HOEC MISSION & ORCHARD HISTORY

The HOEC Mission: To celebrate and explore horticultural education, provide equitable community access to healthy food, and support systems that promote intergenerational community connection.

The HOEC Community Orchard: The HOEC Community Orchard, located on the Clackamas Community College Campus is the base for all of our workshops, volunteer programming, and CSA operations. This 1.6 acre educational orchard serves as an important community space dedicated to the preservation of heirloom fruit varieties, hands-on opportunities for learning, and demonstration of home orcharding practices.

From the 1980s until 2020, the orchard was stewarded by a long beloved non-profit called Home Orchard Society (HOS). What we now call the Home Orchard Education Center was previously the Home Orchard Society arboretum.

Who Is Home Orchard Education Center?

When Home Orchard Society dissolved in 2020, a small group of dedicated volunteers jumped in to form a brand new non-profit that would take over stewardship of the orchard. Paperwork was filed, a makeshift board was quickly formed, and just a few months later, Home Orchard Education Center was born.

While our name is similar, Home Orchard Education Center (HOEC) is not legally affiliated with Home Orchard Society (HOS). Our Executive Tonia Lordy, was the orchard manager for HOS, and many of the HOS community orchard volunteers are still orchard volunteers today. 🧡 You will also still see the old HOS name on the metal sculpture outside of the front gates, and from time to time people will still refer to us fondly as Home Orchard Society.

ANNUAL REPORTS

Download our 2023 Annual Summary

Download our 2022 Annual Summary

Download our 2021 Annual Summary

Nonprofit Tax Code Designation: 501(c)(3) / EIN: 85-3667449

We welcome the public to attend our Board Meetings! They are usually held via Zoom, on the second Tuesday of the month.

Please email for the link to join: director@homeorchardeducationcenter.org

HOEC Land Acknowledgement Statement

The Home Orchard Education Center exists on the traditional homelands of the Clackamas, Cascades, and Tumwater Chinooks, the Tualatin and Pudding River bands of Kalapuya, the Northern Molalla people, and many other tribes of the Willamette Valley who were forcibly removed from their ancestral land through actions of genocide and war. 

The history of Indigenous Peoples has a long pattern of being brushed over, ignored, and even disputed. This land acknowledgement is meant to serve as a small gesture of support, respect, and humility. We see you, we are listening, and we hope to help bring attention to Indigenous history wherever we are able. 

Through our stewardship of this land, Home Orchard Education Center is committed to working toward the service of building community as we:

  • Increase our organizational knowledge of indigenous foodways.

  • Actively seek out partnerships with Indigenous Communities.

  • Recruit and invite indigenous educators to lead programs at the HOEC Community Orchard, returning all revenue to said educators.

  • Increase the visibility of native food crops in the HOEC Community Orchard.

  • Through outreach and engagement, strive to increase access for Indigenous Communities to food and horticultural programming.

Phonetic Spelling/Pronunciation of Tribal Band Names:

  • Clackamas (CLACK-uh-mus)

  • Cascades (ca-skaydz)

  • Tumwater (tum-wah-ter)

  • Chinooks (shin-NOOK)

  • Tualatin (too-AWL-a-tin)

  • Pudding River (pud-ding)

  • Kalapuya (cal-a-poo-ya)

  • Molalla (mo-LAH-lah)

  • Willamette (will-AM-it)