Hi suma friends,

From welcoming a new team member to reaching a significant funding milestone, the suma team has been hard at work, growing and expanding. We’re thrilled to introduce Tanya Bushnell, share that we’re searching for another team member, and announce our PCEF grant award. We’re also updating you on our latest work with the suma app and continuing our dialogue about our app security.

Thanks for keeping up with us,

Jacqueline

Welcome Tanya!

We’re excited to welcome Tanya Bushnell to the suma team! Tanya is our new Farmers Market Support Lead and will be at the St. Johns and King Farmers Markets every weekend until the end of the market season. Tanya connected with us through our reach out to suma users and we’re grateful to have someone with first-hand experience on the front-end of the suma app. She has an extensive background in customer service, sales and marketing. Tanya has worked across diverse industries such as tech, music and media. We’re thrilled to have Tanya’s expertise on board!
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PCEF Grant Approved

Suma’s Transportation Decarbonization grant proposal for $2.1M in funding from Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) was unanimously approved by Portland City Council on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. We are excited to be a part of this historic PCEF grant round, which awarded over $91M for climate action by low-income people, people of color, adults with disability and other frontline communities. Our grant will enable suma to expand the suma platform, a bilingual commerce app that frontline community members use to purchase and save money on essential expenses and to protect their privacy. To read more, visit our press release!

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Hiring

We’re excited to announce an opening for a Platform Organizer, a full-time position at suma! Our institutional culture is diverse, collaborative, diligent and entrepreneurial. This role is for folks who enjoy community building, are customer service oriented, and are interested in long-term organizational growth.

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Quick Notes:

• Hybrid Position
• Pay Range: $55K- $60K, hourly rate
• Full Benefits

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If this sounds like something you or a friend might be interested in, please review the full job description for how to apply and share!

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Lents International Farmers Market

Suma is now present every Sunday from 9-2 at Lents Farmers Market, marking our official expansion of the summer special to Portland’s southeast communities. If your organization operates in SE and you’d like to pass along more information with the community you serve, or are interested in collateral or additional information, please reach out to jacqueline@mysuma.org.

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Lime Scooters

We’re offering $10 in market vouchers to suma users who post a selfie with a Lime scooter at the farmers markets. This incentive is designed to encourage users to ride Lime scooters via the suma app to the local farmers markets, combining our offerings of fresh food and clean mobility.
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To claim the vouchers, users just post a photo and tag @mysuma on Instagram or Facebook and then come by to their desired market.

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Security

Suma aims to build trust with our community by clearly communicating our security practices and demonstrating our dedication to protecting personal data and maintaining a secure platform.

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Recent updates have increased security and protection of personal data on the suma platform. We completed recommended improvements that add protection to the platform and its admin portal. These improvements were identified through Phase 1 of a security assessment with Deep Armor, an award-winning cyber-security firm.
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Working with an outside security consultant provides an unbiased, expert evaluation of our systems, helping suma identify vulnerabilities that might be overlooked and ensuring that we are following best practices.

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Upcoming, we’ll engage Deep Armor again for a Phase 2 assessment, supporting our long-term commitment to assess and enhance app security. Stay tuned for more details.

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