Sandra Hahn is Vendor of the Year, and Art Garcia receives the first Keystone Award
On Thursday, Oct. 4, Street Roots celebrated two dedicated members of our family for their work with the organization.
Sandra Hahn was honored with our 2018 Vendor of the Year Award given to an outstanding vendor with the organization. Art Garcia, a former vendor, vendor program manager and volunteer was awarded with the organization’s inaugural Keystone Award for his exemplary service toward the mission of Street Roots.
Hahn, who has been selling Street Roots for more than three years, serves on its board of directors.
Hahn was an independent businesswoman, but when the business faltered, she took the advice of a friend and started selling Street Roots.
“I love that my customers acknowledge who I am,” Hahn said, when interviewed in advance of the award. “I love talking with my customers. Some of them are so funny. Human connection is always so important, and especially when you get to be my age.”
Vendor Program Director Cole Merkel said that within months of joining Street Roots, Hahn had became a top seller.
“And I think that speaks volumes to the relationships she builds with her customers,” Merkel said. “Sandra treats her Street Roots business as her own small business. She is in many ways a matriarch of the vendor community. She takes many vendors under her wing.”
“I buy Street Roots from almost all of the vendors in Portland, but Sandra is one of my favorites,” said Marian McNamara, Hahn’s customer. “She is so kind and so human, and I feel like we have a relationship.”
“I encourage people to not just buy Street Roots but to talk to the vendors,” said Bruce Morrison, one of Hahn’s customers. “As in my case, you’ll learn a lot from them.”
Hahn sells Street Roots at the Multnomah Building, Regal Fox Tower, PSU Farmers Market and the OHSU Farmers Market.
Garcia, who received Street Roots’ inaugural Keystone Award, has been with Street Roots for 16 years, working as as vendor and as a volunteer. He set the stage for a vendor program that now serves more than 500 people each year.
A former Marine, Garcia wrote a regular column for the paper, first titled “Memoirs of a Vietnam Vet” and later “A Dubious Life.” He has supported the organization through both good and difficult times, and he continues to provide for the vendors and staff to this day.
The award was presented during the Street Roots Family Breakfast by Executive Editor Joanne Zuhl.
“Art offered guidance and reassurance to anyone smart enough to listen,” Zuhl said of his time with the vendors. “He expected people to at least try to help themselves. In the course of a day he could be a mentor, a businessman, a respected disciplinarian, and a shoulder to cry on.”
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots.
