When Buchi Asemota and his friends started Our Streets in 2020, their ambitions were humble. Seeing the graffiti and trash being left behind by protesters and police during the nightly racial justice protests happening downtown, they simply wanted to help clean things up. As part of these volunteer efforts, they started making sandwiches to hand out to homeless people they encountered. 

Six years later, the scope and ambition of Our Streets has widened considerably. It now focuses on food justice, with a team of volunteers and community members preparing and distributing more than 800 nutritious meals to people and shelters throughout the Portland metro area and Vancouver. And through it all, Asemota, 32, has had to learn how to grow into his role as CEO of a far-reaching nonprofit. 

“It's probably been one of the hardest transitions of my life so far,” he says. “I went to work every day not really knowing what to expect, but also being able to give it my all. I rely very heavily on my community and my staff. We are losing resources every single month when it comes to the city or the county or the federal government. We’re being called upon to do a lot more with less.” 

That hasn’t stopped Asemota and his team from trying to dream a little bigger about what they can accomplish as an organization. For example, Our Streets opened a branch in Hawai’i that focuses on environmental protection and sustainability through trash pickup and organic farming. 

“It’s definitely a smaller program in scale,” Asemota says of Our Streets Hawai’i. “I wouldn’t call it a traditional expansion but there are people on the ground there who care about the work. It’s definitely taught me a lot about growth. That can’t happen by just putting our name on it. It has to be something that the locals feel adds value to the community.”

As for Portland, Asemota is looking to steer Our Streets beyond simply addressing the immediate needs of the homeless community in the form of meals. In 2023, the nonprofit purchased a former car wash on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with the intent of using the space to build affordable housing. Our Streets has since acquired another piece of land on Southeast 117th Avenue, but in both cases, it’s a ways away from being ready to break ground.

“We’re in predevelopment,” Asemota says. “We have been hitting a lot of roadblocks due to funding, but we are still in talks with the state and with our developers and figuring out a path to get it all done as quickly as possible. I’m very patient. As long as we have the right team around us, it will happen.” 

All of this has been something of a steep learning curve for Asemota, who, less than a decade ago, was simply an émigré from Nigeria working as a special education teacher in Corvallis. But in spite of wrestling with the bureaucracy of trying to run a successful nonprofit that relies, in part, on corporate and governmental funding, he has taken to his role as CEO easily by maintaining his humility and empathy. 

“I think people forget that they are often one bad decision or one bad moment away from homelessness,” he says. “We’ve met families on the streets. We’ve met a lot of young folks. A lot of veterans. People who were doing everything they could to get back on their feet. Once you’re able to sit down with these folks and share and eat a meal with them, you’ll be able to understand that they’re a human being just like me.” 

Photo by JP Bogan
Profile by Robert Ham