Suma Scoop: Turkey (Hacking) Wraps, Sweet (App Development) Treats, and Adding Flavor to Equity Plans

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December 19, 2023

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suma friends, our turkey hacking project is on it's way to wrapping up with the meal distribution just around the corner! We have two spots left to assist at Sheridan's if anyone's interested in getting some snacks and coffee (thank you Sheridan's!) while greeting suma users. Our development team treated us to a sweet new administrator feature in the app. Today we also touch base today on thoughts about the transparency, data collection and affordability of the Digital Equity Plan.

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thanks for being here and staying tuned,

Jacqueline

Turkey Hacking: Suma wants to thank the many folks who’ve asked about volunteering this Friday at Hacienda CDC, Home Forward’s New Columbia community and Our Just Future’s Arbor Glen community, as well as this Friday and Saturday at Sheridan’s Market. We still have a couple slots open, so don’t be shy! We’ll be here to support you every step of the way…
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All 100 holiday meals have been sold, plus one donated meal. The final numbers:

• 36 roasted turkey dinners; 53 glazed ham dinners; 12 vegan field roast dinners
• 55 meals will be picked up at community locations; 46 meals will be picked up at Sheridan’s
• Total value of Sheridan’s discount for these 101 meals: $9595!
  ​Please join us in showing love to our great partner Sheridan’s (did you know they’re also supporting our Sheridan’s pickup volunteers with food and drink??)

Digital Equity Plan

• Engagement and Transparency:
  ​Suma believes that the engagement process from the state must be better, and that including transparency as a core principle of the DE Plan can guide that. We’d like to see more collaborative approaches by the state, such as working with community organizations on decisions being made to serve our communities, and knowing more
  about when and how that is happening.
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• Data:​
  ​The DE Plan should direct the state to collect and fund data projects that can improve current broadband maps. Currently, data collected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is based on how internet service providers advertise their service. We know that ISP data is not always correct or reliable, and this leaves us with gaps that especially impact our urban communities.
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  The DE plan should integrate privacy principles from the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act. As the state continues to collect data, we believe that increasing Oregonians’ sense of data privacy could mean more broadband adoption.
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• Affordability:
  We know access and affordability are integral to one another, and we believe the state plan can do more to address this in its planning process. Suma advocated for long term solutions that would keep broadband affordable for families long after the Affordable Connectivity Program runs out of money.

Shouts to our development team (suma Chief Technology Officer Denilson Velasquez, Lithic Tech’s Rob Galanakis) for a great, new admin/behind the screen tool: the pick-pack list (we always think about construction project punch lists when we hear that phrase). This tool allows us to filter holiday special orders by meal type, by fulfillment location, or both, making it easy for us to give Sheridan’s Market, our delivery partner B-Line, and our volunteers the info they need to get meal orders into the hands of suma users this Friday and Saturday: