Abundance mural to express kids’ outlook

With the help of a large collaborative effort, the first “City of Abundance” mural will be put together in hopes of boosting the Fourth Plain corridor.

About 200 youth from all over Vancouver, including the Boys & Girls Club, Fort Vancouver High School and middle-school students around the Rose Village neighborhood are participating in the project. Urban Abundance, which is helping to create the mural, asked the students what food abundance looks like in an urban area.

Colin Cushman, a local artist, took the students’ answers and created a mural to paint on the wall of the St. Johns IGA supermarket at 2109 N.E. St. Johns Blvd.

The painting is to begin Saturday. Warren Neth, executive director of Urban Abundance, said that Cushman will be taking the lead on painting the project but the Boys and Girls Club members will be the work force behind it.

Urban Abundance helps urban communities increase food security by aiding community gardens, organizing marketing cooperatives for local farmers and hosting workshops.

Another partner in the effort to improve the area is the group Americans Building Community. The Fourth Plain corridor is one of the city’s most diverse areas, but also one of its most impoverished.

The public is invited to a pancake breakfast and mural painting kickoff event from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday on the east side of the store. At 9 a.m. there will be a program about the mural and what it means. For more information visit http://www.myurbanabundance.org.

Neth said the group will not be creating any other murals for this year but hopes that a mural painting becomes a yearly event.

Maecy Enger: maecy.enger@columbian.com; 360-735-4569.