3
Street roots
Aug. 5, 2011
uüàîxîj
Raising
lettuce,
leaders
in North
Portland
Food Works youths
grow vegetables
and self in Sauvie
Island soil
BY STACY BROWNHILL
STAFF WRITER
"'TT T e ’ll need 40 bunches of dinosaur
l / l / kale for the markets ... Those
V V cabbages could ripen a week more
... Let’s get a better price for the salad mix
'."i. We need trellises for those beans...”
Such seasoned farm management
decisions come not from veteran farmers,
but from North Portland teenagers who
participate in Janus Youth’s Food Works
program, part of Village Gardens. The ten-
year-old youth employment and
empowerment program grew 10,426 pounds
of organic produce and made $10,178 in
sales last year alone, and is on th e forefront
of increasingly popular youth turban
agriculture programs.
Destiny Giles, age 17, Lavette Lacy, age
20, and Dijhena “Daedae” Thomas, age 16,
are this summer’s crew leaders. Corifident
and upbeat, the three young women are in
charge of two acres of organic produce on
Sauvie Island. They decide what to grow,
when to harvest and how much to charge.
They bargain with buyers, calculate profit^
and strategize timelines.
“Before working for Food Works, I knew
how to plant a flower,” says Giles, “but that
was about it.” Now the teenager walks
through the fields with familiarity. She
tracks sales, writes the Food Works
newsletter, and coordinates school group
fieldtrips to the site. I
Is Giles interested in a career in
agriculture? “No way,” she laughs. Business,
.
PHO TO S CO URTESY OF FO O D W O R KS
Above a n d below, yo u n g adults in the Ja n u s Food Works program get hands-on experience fro m seed to harvest in producing their own food.
management and writing are more up her
alley, she says.
Twelve teens work at Food Works part-
time, year-round for minimum wage or
more, and an additional 20 work part-time
during the summer, in exchange for
stipends of $300 per month, bus passes,
produce, school credit and a professional
reference. Prudence Eca and Markishia
Duckett are this year’s summer interns,
leading 2 crew s of 10 in harvesting an a
”
team-building activities.
Organizations like Food Works and
Growing Gardens in Portland, The Food
Project in Boston, Just Food in New York
and the newly launched national Food
Corps, are working to combat an
increasingly urban, obese and food-ignorant
generation of young Americans.
“We work with elementary schools to get
kids out in the garden, tasting fresh fruits
and vegetables and physically active,” says
Caitlin Blethen, manager of Growing
Gardens’ Youth Grow program. “Research
shows that food preferences are developed
before sixth grade, so our hope is that
young kids will eat more fruits and veggies.
Our goal is really hunger and obesity
prevention, and empowering people to grow
food for themselves.”
The rise jn urban youth farming
programs is also a response to rising food
prices. Wholesale food prices rose sharply
by 4 percent in February and have doubled
since last summer, according to the U.S.
Labor Dept., and one in four Americans is
“worried about having enough money to put
food on the table in the next year,”
according to. the Food Research and Action
Center. There were an estimated 18,000
community gardens as of 2004, according to
the American Community Gardening
Association.
“It’s the whole food security issue,” says
See LEADERS page 10
Food Works grows:
arugula
basil
beets
cabbage
carrots
chard
collard greens,
corn
lemon cucumbers
eggplant
lettuce
melon
mustard
onions-
parsley
peas
peppers
potatoes
spjpach
squash
sunflowers
tomatoes
CORRECTION
Street Roots strives for accuracy,
but we're human. So we also strive to
correct errors In our paper whenever
possible. Please report any errors to
our managing editor, Joanne Zuhl, at
503-228-5657, or write to
streetrootsnews@gmall.com. .
( w ffic O M E D a fiW
This July and August,
Downtown
brings you a better way
..to give to the homeless.
E n jo y d iso o w i^
a n d for e v e ry c o u p o iT
redeemed, we’ll donate $5 to /
Commons.