More than a dozen specialty food businesses in Oregon will share a million dollar federal grant to expand production. USDA Undersecretary Jenny Moffitt was in Oregon Tuesday to announce the award, through a program borne out of the pandemic, "Where we saw more opportunity for local and regional producers and food processors to be able to connect and diversify supply chains, and bring more value to farmers." In Oregon, 17 small companies will receive a piece of the award. "This is the first amount of funding. We announced $420 million overall at USDA, for the Resilient Food System Infrastructure Program," says Moffitt.

Holly Ong is one of those recipients. She owns Sibeiho, a Portland-based producer of Singaporean sauces. Like many of her peers, she started in her home kitchen, working with local farmers, "And then, as we grow and start distributing more of our products, it's always difficult for us to find the capital to invest." Sibeiho is getting about $50,000 for what Ong says is critical equipment to allow her to make larger batches, "We need a kettle. A kettle costs $25,000. And then, we need this thing called a hopper. A hopper is another $7-10,000." Ong says the benefit of the funding surpasses her company, "The co-packers that I work with, we're going to share- pool our resources and share the equipment so that more makers can benefit from this equipment use." And, she says, larger batches of her product means more income for local farmers who supply her ingredients. "Having a grant like that, it really allows us to flex our muscle and think about possibilities, and think about growing in other ways that we weren't able to do before."

Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Lisa Charpilloz Hanson says each award benefits every link in the supply chain, "The other 16 projects are across the state, and they vary in size and scale depending on the grant and the type of businesses that they serve." ODA selected the recipients and will manage the USDA grants. Another $3 million will go out soon for Oregon producers with larger facility needs.

Photo: USDA Undersecretary Jenny Moffitt (second from left) meets Sibeiho owner Holly Ong (second from right), along with ODA Director Lisa Charpilloz Hanson (far right).

(Portland, OR)  --  Freezing weather is on the way for parts of Oregon.  The National Weather Service has issued a Freeze Watch for North Central Oregon and the Foothills of the Northern and Southern Blue Mountains of Oregon through tomorrow morning.  The weather service says frost and freezing conditions could kill crops and other sensitive vegetation and could possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.

PORTLAND, OR -- Portland Police reinstated the Rapid Response Team over the summer, and it's now preparing for potential unrest related to Election Day. More than 50 officers took part in their last training before November fifth, practicing with new shields that are fireproof and impact resistant. "We are looking at integrating public order shields into this team's capabilities, as an additional way to de-escalate," says Commander Franz Schoening, "When we encounter folks out there who want to engage in conflict during disorder, the shields are hopefully going to be one more tool to allow us to de-escalate that conflict."

Other tools are also available, depending on what they encounter, "Officers are equipped with internal, basically blunt armor, they wear under their uniforms to protect them from thrown projectiles or blunt objects. They have helmets, hearing protection, gas masks, all of that is the same as it was in 2020."

Schoening says the Rapid Response Team has met monthly since June, "That training has really been pretty introductory training. So, part of it is as simple as getting familiar with the equipment they're going to be wearing- the protective equipment they'll be wearing, how to gather together in formations. There's been a lot of legal and policy-based training because there's been a lot of changes to state law."

Sgt. Sarah Kerwin is again part of the Rapid Response Team. She says this newest version is more adaptive than the previous incarnation that disbanded three years ago, "When we train in scenarios, we learn to adapt- do we need bikes? Do we need shields? Do we not need to be there?"

KBND News asked Commander Schoening how serious is the threat of civil unrest on or after November fifth? He responded, "The community is worried and we've heard that loud and clear. That's been communicated to us by the community, by business groups, through our local elected officials. The reality is, there is no intelligence, no indication of any credible threat of disorder that's going to happen on Election Day." He says Portland is a strong First Amendment city, with a history of demonstrations. And, he acknowledges there is lingering trauma from the 2020 unrest, which PPB doesn't want repeated, "We anticipate, depending on how the election goes, there will be First Amendment events; there will be people gathering to engage in protected speech. Anytime that happens in large numbers, there are people in the city who look for those opportunities to come out and create problems, to engage in property destruction, assault on police officers."

He says the RRT is an all-hazards team, and can also assist in things like urban search and rescue and earthquake recovery.

SALEM, OR -- One Oregon agency hosts a series of webinars in October to educate hiring managers about the benefits of bringing on differently-abled employees. 

Vocational Rehabilitation, also known as VR, helps people with disabilities find and keep a job. "We are here to remove any barriers that may exist for someone based on a disability that would prevent them from being competitively integrated and employed," says Oregon's VR Deputy Director Richard Clark, "We believe everybody can work with the right accommodations and the right support systems. So, we really focus our efforts on getting everyone into the workforce that we can." 

He says VR clients have a range of disabilities and abilities, "You could go from that individual who is an I/DD population - Intellectual Disability population, all the way to that person who may have a hearing impairment that may be a PHD qualified individual."

Clark says VR can provide everything from help securing proper transportation to assistive technology, job coaches and training. The program started more than a hundred years ago, to help injured war vets return to the workforce. But it has since expanded. "Even as recent as 15-20 years ago, we still had homes, where we were putting people with disabilities in; or we had sheltered workshops, where they were making below minimum wage to do piece-work, and all these different activities," says Clark, "So we were kind of isolating them from the general population." Now the goal is to provide integrated life experience, "If you think about where you build your biggest connections in your life, and the friendships that you build and the community that you have, a lot of it stems from where you work."

As part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the state is hosting a series of webinars to educate families and potential employers. "VR is this best kept secret in government, right? And what we want to be able to do is try to find ways to get people to understand who we are and what we do, and the vast amount of things that we can impact," says Clark. Webinars are every Tuesday afternoon in October. Click HERE for details.

(Tigard, OR)  --  Tualatin  Valley Fire & Rescue is keeping its burn ban in place.  Dry weather, warmer temperatures, and east winds will keep the fire danger high.  The Oregon DEQ normally opens agricultural fall burn season on October First, but the burn ban continues in TVF-and-R jurisdictions.  The burn ban does not include small outdoor cooking, warming, or recreational fires.  Barbecue grills and smokers are allowed as long as clean, dry firewood or chips are used.

(Portland, OR)  --  Portland is being listed in the top five U.S. cities for UFO sightings.  The online gambling company BetUS crunched the numbers from the National UFO Reporting Center to come up with a list of cities were you have the best odds of possibly spotting an unidentified flying object.  Portland was ranked fourth.  Phoenix, Arizona ranks first, followed by New York City.  In at number three is Las Vegas - notably not far from the famous Area 51.  Tucson, Arizona rounds out the top five.