The holidays are just around the corner – and so is the giving season!
For the last six years, the Business for a Better Portland community has partnered with Street Roots to sponsor and purchase holiday gifts for Street Roots’ houseless vendors. Year after year, you have generously donated to give vendors a bright holiday season and kits filled with hand warmers, warm hats and mittens, and other cold weather necessities.
Founded in 1999, Street Roots is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that publishes a weekly social justice newspaper sold by people experiencing homelessness and poverty to earn an income. Each week, about 200 Street Roots vendors purchase copies of the newspaper for 25 cents each, then sell them on the streets of Portland for $1, keeping the profits.
This year, we are excited to give both of our communities a special treat: Business for a Better Portland is invited to a very special holiday celebration with Street Roots vendors on Monday, December 5th from 1:00-2:30pm for a free in-person reading of their holiday zine issue, Finding Joy in the Chaos. If you’d like to donate light refreshments or volunteer, please contact karin@bbpdx.org!
The Street Roots Holiday Zine is an annual vendor-curated publication, first published in 2015. It contains 32 pages of art, poetry and prose crafted by our vendors. From choosing a theme to producing and editing all of its content, vendors drive the entire zine process.
Further exciting news! After 23 years, Street Roots is also moving to a new home on 3rd and Burnside! They have a bold, ambitious dream at Street Roots: to give our vendors and the houseless community a space where they can rest, think, dream and be. Read more about their capital campaign here.
Please contact Emma at comms@bbpdx.org with any questions, and thank you for helping our amazing community!