Mom Hacks

Power to the People: Portland Moms Who Slay Every Day

Forget keeping Portland weird, these amazing moms are dedicated to making it (and the rest of the world) wonderful. Read on to find out more.

By Annette Benedetti November 9, 2016

Forget keeping Portland weird because these amazing moms are dedicated to making it (and the rest of the world) wonderful. From working to find foster homes for homeless children to empowering other mothers and much, much more, these power moms are working tirelessly to make our community better and stronger while raising the next generation of Portlanders up right. Click through the slideshow to get inspiration from these PDX power moms.

Jenny Kim, Business Consultant and Avid Volunteer (Serving 11 Non-Profit Organizations)

As a mother to two girls, Ella (9) and Mia (7), and a full-time employee it’s hard to figure out where Jenny finds the time to serve on 11 non-profit organizational boards. Her passion for social justice and equity for marginalized and under-represented groups such as the community of color, LGBTQ, women, refugees and immigrants, and children in the Portland community is a major driver for her. She is most proud of the success her work for the Korean American Coalition of Oregon has seen. She has helped plan the Korean Food Festival for the last two years and this year the event site had 450,000 unique hits and over 600 attendees.

Jenny is also passionate about teaching kids empathy. She says, “That’s something the schools don’t teach, and it’s our job as moms to teach our kids to care for others and to be able to work collaboratively with others.” She believes parents can do this by modeling empathy and giving kids they opportunity to model the behavior by taking them to volunteer in the community.

Words of Wisdom: "It’s very difficult to manage your time to have quality time with your kids, your husband, work, and volunteer. For many volunteer events and meetings, I bring my kids to have them join me in community service (such as Oregon Food Bank, trail clean-up) and also to teach them the importance of giving back to the community."