The Environmental Center

Celebrate Farm to School on October 26 with Local Carrots
2020-10-26 | Deschutes Brewery Public House, 1044 NW Bond St, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
What: Pick up a free school lunch – homemade chicken noodle soup featuring local carrots!
Where: Your neighborhood school- Find your nearest Bend-LaPine School serving Grab & Go meals
National Farm to School Month is a celebration of the farm to school efforts that are being made nationwide. We invite you to celebrate with us locally by picking up a free school lunch at your child’s school (or even closer neighborhood school) on Monday October 26 featuring carrots grown by Sakari Farms, right here in Central Oregon.
Lunches are free for any children 0-18, and $4 for adults. Bend-La Pine has a central kitchen where they cook many menu items from scratch, including fresh baked bread daily. The menu item will be from scratch chicken noodle soup. Bend La-Pine participates in farm to school throughout the year purchasing many Oregon grown crops and products. Show your support for local food and farmers by planning to get a school meal for your child on Monday October 26!
Sakari Farms is a Native American tribal farm located in Tumalo, Oregon. Spring Alaska Schreiner, the owner and operator, comes from Inupiaq lineage, bringing a unique perspective and knowledge on food systems. She serves on numerous regional and national level boards and committees, and is an advocate for local farmers and tribal members. She offers organically grown vegetables, flowers, seeds, and value added products at her farm. Learn more at SakariBotanicals.com
Along with the meals, we’ll have 2 flyers available for families to take home, with info about the farmer, carrots, and a beautiful carrot coloring page that you won’t want to miss. In fact we’re so excited about this coloring page, that everyone who posts their finished work will be entered to win a $10 gift card to Central Oregon Locavore (where many of Spring’s Sakari Botanicals products can be found!)
Learn more about Sakari Farms, Bend-La Pine’s Farm to School program and this event on our latest blog.

Bend Young Professionals Social
2021-07-28 | Deschutes Brewery Public House, 1044 NW Bond St, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
Join The Environmental Center staff for a fun evening in our beautiful garden. Connect with other young professionals and learn about sustainability in Central Oregon — there may even be a game or two!

The cost to attend this Bend Chamber event is $25. If this cost is a barrier and you’d like to attend, please email Priscilla. The Chamber considers young professionals to be those between the ages of 21 and 40 who are looking to launch or develop their careers.

FEAST: A community conversation about food in Sisters
2022-05-14 | Deschutes Brewery Public House, 1044 NW Bond St, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
Join Seed to Table for FEAST, a community conversation about our local food system here in Sisters Country, with a focus on food security. The event is in collaboration with community volunteers, Citizens 4 Community, Oregon Food Bank, COIC and the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance.
FEAST is a gathering to talk about food in Sisters: what is working well, what is challenging, and opportunities we can work on together.

Backyard Composting with Worthy Environmental
2023-08-26 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Worthy Brewing, 495 Northeast Bellevue Drive, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
Join Worthy Environmental for a Backyard Composting Workshop on Saturday, August 26th, 9:00-11:00 AM at Worthy Brewing Company (495 Northeast Bellevue Drive in Bend)
Learn the basics of starting your own backyard compost system and the simple science behind it. This workshop will cover the basics of composting, different types of compost systems, and how compost can benefit your plants, your soil, and the environment.

Reserve a spot here.
This workshop is part of Worthy Environmental’s Rethink Waste Community Innovation Fund Project – learn more.

Professional Development for K–12 educators.
2025-01-28 16:00 - 18:00 | 375 SW Powerhouse Dr Suite 100, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
Professional Development
This virtual workshop is for K–12 educators across multiple content areas. Confluence Professional Development’s purpose is to educate teachers in the pedagogy of Indigenous curriculum and lessons. It is to prepare adults, teachers, and educators with a more perceptive understanding of Native American lifeways, history, cultural traditions, and ecology that define our Native identity.
Over the two-day virtual workshop, the cohort will learn directly from Indigenous workshop facilitators/speakers and have the opportunity to think through Indigenous education concepts together using materials from Confluence Media Library, our publications, Columbia River Sites, and our work from Camp Confluence and Confluence in the Classroom. We will also show the parallels of our work at Confluence with Oregon’s Tribal History/Shared History and Washington’s Since Time Immemorial curriculums.
This cohort will meet on Zoom on Jan. 21 and Jan. 28 at 4–6pm. Our theme this month is:
Voices of the River Volume 1: Stories to Be Told – Ancestors Always Present
Register HERE

A Year in the Life: Oregon’s Desert Owls
2025-02-04 18:00 - 19:00 | 375 SW Powerhouse Dr Suite 100, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
Join Oregon Natural Desert Association as they kick off their 2025 High Desert Speaker Series with an absorbing evening all about high desert owls. Paul Bannick, acclaimed author and wildlife photographer, will take you through four seasons in the lives of these owls to give you a better appreciation of what they need to survive and thrive in each season. With stunning, intimate images, Paul will bring the stories of these adorable yet fierce predators to life and reveal their unique roles in the high desert ecosystem from its driest lands to its ponderosa pine woodlands.

Tiny Titans: Insects of the High Desert
2025-02-20 19:00 - 20:00 | 375 SW Powerhouse Dr Suite 100, Bend, OR, 97701, United States
Get ready for an exciting exploration into the crucial role insects play in Oregon’s high desert. Oregon Natural Desert Association’s High Desert Speaker Series continues with Dr. Tara Cornelisse, invertebrate zoologist, as she provides insights into the fascinating butterflies, moths and beetles residing in eastern Oregon. Tara will examine the current state of insect populations, share facts and stories about key species in the high desert, and highlight why conserving the high desert is vital for the future of insect populations and the entire ecosystem.

El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day)
2025-04-25 18:00 - 20:00 | Hugh Hartman Elementary School, 2105 W Antler Ave, Redmond, OR, 97756, United States
El día de los niños/El diía de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), commonly known as Día, is a celebration every day of children, families, and reading that culminates yearly on April 30.
Día is a nationally recognized initiative that emphasizes the importance of literacy for all children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It is a daily commitment to linking children and their families to diverse books, languages, and cultures. The common goals of all Día programming are to:

Celebrate children and connect them to the world of learning through books, stories and libraries.
Nurture cognitive and literacy development in ways that honor and embrace a child’s home language and culture.
Introduce families to community resources that provide opportunities for learning through multiple literacies.
Recognize and respect culture, heritage and language as powerful tools for strengthening families and communities.

WHAT: El Dia de los Niños, El Dia de los Libros also known as EL DIA (Childrenś Day/Book Day)
WHEN: Friday, April 25th, 2025 from 6 to 8 pm (Partners arriving from 5 pm on)
WHERE: Hugh Hartman Elementary School, Redmond, Oregon
El Dia event is organized in partnership with the Deschutes Public Library (liaison Diana Hernandez), and Hugh Hartman Elementary School part of Redmond School District. (liaison Jessica Pickens).
