Shortage in Rural Oregon Rural healthcare is getting a makeover.

January 2020, Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls cut ribbons to hail the opening of its new Sky Lakes Collaborative Health Center, a 100,000-square-foot, $50 million building.

Among other things, the center will house the new headquarters for Oregon Health and Science University's Campus for Rural Health, a program to funnel medical students into rural areas.

Experts say the health center will be a game-changer in training generations of medical students to become rural providers. COVID-19 has slowed progress, but as Oregon emerges from lockdown, providers say they are excited for the next batch of students.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Tribes Learned Lessons in Measles Outbreak

As a sovereign nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation didn’t have to follow Gov. Kate Brown’s stay home orders and shut down any of its government facilities or enterprises to slow the spread of COVID-19.

But starting in March, the CTUIR did just that — closing nearly every tribal facility to the public and even most employees for two months, including the Wildhorse Resort and Casino, a sprawling operation that contributes significantly to the tribes’ nine-figure budget.

Page 2 of 5

The CTUIR has consistently followed its own timeline during the pandemic, declaring an emergency over COVID-19 before Oregon or Umatilla County, imposing more stringent social distancing regulations and recommendations than state or local governments and waiting a couple of weeks after Oregon began lifting stay home rules to reopen Wildhorse.

To access the full story, click here.

5. From the Lab to the Field, Agriculture Seeks to Adapt to a Warming World

It may be coming to a bakery near you: Bread made from wheat that has had its photosynthetic mechanism refashioned to help it flourish on a warmer planet.

Despite the fact a number of researchers — some funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — are scrambling to create this new breed of wheat, it won’t be arriving any time soon. Increasing temperatures are already taking a toll on the world’s wheat fields. But a new heat-resistant wheat that will replace the types currently grown is a decade or more off in the future.

“The largest single global change that threatens food security is high temperature,” said Donald Ort, a professor of plant biology and crop sciences at the University of Illinois who is working on a project called RIPE — Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency — to enhance photosynthesis in food crops, which would also help beat the heat.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Restructure Your Organization to Actually Advance Racial Justice

The U.S. is at a turning point, and the world is watching. The murder of George Floyd — preceded by the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many, many others — has sparked an outpouring of grief and activism that’s catalyzed protests in all 50 states and around the world. For Black people, the injustice we feel around the murder of another unarmed Black person is not new — but the scale of recognition of systemic racism and the allyship we are feeling from others is.

For diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practitioners like me, the influx of interest we’re seeing from organizations that want to both support their Black employees and upskill their workforce around racism, bias, and inclusivity is unprecedented. Plus, all of this is happening in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, which is also having an outsized impact on Black people in domains ranging from health to employment. Just a few weeks ago the constraints of the pandemic were even threatening corporate DEI efforts.

Many organizations have made their donations. Sent their tweets. Hosted their town halls. DEI budgets that had disappeared are now back. What should come next? Companies can do a few virtual trainings and default back to the status quo — or they can recognize that the racial bias driving the injustices they and the majority of Americans now care about also plays out within their own companies. Organizations that choose the latter then must answer an important question: How will they restructure their workplaces to truly advance equity and inclusion for their Black employees?

To access the full story, click here.

Page 3 of 5

7. How Internet Outrage Led to A Change in Lincoln County’s Face Mask Policy

It wasn’t hard to find Lincoln County’s mask directive. A summary — in large font — featured prominently on the COVID-19 web page of the Oregon county’s health department. It was topped with a link to the full text of the order.

The policy was nearly identical to one instituted three weeks prior without much fuss, governing Lincoln County’s courthouses and other public buildings. And it looked a lot like the ones six other Oregon counties issued after Gov. Kate Brown mandated masks be worn in seven counties where COVID-19 was rising sharply.

The one notable difference between Lincoln County’s policy and the others: it clearly spelled out something that the other six counties only implied: that “people of color who have heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment due to wearing face coverings in public” are exempt from the rule.

And that’s what people focused on.

To access the full story, click here.

8. RESOURCE – Reopening America: How to Save Lives and Livelihoods

The coronavirus has imposed a heavy toll on people’s lives, livelihoods, and connections with one another. As America and the world reopen from this devastating pandemic, it is important to examine how the process is taking place, its impact on individual lives and livelihoods, and learn from the experiences of other nations. In this report, we look at the experiences of the United States and other countries to see what we can derive about the reopening and its human impact. We present the insights and observations of three dozen Brookings scholars who look at reopening from many different angles and offer their thoughts and recommendations.

The first volume focuses on the American experience while the second one examines the experiences of other nations and lessons for the United States. Brookings President John Allen’s essay presents an overview of the pandemic and the serious questions it has raised for the world. Our goals in this project are to inform the public conversation about COVID, help business, government, and civic leaders take their next steps, and think about the immediate and longer-term consequences of the virus. We must learn as much as possible about this pandemic in order to address its overall ramifications.

To access this resource, click here.

9. PODCAST – Out West: Reimagining the Rural Narrative

Welcome to the second episode of Out West, the official podcast of the Western Governors’ Association. This installment continues our series on Reimagining the Rural West, the Chairman’s Initiative of North Dakota Gov. and WGA Chair Doug Burgum, which is examining challenges and opportunities in rural economic development, infrastructure and quality of life in the West.

Page 4 of 5

This episode, Reimagining the Rural Narrative, finds WGA Policy Advisor Laura Cutlip discussing ways to rewrite the predominantly negative narrative that often surrounds rural communities.

She’s joined by Ben Winchester, a rural sociologist from the University of Minnesota Center for Community Vitality; and Jennifer Groth, Policy and Partnerships Manager at Rural Development Initiatives.

To listen to this resource, click here.

10. PODCAST – Two States, Two Approaches to a Resurgence of Coronavirus

Coronavirus cases are on the rise - and in some cases spiking - in many states that are reopening. We talk to two top health officials from Oregon and Alabama about the different ways their states are handling new outbreaks and whether they could reinstate shutdowns.

To listen to this resource, click here.

11. PODCAST – Home School

Online learning works only if you can get online. Why tens of thousands of families are still caught on the wrong side of the digital divide.

To listen to this resource, click here.

Page 5 of 5