By Rebecca Robinson, photo slideshow by Jason E Kaplan

The St. Johns Woods apartment complex off North Iris Street looks like many similar affordable housing communities, with one exception: the massive, impeccably maintained vegetable garden that looks as healthy and bountiful as one of Portland’s city-run community plots. 

Turns out it does more than fill bellies.  According to Housing Authority of Portland project managers at St. Johns Woods, the garden project has reduced vandalism, increased cooperation between residents, and created jobs. 

“We’re teenagers trying to do something positive,” says Lee, a senior at Rosemary Anderson High School and a two-year veteran of Food Works. “We give people a new outlook on everything, and help people know where their food comes from.”
 

Lee admits that he’s gotten quite a gastronomical education himself through Food Works.

“Just yesterday I brought home a bunch of stuff [from the farm] I haven’t tried before,” Lee says, smiling. 

The willingness of youth to try new things is what has kept Food Works program manager Amber Baker coming back every year since 2005.

“The ability to partner with young people is such a gift,” says Baker. “Adults don’t take teens seriously very often. But such beautiful things come from these young people” — things that she finds vital to growing healthy communities.

Food Works employees are selected by a team of Janus Youth staffers, crew leaders — youth who have been with Food Works for a year or more — and community members from St. Johns Woods and the New Columbia housing development, which has its own garden. 

“It was a job and I needed one,” says Lavette when asked what motivated her to apply for Food Works. But it’s more demanding than say, scooping ice cream. 

“It’s hardest when it’s 100 degrees out and we’re harvesting broccoli,” Lavette says. “But we get a lot done, and it’s cool to learn about the different kinds of vegetables.”

Lee adds that selling at the Portland Farmers Market downtown is rewarding, because “Some people come back for years just to buy from us. … You get to know the faces.”

Food Works can also be found at the newly launched farmers market in St. Johns.

A large number of Food Works youth come from immigrant communities, like Abu, a crew leader and senior at Roosevelt High School who was born in Ethiopia, grew up in Kenya, and moved with her family to the U.S. five years ago. She lives in St. Johns Woods, and says while running the farm stand there that her favorite part of her Food Works duties is giving free food she’s grown to elderly residents of her community, “watching them smile and say ‘thank you.’” 

Their gratitude is similar to that which she feels toward her Food Works colleagues, who “helped me overcome my fear of speaking in front of new people and sharing my thoughts. It’s nice to find out I wasn’t thinking something all by myself.”

In describing her experience, Abu encompasses the Food Works mission:  “It’s about coming together and sharing,” she says.