Shop locally

On the left are some ads for local and nearby businesses. We are a small community and we support each other. A great way to do that is by shopping at local businesses where the products are often more unique. And if not unique - the service is always friendlier.

Channel's Edge has adopted a family for Christmas and you can go to CE and find out what the family needs.

There are a few of us who market vitamins and supplements - I call us the Bridgeton Vitamin Club and you can join us - even if you don't live here. Contact Lynn [503-477-5550] for information. Food based vitamins and supplements, children's multivitamins, and preservative-free skin care products can make great gifts.

Tom at Postal Place can send your packages, Wayne can fix your boats, and Channel's Edge, Kabob Shack and Po'Shines Cafe-de-la-Soul can feed you.

Enjoy the holidays....

Local Café Hosts Christmas Party to Strengthen Community Morale

PORTLAND, OR (December 5, 2007) - Po'Shines: Cafe de la Soul, a soul food cafe in North Portland, will host a community Christmas party on Saturday, December 22nd. With live music, as well as free food and drink, the event hopes to celebrate the holidays while fostering dialogue and support within the Kenton community.

Po'Shines has been quite active in the community since it's opening this past summer. One of their first moves was to become a partner in the Teach Me to Fish program. The program is an initiative designed specifically to empower at-risk and troubled youth within the greater Portland area by providing guided training in job, life and performing arts skills. The café offers their facilities and staff to serve as an integral part of the success of the program. The café recently partnered with a neighboring organization PROPER, to host their 14th annual free community Thanksgiving dinner that fed over 300 people this past November.

“It is great when you can see a local business really care enough to be involved with the community,” said Echo Leighton, president of the Kenton Business Association. “Kenton has always been a community rich in culture and for Po'Shines to support such diversity while empowering the community through a program like Teach Me to Fish, is a movement that could really make our neighborhood thrive.”

“It’s amazing the change that can be made when a community really comes together,” said Antjuan Tolbert, manager of Po'Shines. “This Christmas party may seem like a little thing, but my staff and I see it as an opportunity to bring understanding and unity to a community comprised of individuals who don’t often get to come together because they are too focused on just making ends meet.”

For the party, Chef James Bradley promises to raise the dining standards for community events. The menu for the evening includes smoked salmon chowder, spanikopita and wild mushroom napolean as well as spice cake and up-side down apple pie for dessert, and malt cider and sorrel to drink.

Po’Shines will be collecting donations of time, materials and resources for the learning garden that they plan to start in early spring of 2008.

The party will be held from 6-10 on Saturday, December 22nd at the café, located at 8139 N. Denver. For more information call Po’Shines: Café de la Soul at 503.286.2590.