Village Market’s 1 Year Aniversary

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Village Market, a project of Village Gardens, Janus Youth Programs and Portland’s only non-profit grocery store, was created to address a community-defined need in the neighborhood of New Columbia – the lack of access to healthy, affordable food options. With the tag line “Community Serving Community", Village Market seeks to puts the community first, as it helps to create job opportunities, access to health education, and of course, access to healthy and affordable food options. As a collaborative partnership between resident community leaders, Village Gardens, Home Forward and a handful of other partners, Village Market is looking to change what it means to be a grocery store. On May 28th, 2012, Village Market is celebrating its one year anniversary. And after one year in business, the leaders of Village Market are looking to reach out to the greater Portland community. Village Market wants to be your local grocery store! By supporting Village Market, you're supporting not just the store, but also the people who work and volunteer there: you're supporting the gardens and community projects, neighborhood youth farmers, and health education and advocacy programs. Village Market is one piece in a growing network of community action supported by Village Gardens, a network of people who truly want to see their community thrive. This is a big project, with broad implications for how communities feed and nurture themselves. Please come shop at the store, volunteer your time, and help get the word out. This is a big endeavor: and every little bit counts. Go to villagegardens.org to find out more. You can also follow the project on Facebook (Village Gardens, Janus Youth Programs). http://www.facebook.com/pages/Village-Gardens-Janus-Youth-Programs/131053303584040 Thanks!

Village Market – Portland’s Best-Kept Secret

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Village Market, a project of Village Gardens, Janus Youth Programs and Portland’s only non-profit grocery store, was created to address a community-defined need in the neighborhood of New Columbia – the lack of access to healthy, affordable food options. With the tag line “Community Serving Community", Village Market seeks to puts the community first, as it helps to create job opportunities, access to health education, and of course, access to healthy and affordable food options. As a collaborative partnership between resident community leaders, Village Gardens, Home Forward and a handful of other partners, Village Market is looking to change what it means to be a grocery store. On May 28th, 2012, Village Market is celebrating its one year anniversary. And after one year in business, the leaders of Village Market are looking to reach out to the greater Portland community. Village Market wants to be your local grocery store! By supporting Village Market, you're supporting not just the store, but also the people who work and volunteer there: you're supporting the gardens and community projects, neighborhood youth farmers, and health education and advocacy programs. Village Market is one piece in a growing network of community action supported by Village Gardens, a network of people who truly want to see their community thrive. This is a big project, with broad implications for how communities feed and nurture themselves. Please come shop at the store, volunteer your time, and help get the word out. This is a big endeavor: and every little bit counts. Go to villagegardens.org to find out more. You can also follow the project on Facebook (Village Gardens, Janus Youth Programs). http://www.facebook.com/pages/Village-Gardens-Janus-Youth-Programs/131053303584040 Thanks!

PrettyGoodProductions, May 10, 2012

Organic Vegetable Plant Starts

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For 10 seasons Village Gardens community leaders and Food Works youth have been seeding, transplanting, cultivating and harvesting vegetables in their gardens and farm.

Seeding plants starts has been a growing experience for the Seeds of Harmony and New Beginnings Garden leaders. Initially gardeners relied solely on donated plant starts and seeds from Portland Nursery and distributed starts to gardeners at free plant give-aways. Garden leaders decided that selling plant starts at an affordable rate would allow them to expand choices and raise a small amount of revenue to go into the upkeep of their garden. In 2009 the SOH gardeners launched their first plant sale. It is hard to think back to this sale with out a conversation about the squash starts that were sold. Not one of the starts produced a squash all summer, but come October each gardener had a healthy patch of pumpkins.  The next year gardeners implemented a double-label method for all their seeded trays.

Over the years they have continued to develop creative tools for meeting the needs of their diverse community.   In 2011 gardeners developed a vegetable photo binder with color pictures and descriptions of each vegetables name inEnglish, French and Spanish. The New Beginning gardeners also created “To Go Plants”, a pre-order form and pick up system that allowed gardeners to get their starts on the “go”.  The garden plant sales have become exciting community events where gardeners can share their plant knowledge, gardening experience, tasty recipes, and purchase the plants they want in their garden.

The Food Works youth seed and grow starts for use on their organic farm in their Sauvie Island green house. Food Works has supported the SOH and NB garden sales by providing space in their greenhouse to grow their starts. In 2011, Food Works seeded over 29,000 seeds on their farm and distributed over 2,500 lbs of organic produce to their North Portland neighbors.

This year Food Works and SOH & NB Gardeners have partnered together to launch the Plants Starts Project. Their idea was to learn from each other, share their resources, and begin growing plant starts for the wider Portland community. For the past 6 months adults and youth have been busy launching the Plants Starts Project. Food Works youth started the season by leading a training with adult garden leaders to share their seeding methods, organization, and excel spreadsheets. SOH gardeners have been seeding trays on Saturdays and NB gardeners have been potting-up peppers and tomatoes during their Wednesday meetings. Dae Dae, a Food Works youth crew leader, has been leading cash handling and farmer’s market trainings for the PSP team in preparation for the Farmers Market. Peggy Acott, of the Portland Nursery, facilitated a customer service training to sharpen their skills handling customers. The SOH and NB gardeners both had their first community plant sale this spring and sold over 900 plants to their neighbors. An exciting addition to this project isselling our plant starts at the healthy corner grocery store, Village Market. You can get organic plant starts when you pick up your weekly groceries.

The Plants Starts Project team will begin selling their organic vegetable starts at the Portland Farmers Market this Saturday, May 5 at the Food Works market stand. Remember, you can purchase these lush plant starts with your EBT card! The PSP team will be on hand to share their stories, plant knowledge, the photo book, and of course sell plant starts for your garden. Sales from the Plant Starts will contribute to the energy costs of the greenhouse, soil, fertilizer and gh trays,  the purchase of desired seed varieties, and garden site improvements.

Great job Dae Dae, Pritha, Trish, Linda, Efrain, Doug, Dan, Michelle, Asha, Earl, Sue N., Dan, Kari, Yousf, Shamsyia, Melissa, Virginia, Martin, Roy, Mary P., Dominic, Malicah, Wasongolo, Stan, Jason, Ryan, Mikael, Barbara, Helen, Rodolfo, and Sally!

And a huge thanks to our amazing partners: Portland Nursery, City Farm, Little Prince Nursery, Naomi’s Farm Supply, Territorial Seeds, High Mowing Seeds, Baker Creek Seeds, Irish Eyes Garden Seeds!!! We couldn’t do this work without you!

Civic Ware Village Gardens Fundraiser

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Come enjoy a homegrown meal and handcrafted art with the Civic Ware class and Village Gardens. You get a home cooked meal plus a handcrafted bowl and cup for just $15.00. All proceeds go to Village Gardens so please remember to bring cash or checks! Come celebrate the semester-long collaboration between Lewis & Clark students and the community members of Village Gardens in North Portland.

Tuesday April 24th
4:00PM
Albany Quadrangle at Lewis & Clark College
615 SW Palatine Hill RD
Portland, OR 97219

Food Works Farm Volunteers – We Need Your Help!

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Food Works Farm is GROWING and we need your help. The Food Works Youth Crew decided to expand their farm by 1/2 acre this year and that means more veggie starts to plant. Join us for a fun-filled work day Saturday mornings this Spring. Play some games, meet the crew, join us for lunch, and lend a hand. We can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning. : )

Food Works Work Day

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Food Works is headed out to the farm this Saturday and we need your help! We will be planting 3,240 starts of broccoli, kale, collards, and swiss chard. The weather is suppose to be beautiful this weekend, so why not head out to Sauvie Island and support the Food Works crew. We will be planting from 10am to 12pm and will be providing a vegetarian lunch.  Head to our facebook page and let us know if you can make it! 

Breakside Brewery and Salt & Straw Sponsor Fundraiser This Sunday

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This Sunday, April 1, Breakside Brewery and local ice cream maker Salt & Straw will be sharing the last of their collaboration projects in a charity event at Breakside’s NE Portland Pub. The ‘ice cream beer social’ will feature beer floats made with Breakside’s Salted Caramel Sweet Stout and Salt & Straw’s Bailey’s with Irish Stout ice cream. The two foodstuffs are both collaborations between Breakside brewmaster Ben Edmunds and Salt & Straw churnmaster Tyler Malek. Malek based the recipe for the ice cream on Breakside’s award winning Dry Stout and used the same malted and roasted barleys that the brewery uses in the beer. For the sweet stout, Edmunds blended a traditional export stout with a salted caramel syrup based on Salt & Straw’s sea salt with caramel ribbon ice cream.

All sales from the stout float will benefit the Food Works Program! The event will run Sunday, April 1, from noon until 11 at Breakside (820 NE Dekum), or until the stout and ice cream run out!

Food Works Summer Intern Positions

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Food Works is currently accepting applications for Interns for the summer of 2012. There are 2 opportunities to join our leadership team as an Intern by applying for the Farm Assistant or Program Assistant positions. Working as an Intern at Food Works is a great opportunity to expand your youth development skills, participate in creating positive youth-adult partnerships, and gain hands-on farming and farmer’s market management experience.To apply please submit a cover letter and resume to rschoonover@janusyouth.org.

Transforming a Food Desert Into an Oasis

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The Village Gardens community in North Portland is an example of what can be accomplished when neighborhood residents, community-based organizations, non-profits and government organizations come together in support of people's health and well-being. The project is supported by Kaiser Permanente, among other organizations.

Transforming a Food Desert Into an Oasis

Center for Total Health Blog, Kaiser Permanente, November 23, 2011

How We Began, Where We Are Now and Where We Are Going

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Join us for an evening of Storytelling, Food, Music, Awards and Presentations. Village Gardens leaders will share: How We Began, Where We Are Now and Where We Are Going. 
Kids and Families Encouraged!
Saturday, December 3rd 2011, 5:00-8:00pm
St. Johns Community Center
8427 North Central Street Portland, OR 97203

Please RSVP so we know how many people to expect

Food Works at Portland Farmers Market

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Lavette Lacy talks about Food Works, a program of the Janus Youth Program. Lavette and her colleagues are selling beautiful vegetables at the Portland Farmers Market every Saturday morning through the summer. Janus Youth Programs has been changing lives and building futures for children, youth and families in Oregon and Washington since 1972. From residential treatment programs, the Northwest's largest array of runaway and homeless youth services, alternative education classrooms, a detention program, a teen parenting program, a college scholarship program, and a 85,000 square foot urban agriculture program addressing hunger and employment issues, Janus is committed to delivering innovative community-based programs. Reaching nearly 36,000 children, youth and families yearly, Janus Youth Programs is one of the largest nonprofits in the Northwest committed to delivering programs that change lives and build futures. Learn more about what we do and how you can make a difference that will change lives and build futures at www.janusyouth.org/ Music by Benjamin Bogosian and video by Ruth Ann Barrett of Earthsayers.tv, voices of sustainabilty

Food Works at Portland Farmers Market

Ruth Ann Barrett, June 18, 2011