TERRANCE MOSES

About 5 months ago I noticed that some people in my neighborhood started to walk around and pick up litter in the neighborhood. The last time I saw them I stopped to talk to her about helping out with that. Seeing if there are any scheduling and how it works for what area exactly is being walked. 

Meal planning is something that me and my family have done for years. Way before it was a popular  thing to do. We all sit down each week to decide what we are going to eat for the week. We then only buy the things for those meals that week. 

This is the first week that my students brought in batteries to be recycled. I have so far collected 337 batteries (I went through and counted every last battery). From what I’ve been told from my students there are more batteries that they will be dropping off they could just only carry so many though out the day. Once I am done collecting at the end of the term I will take all the batteries to be recycled at Batteries+Bulbs

This week I have biked to work, which is about 3 miles there and back home, the weather has been a little nicer a few more days this week making it very easy to bike. While it still has been pretty cold, once you get going its not that bad. One of my reusable mugs fits pretty well with my bike cup holder so I am good to keep using my reusable mugs when I am biking as well. 

This Last week I started a "course" in my after-school program to teach my students about sustainability practices that they can use. One thing I noticed when we started this conversation is how little a majority of my students know. Now given they are 2nd-5th grade, however even my 5th graders didn't know how bad plastic is for the earth. As part of this course I am doing with them, I have created a challenge for them to bring in as much plastic bottles, caps, cans and batteries as they can for roughly the next month. We are also going to be saving some of our plastics from our daily snacks to see how much plastic we get in those each week (which I can imagine is a lot since almost everything other than the bag is in plastic of some sort). 

This last week and half or so. I have been going through stuff I don’t need, want, or have space for. Normally I would give these things to goodwill or just trash them. However I had forgotten that I was apart of a by nothing group on Facebook, since I’m never on Facebook, so I decided to post the things I don’t want in there and the people in my neighborhood have come by to get them. 
Separate topic, as many of you may know, I go to black rock daily and have noticed that they have started using agave straws instead of plastic. I looked these straws up because they have the same feel as a plastic straw but they are made from agave instead and are biodegradable and able to be used in hot or cold drinks. 

This last Sunday I helped organize a cleanup with my dads nonprofit and my church. We cleaned up the king neighborhood just off of MLK in the surrounding area of King Elementary School. We had 63 volunteers sign up for the cleanup and probably a little more that showed up. Including families with little kids, even an infant in a stroller 🙂. I do these more often then most as it is something that my dad has picked up in the 6 or so years, so much so to point of starting a nonprofit dedicated to house less cleanup and “bridging the gap between houses and houseless”. Even before the nonprofit I was and still am frequently out cleanup up houseless camps around North Portland. Weather it’s a big organized cleanup or just me and him. For this specific cleanup we gather roughly 300 lbs of trash and litter. We are always accepting volunteers, regardless of an organized cleanup. My dad runs 6 days a week cleaning up trash. Making multiple trips to the dump. 
This link is for the interview conducted of the cleanup this last Sunday: https://www.kgw.com/video/news/local/volunteers-cleaned-up-martin-luther-king-jr/283-f360718d-0416-4d9e-963d-ea1660c3ca12

If you are interested in more I strongly urge you to look at more via the Facebook page “neighbors helping neighbors pdx” for organized cleanups or getting in contact to volunteer any day of the week!
The images I’ve attached are also from this last cleanup. 

Fun Fact: when we first started doing this it was my dads personal truck and little trailer he had found somewhere. We eventually got enough recognition for our work and were given a grant from the city to buy a bigger trailer. When our trucks engine blew out after being replaced with a brand new one, a used car dealer donated another truck for us to use to hauls the trailer. We recently received a donation to get an additional dump truck (as seen in the photo) to collect even more trash with. Now the front of our house looks like a mini car lot 😂 but it’s worth it. We also hand out sack lunches that are donated from a lodge nearby. As well as warming kits and clothes we get donated, often new clothes that were ordered in surplus for a race and then the extras get donated. 

This was the first week of me issuing my usable container for my daily coffee. It was definitely a little tricky to remember to wash and bring back my mug since I only have one right now. I think I might get a couple more to make it easier. But I tend to leave this one in my car and then forget to take it back out for the next day. But it was nice to find out that Blackrock has gone back to accepting personal mugs. Since they and many other shops had stopped for a while due to Covid concerns.