August 14, 2019
Page 15
CAREERS Special Edition
Photo by d anny P eterSon /t he P ortland o bServer
Village Gardens Prepared Foods Manager Charles Robertson was
integral to the non-profit’s establishment of a food market back in
2008 with his grant writing and organizing, and has been involved
with the Janus Youth program in north Portland ever since.
Changing
Eating Habits
C ontinued from P age 9
and Women Infants and Children
(WIC) beneficiaries, Soebro-
to said. But a pattern emerged
where customers would run out of
benefit dollars to spend on fresh
produce near the end each month,
causing the store to stock less in
those items.
To combat that problem, Vil-
lage Gardens launched its Good
Food program, which enables
self-identifying SNAP and WIC
eligible customers an additional
20 percent discount in all fresh,
frozen, and dried produce. In
addition, those benefit-recipient
customers’ purchases earns them
points toward future discounts—
for every $50 spent in SNAP or
WIC benefits, they receive $5 of
free produce.
Now, Soebroto said, the store is
stocking produce high throughout
the month.
“That’s a real game-chang-
er. More than a game changer,
that is a life-changer. Because we
went from people just doing junk
food…if you can imagine junk
food throughout the month to actu-
ally having higher sales in produce
throughout the month, that’s a real
Photo by d anny P eterSon /t he P ortland o bServer
Ev Tapio, the farm manager for the non-profit Village Market, located at 4632 N. Trenton St., stocks
fresh produce from the organization’s community garden a block and a half away, which provides
much needed nutritional food at affordable prices to diverse and low income customers.
life changing event,” Robertson
said. “We’ve achieved what we
hoped to achieve….just helping
change people’s eating habits.”
Since 2016 the Good Food pro-
grams provided a total of $72,243
in incentives and fresh produce to
customers, Village Gardens’ web-
site stated.
The program’s success is in
part thanks to support from city,
county, federal, and charitable
donations. Village Market does
not stay afloat through grocery
sales alone, relying on the sup-
port they receive from community
partners like the U.S. Department
of Agriculture nutrition incentive
program, The Portland Children’s
Levy, Home Forward, CareO-
regon and the Siletz Charitable
Foundation.
Also, as part of its pledge with
supporters, the store has agreed to
stock culturally relevant, afford-
able healthy food, and agreed to
not sell alcohol or tobacco. In ad-
dition, about nine out of 10 of the
store’s staff is local residents.
Soebroto likes that the store
benefits the neighborhood and in-
vites them in for a direct-from-the-
source experience like no other.
“Last year I think we were out
of like mustard greens or some-
thing in the market and some-
one…took the customer down to
the garden, harvested them, and
sold them. We get to sell green to-
matoes, which you can’t get in a
grocery store, and folks are super
excited, they’re peeking over the
garden and asking for green toma-
toes. We get to just be immediate-
ly responsive.”
In addition, an outdoor gazebo
in the garden serves as a com-
munity gathering space. A pot-
luck held amongst neighbors last
month welcomed a visit from City
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.
Village Gardens accepts volun-
teer work, provides leadership op-
portunities, and any local vendor
interested in selling their product
in the market can get in touch with
them at 503-548-0374.
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In addition to being a hub for healthy food for diverse and low
income communities in north Portland, Village Gardens also
provides a gazebo in the garden for community gatherings, such
as the potluck held during City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s
visit to the non-profit last month.
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