 Dear Portlanders,
Once thing you can always count on: Portlanders show up for each other.
When ICE agents were sighted in the areas around César Chávez School, George Middle School and Clarendon Regional Early Learning Academy recently, Portlanders showed up in droves to make sure students were able to leave safely at the end of the day. I'm grateful to Portland Public Schools for their quick actions that day initiating security protocols to protect students and families.
The Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition needs your help now to protect kids in our community. The goal is to have 100 people in every neighborhood signed up to do volunteer shifts outside schools during arrival and dismissal times to ensure students can get picked up safely by their families.
Protect Oregon regularly holds MigraWatch trainings to teach Portlanders how to recognize, report and record ICE activity. I encourage everyone to get trained for MigraWatch and serve as volunteer school observers.
Portlanders also leaned in to make sure no community member goes hungry.
Dozens of local restaurants, bakeries, food pantries and other organizations stepped up to help SNAP recipients who had their benefits paused. Below is a list of many restaurants in North/Northeast Portland that stepped up to help—please consider patronizing them to show your appreciation!
November SNAP benefits have now been distributed, thanks in large part to the work of Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and others in state government who pushed back and joined a successful lawsuit requiring the USDA to release the payments. However, the Trump Administration is appealing to the Supreme Court to allow it to withhold full benefits.
This Administration's willingness to let Americans go hungry to achieve its aims shows that Portlanders need each other more than ever. It’s going to take all of us to protect our community from those who want to tear it apart.
I know we're up for the challenge.
With gratitude,
Sameer Kanal
Councilor.Kanal@portlandoregon.gov
 Thank you to the businesses in North & Northeast Portland that offered free and/or low-cost meals to SNAP recipients!
Highlights
 NACOLE Conference
A couple weeks ago, I attended the 2025 National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement conference in Minneapolis. I met the mayor and members of city council, as well as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. I also did a tour of Canopy Roots, Minneapolis's equivalent of Portland Street Response.
It was really interesting to see both what Portland's new system will do well, like subpoena power, and where there is room for us to grow. It reinforced my commitment to expanding the places where Portland Street Response can respond and the types of calls it can respond to.
I also went to George Floyd Square, and the experience reaffirmed the importance of keeping our history in the conversation around community oversight—so that we don't repeat it.
House Calls in St. Johns
I love getting out of City Hall and talking to folks in North and Northeast Portland about what we want for our neighborhoods and our city. Last weekend, I walked around St. Johns knocking doors and talking to Portlanders about how we can work together to make Portland even better, and residents shared great ideas and feedback.
Government works best when it listens to community members and lets your priorities inform decision-making. I'm so happy I get to do this work with all of you.
 King Farmers Market
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guniney and I met with folks at the King Farmers Market to talk about the market's importance to the communities it serves in North & Northeast Portland.
The market is open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through November 23, so make sure to hit them up before the season ends!
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