6/16/2009
We continue to make progress on the Solar Cafe and are still projecting a grand opening in September 2009. But, in the meantime, we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy moving into a great new community office space and continuing to learn the ropes of non-profit-dom.

As for the new office, it rocks! We have moved into a shared office space in Northeast Portland with four other great non-profits: the Portland Fruit Tree Project, Friends of Family Farmers and the Northeast Portland Tool Library. It's really brought a great energy to the place and we're honored to be a part of it. Our office is located in a two bedroom house that sits next to the campus of our landlord, the Redeemer Lutheran Church and there's plenty of space to park the bus and to install renewable energy demonstration material. It also comes with a vacant lot (seen in the photo) that will be transforming into a community garden with permaculture design, managed by the Fruit Tree Project. We're excited to be in the Killingsworth/Alberta neighborhood and to take an active role in creating a community center of sustainability resources.

4/16/2009
We are completely enthused to announce a local project that has been in the works for several months. In partnership with Portland Public Schools Community Transition Program, SolTrekker is helping to create the Solar Cafe: Portland's first solar powered food cart specializing in waffles and other dishes that integrate locally sourced fruits and veggies wherever possible.

The Community Transition Program helps under-served teens transition from high school and into jobs, vocational training or post secondary education. The kids at the CTP have been involved as collaborators in the entire process of creating this small business, from putting together a business plan and projecting expenses and income to designing the menu and the logo. When the cart is up and running, the CTP youth will work paid internships in the cafe during the program's regular hours and will have the opportunity to advance into a regular paid position and work with a trained food service consultant on weekends. The goal is to see these internships and trainings act as a springboard to even better, higher paying jobs in the food service industry. Rather than just teaching the youth how to flip waffles, the ST Cafe will be designed to immerse them in the experience of small business management and help foster an entreprenuerial mindset.

From the SolTrekker side of the partnership, our role is to help the CTP youth create a functioning example of sustainability in action by augmenting the cart with as much solar power as possible and by consulting on best practices to minimize the cafe's ecological footprint and sourcing food and other materials locally.

At this point, we have secured a cart that will be transformed into the cafe, but we are seeking donations from individuals and businesses to help offset the start-up costs. All donations made to the SolTrekker organization until September 2009 will go toward this project. If you find the project worthwhile, please click here to make a tax-deductible donation. Look for a Solar Cafe page on the website soon, as well as additional updates.

3/18/2009
SolTrekker is growing as a non-profit and making great progress toward rebuilding another, even more advanced eco-RV. To help us prepare for this goal, our team now includes Portland-local Celeste Flick who joins us as our new green build manager. From our first conversation with her at a local home show, we could tell she was a dynamic and enthusiastic person. Celeste told us that she's always loved RVs and is fascinated by the design of small living spaces. It turns out she's also got professional chops. Celeste graduated with a degree in architecture several years back and is LEED certified, working in both architecture and sustainable agriculture fields. She and her husband Shaw moved to Portland specificially to get involved with the growing sustainability movement here. For more about Celeste, have a look at her full bio.

Celeste will be working with Ty over the next month or two in order to get systems and subcontractors in place to prepare for the next rebuild. Once everything is set, Celeste will work with our tech-man Joe to manage the build. We're really excited to have Celeste on board and look forward to continuing to build inspiring and educational vehicles with her on the team.