My future....

Sustainability comes in small steps for Portland mother

By Carrie Sturrock, Special to The Oregonia...

March 18, 2010, 1:28PM

Monique Dupre doesn't buy processed food. Her kids don't have the consumer bug. She grinds her own flour. Composting goes without saying. She doesn't own a TV. Or a cell phone.

I met Dupre in an introduction course she taught recently on sustainable living on a budget sponsored by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

If hers is an introduction to sustainability, I thought as I left the class, I'm hopeless.

When someone asks Dupre's two children, "What do you want from Santa?" they usually stare blankly at the questioner, she told us, even though they have very few toys (and those toys include a basket of rocks). The one time her daughter did answer, she said, "I want wings so I can fly like the fairies."

My kids would have a ready answer (cha-ching!) that would just add to their already too-large toy collection.

Dupre, 30, doesn't buy crackers, cereal or canned foods. She bakes bread.

My cupboards contain crackers, cereal and canned food.

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