Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Events

Free Food Markets

Free Food Markets are community events that center fresh produce provided by the Oregon Food Bank. This event is open to all and there are no limits. No ID is needed to attend, we only ask how many are in their household. We ask that participants bring their own bag or box to transport the food. Everyone is welcome! Food may run out before the event end time.

• Monday, July 1, 12-2pm @ Cascade Campus, Student Union
• Monday, July 29, 1:30am-3:30pm @ @ Sylvania Campus, CC Mall (near ASPCC office)
• Wednesday, August 14, 4:00- 6:00pm @ Southeast Campus, MTH Great Hall
• Monday, August 26, 11:00am – 1:00pm @ Rock Creek Campus, Building 5 Lobby

Southeast Learning Garden Work Parties

• July 17th, 10am-1pm
• July 23rd, 10am-1pm
• July 29th, 10am-1pm

Volunteer

Learning Garden Open Volunteer Hours

You are welcome to stop by the gardens at the below times to volunteer your time. No experience or tools necessary. We are excited to welcome volunteers back!

Cascade Campus

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-1pm

Newberg Center

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-1pm

Rock Creek Campus

Monday-Friday, 9am-1pm

Southeast Campus

Mondays, 12:30-4pm

Wednesdays, 10am-1pm

Sylvania Campus

Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11-2pm

GivePulse

Explore community engagement opportunities, track your hours, connect with community partners, and share your impact through PCC’s GivePulse site.

Whether you are taking a course with a community-based learning assignment/project or just looking to get involved, GivePulse is your one-stop shop for connecting with community here at PCC! Just a couple of the benefits of using GivePulse include becoming a part of a movement or cause that you care about and creating a community engagement transcript (for your own reporting purposes).

Check out these upcoming sustainability opportunities through GivePulse!

Classes

Upcoming credit classes

The following classes in the Summer 2024 term include sustainability as a component of their curricula:

Sustainability Focus Award

The Sustainability Focus Award recognizes students who have completed a broad range of sustainability-related courses. The award is designed to encourage students to learn to see environmental issues from multiple perspectives and to increase their experience in this multi-disciplinary topic. The earning of this focus award can demonstrate to potential employers and transfer colleges that the student has a deep and broad understanding of sustainability issues.

Jobs

We frequently have work-study positions available at the campus and district level. Please see the PCC Work Study page for available positions or email sustainability@pcc.edu. Please note that not all positions may be available at this time.

Basic Needs, Sustainability and Leadership (BNSL)

AVAILABLE POSITIONS

• BNSL Ambassador  24/25
• Panther Pantry Ambassador 24/25

APPLY ONLINE: 2024/2025 Basic Needs, Sustainability and Leadership Student Ambassador Application

For best consideration students should apply by Thursday, July 25 at NOON.  Interviews will be scheduled virtually for July 31.

If selected, onboarding and training will begin on August 27. These training sessions will be held mostly in person at Sylvania & Cascade Campuses. Team meetings will be held alternating MONDAYS in person at Sylvania Campus.These will begin the week before school starts on Monday, September 16.

Reed Sustainability

Sustainability and Environmental Justice Scholar

The position is 15 hours a week of work with the sustainability office at Reed, and includes room and board, health insurance, and a small stipend. This new hire would live in the Garden House and support engagement with sustainability and environmental justice for eight residents, as well as for the expanded Reed community through collaboration with the Sustainability Intern Program and partnered faculty. As a post baccalaureate special student, the SEJ Scholar will pursue a year-long, directed research experience with faculty mentors in ES and EH culminating in a transdisciplinary multimedia project on sustainability and environmental justice at Reed. Apply now!

Clubs

Student Sustainability Club

This is an organization of students from Portland Community College who believe that a collective effort can make a difference for a better world. Our mission is to build awareness about the issues of environmental degradation and environmental social justice, and to help the community adopt a sustainable lifestyle in their own lives and on campus. We have community outreach projects, volunteer opportunities, and outdoor activities.

Please check out our page on PantherHub or contact Jade Menchaca at jade.menchaca@pcc.edu with questions or concerns!

Bee Campus USA Committee

Are you passionate about pollinators? Are you interested in increasing pollinator habitat on our campuses? The PCC Bee Campus USA Committee is seeking new members. Your commitment would be to participate in meetings 3-4 times per year, serve as an advisor and help educate the PCC community about the importance of pollinators and their habitat, our campus apiary, beekeeping classes, and our fundraising efforts (honey sales). If you are interested in joining, please email sustainability@pcc.edu.

Tree Campus Higher Education Committee

You have the opportunity to join forces with us to protect and promote trees, enhancing the natural environment in and around all of our campuses and centers at PCC. The PCC Tree Campus Higher Education Committee welcomes students, faculty, staff, and community members to help with this important college-wide effort.

We work together to:

• Establish policies and guidelines for planting, maintaining, and removing trees
• Ensure that adequate funding and staff time is provided in support of the program
• Organize activities in observance of National Arbor Day
• Create opportunities for students to participate in tree-related service learning projects
• Educate the community about the important ecosystem benefits that trees provide

For more information or to join the committee, contact tree-campus-group@pcc.edu.

Nature For All: Environmental Club

Want to share your love for sustainability and the environment, need volunteer hours, or just want to learn more about the world that surrounds us, then come join Nature for All. Participate in trail maintenance at RCESC; participate in Adopt-a-road clean up along 185th; write restoration proposals for grants; participate in restoration projects on and off PCC campuses; and network with like-minded individuals and local environmental agencies, like Clean Water Services and Portland Audubon Society. Interested in learning more? Visit the PantherHub page.

Organic Garden Club

The purpose of the LAWNS club (Land Air Water Nutrients Space) is to make gardening accessible to all PCC students, staff, and faculty and open the door to promote the transformation of LAWNS into biodiverse environments that engage all plants and gardeners by bringing access to affordable, sustainable gardening and awareness to food sovereignty. To get involved, contact Peter Ritson at peter.ritson@pcc.edu.

Habitat Restoration Team at Sylvania

Would you like leadership and environmental field experiences? Come join the team! We don’t usually meet for two hours but sometimes we write grants, show movies, do a walkabout, or have a mini-work party. The Habitat Restoration Team, working with the Sylvania Grounds crew, PCC students and staff, and community members, works to remove invasive species, plant NW native plants, and help stabilize creek beds. To get involved, contact April Ann Fong at afong@pcc.edu.

Green Team

Comprised of staff, students, and faculty, this group of dedicated people is the champion of sustainability at PCC. Functionally serving as an advisory committee to the Sustainability Office, this group has a strategic influence on department-level sustainable practices, information dissemination, and Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP), as well as serving as contacts for campus-wide initiatives and education. It is this group of sustainability promoters that keeps us going! We always welcome interested folks! We usually meet once per month. The Green Team always has something going on. Please contact Jade Menchaca at jade.menchaca@pcc.edu to learn more.

Thinking of starting a club?

First contact the district sustainability department, which can connect you with people and resources that you will need to know. Who knows – maybe there’s already a club that exists, waiting for someone like you to step into a leadership role!

Resources

Summer Panther Pantry Hours

All pantries are closed July 4 and August 18-September 25

• Southeast: Mt. Tabor Building, Room 152, Wednesdays 1-5pm and Thursdays 3-7pm
• Cascade: Cascade Hall, Room 102, Tuesdays 1-5pm and Wednesdays 3-7pm
• Sylvania: CC Building, Room 215, Wednesdays 1-5pm and Thursdays 3-7pm
• Rock Creek: Building 5, Room 113, Tuesdays 1-5pm and Wednesdays 3-7pm

The schedule is subject to change. Visit the Panther Pantry website for updates.

Eco Social Justice Grant

Issues of environmental degradation, inequality, and economic disparity impact us all. Here at PCC, we value our students, staff, and faculty and their commitment to sustainability as well as their advocacy and efforts toward creating more equitable, diverse, and inclusive spaces across the district.

We are supporting and fostering a culture of collaborative, innovative problem-solving using environmental sustainability and social justice initiatives to accomplish these goals. From our learning gardens, water bottle fill stations, our great bike programs, and farm stand, to our annual #EcoSocialJusticeEvent, we have been working together to address our community’s most pressing ecological and social challenges with fresh ideas. We also feel that it is important to both celebrate and give thanks and acknowledgment to the amount of time, money, and effort that students have put towards making Portland Community College a nationally and globally recognized higher education institution and leader in the sustainability movement.

In 2008 the Associated Students of Portland Community College (ASPCC) District Student Council approved a ten-cent addition to the student activity fee, creating The Green Initiative Fund. At the beginning of 2018, the ASPCC District Student Council unanimously agreed to change the name of this fund to the Eco Social Justice Grant (ESJG), this name change better reflects the broader scope of what these grants have been and will be dedicated to. This fund exists so that students, staff, and faculty can participate in our culture of innovation and contribute meaningful advances to sustainable practices. At PCC, our goal is to achieve sustainable excellence in all operations, to live our commitment to social justice, and to meet our targeted greenhouse gas reductions as detailed in the Climate Action Plan. If you have an idea for a project that moves PCC towards these outcomes, we want to hear from you!

Learn more and apply for the Eco Social Justice Grant!

Environmental Center

The PCC Environmental Center promotes sustainability, education, and action. We invite students to protect and sustain our local and global community. We are currently located in the Science Technology building, ST 213. Our office hours are Monday and Wednesday 8:30am – 5pm, Tuesday and Thursday 8:30am-2:30pm, Friday 9am – 3pm. Email peter.ritson@pcc.edu if you have any questions.

Climate Research Guides

An updated climate change research guide is now live on the PCC Library website. This updated guide has a tab highlighting the PCC Climate Action Plan. One of the best ways to support students experiencing eco-anxiety and climate grief is to help them connect with a community doing meaningful climate justice work.

Also, there are two more guides in production focused on integrating climate change into classroom curriculum: Teaching Climate Change in the Community College and Climate Change Curriculum. Would you be able to contribute some PCC-specific content to help complete these additional guides?

Specifically, the guides would benefit from:

• assignments and curriculum related to climate change created by PCC instructors
• PCC instructors and staff willing to advise or support colleagues wanting to add a climate component to their courses

Please reach out to Roberta Richards at rrichard@pcc.edu if you have assignments to share or are willing to be listed as a support person.

The Menstrual Project

Cascade Women’s Resource Center is providing more free reusable menstrual products through the Eco Social Justice Grant to help students and PCC reduce their waste and lower the amount of money used on menstrual products.

Go to our Instagram at @cascadewrc to find more information on the products!

You can directly request products at any time via The Menstrual Project. Request products by filling out this form.

GPSEN College Network of Environmentalists

Stay in the loop of networking events in Portland, discuss goals and ideas for the future, and more!

Want to learn how to be more sustainable on the day-to-day?

Take the Sustainable Choices Pledge.