Tag: Evelyn Perdomo City of Eugene and Lane County Public Market and Food Hub Market Analysis

Meet Our Amazing CSC Summer Interns: Evelyn Perdomo

Posted on by Julia Havens

Evelyn Perdomo CPW Community Planning Workshop University of OregonWhat is your name? Evelyn Perdomo

Where were you born and where do you call home?   I was born in San Francisco and raised in Daly City, CA. I consider the Bay Area my home.

What are your big summer plans?   I plan on doing a lot of outdoor activities (hiking, biking, camping, tubing) since this my first summer in Oregon.

In which graduate program are you enrolled?   I’m in the Community and Regional Planning Program. I’m interested in community development, specifically housing issues and economic development strategies.

What Community Planning Workshop (CPW)  project did you worked on?   I was a part of team food hub. Our project was the “Lane County Year-Round Regional Public market and Food Hub Market Analysis”. We conducted a market study for Lane County to determine consumer demand for a potential year-round public market In Lane County. This is an important project for the county because there is a strong local food movement in the county. We conducted a lot of research about local food in Lane County and we talked to local food experts to determine supply and distribution gaps. We also sent out a household survey to residents in Eugene and Springfield to determine their shopping preferences and interest in a public market. I helped interview local food experts and enjoyed learning a lot from them. I also helped analyze our household survey results. The results were great because most respondents were interested in attending a public market at least once a week and wanted to get to know the producers who grow their food.

What are some of the most critical skills you learned from being engaged in CPW?    I think CPW definitely helped me improve my presentation skills. I also became more comfortable with quantitative analysis because we had so many survey results to evaluate.

What is your favorite quote?   “What’s important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied” – Tony Dungy

What about CPW made you smile?   I got a lot of satisfaction out of knowing that I was working on an important project for the City of Eugene and Lane County. It was great that our clients trusted us to work on the market study because it will likely have a big impact on economic development in the future.

What is your best-kept secret?   It’s not a secret to anyone that knows me but if you’re ever in the SF Bay Area you have to eat at Sliver Pizzeria in downtown Berkeley and then walk over to CREAM on Telegraph Avenue for an ice cream sandwich!

What is your dream job?   I would like to work in community development for my hometown of Daly City or other city in the Bay Area. However, I absolutely love football so it would be cool to have a job where I got paid to watch NFL games. I’d like to be in the broadcast booth for every 49er game.

Where can we ‘cyber-stalk’ you?   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/evelyn-perdomo/63/311/4b1

Meeting With Local Food Experts

Posted on by Julia Havens

City of Eugene and Lane County Public Market and Food Hub Market Analysis Steve Dobrinich Evelyn Perdomo

Our Community Planning Workshop (CPW) team is collaborating with the City of Eugene and Lane County on a project to support the local food movement in Lane County. Our project is the “Lane County Year-Round Regional Public Market and Food Hub Market Analysis”. The focus of this project is an in-depth investigation into whether there is enough buying power in Eugene and Springfield to support a potential year-round public market and food hub.

As our team began this process we focused our efforts on developing a strong understanding of the local food system in Lane County. One key resource for doing this has been our Technical Resource Group (TRG). The TRG is made up of nine local food experts, including farmers, distributors, restaurant owners, and retail grocers, who provide valuable insight into the Lane County food system. Consultation began with one-on-one meetings where we asked each member of the TRG a series of interview questions about food in Lane County. These interviews were extremely informative, not just for our project but also for our own personal knowledge about how the local food system works. As a group we, learned a lot about the excitement surrounding local food as well as some of the challenges to its continued growth. Following these interviews our team organized our findings into key themes which highlighted challenges related to supply and distribution of local food. These interviews were a strong starting point for learning more about local food and preparing us for our first TRG meeting.

Bright and early on the morning of April 15, 2014 the TRG was assembled for the first of three meetings. The purpose of this meeting was to present major findings, identify missing pieces, and gain more information about supply and distribution gaps in the local food system. After a small technical issue (no projector, oh no!) we presented our findings to the TRG and began the process of gathering their feedback. TRG members were briefly split into two groups for small group discussions on issues of storage, processing facilities, food safety regulations, and public health. During the small group discussions we uncovered some useful material that hadn’t come up previously. One example the TRG identified is that there may be a need for more niche storage in Lane County.

Following this, we reconvened as a large group and ran through the details of each group’s discussion. It was great to see that both groups had touched on many of the same points. Now that we have held our first TRG meeting, we look forward to the next meeting where we will discuss our household survey and case study findings. This time we will be sure to bring our own projector.

 

Evelyn Perdomo Steve Dobronich CPW Community Planning Workshop CPW Lane Regional Food Hub SurveyAbout the Authors:   Evelyn Perdomo is a first year Community ad Regional Planning graduate student. She is originally from Daly City, CA. Her planning interests include economic development and affordable housing.   Stephen Dobrinich is a first year Community and Regional Planning graduate student. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Stephen moved to Oregon in 2011 to serve as a part of the RARE AmeriCorps –Resource Assistance for Rural Environments program. While in RARE, Stephen served as Community Development Coordinator for the City of Creswell. He is interested in community and economic development.  Evelyn and Steve enjoy “talking shop” at their favorite Eugene restaurant, Sweet Basil Thai.