Food appreciation from farmer to table

Interfaith organization creates innovative partnerships to educate communities about food and health

By Jenny Holmes and Alison Warren
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Photo by Carolyn Nelson

During a summer program, children learn cooking skills from professional chefs, in one of several programs focused on food and health provided by Ecumenical Ministries’ Interfaith Food and Farms Partnership.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Interfaith Food and Farms Partnership (IFFP) has been empowering faith communities, farmers and neighborhoods to create innovative partnerships for just and sustainable food systems since 2005. Through its cooking classes, farm to congregation projects, food assessments and The Congregational Wellness Project, IFFP educates people about food and health.

This year IFFP worked with Hacienda Community Development Corporation (CDC) to provide cooking classes to families and middle school kids. The kids are part of Expresiones, a Hacienda CDC after-school and summer enrichment program designed to increase family participation and school attendance and reduce youth risk factors such as gang involvement, dropping out of school and alcohol abuse.

The cooking classes are taught by chefs from Bon Appetit Management Company which is committed to creating and supporting sustainable food systems. Bon Appetit donated chef time, supplies and food for the classes as a way to give back to the community and contribute to a better food system.

Chef Micah Cavolo, a parent himself, recognizes that many kids don’t understand how the food system works. The Expresiones kids have been fortunate to be involved in growing a community garden and using some of their community-grown vegetables in the cooking classes. Chef Cavolo sees this as a great way for kids to start making the connection between the garden and their plate.

“I feel that to have a successful sustainable future, you need to engage and nurture the future and in my world I do that through food. The only thing more rewarding then being a chef is being a teacher also. Lucky for me they are rolled up into one job,” says Cavolo.

Pairing small scale and immigrant farmers to congregations is another way IFFP provides producers and consumers an opportunity to understand one another. The project includes farmer tables as well as community-supported agriculture (CSA) for congregations.

Yua Lo is a small farmer who has benefited from the Interfaith Food and Farms Partnership. A refugee from Laos, Yua arrived in the United States as a 7th grader in 1978. She adjusted to a new culture, learned English and attended middle-school, all while caring for her younger siblings. Later Yua’s family moved to Stockton, California to pursue farming. When she and her husband moved to Oregon 11 years ago, they planned to give up farming, but in 2001, Yua felt called back to the fields.

Today she is a savvy grower and smart businessperson. Not only is Yua steadily growing her family farming business through her relationships with local churches, where she provides flowers and vegetables. She has also provided important congregational connections to the Hmong community including new Hmong farmer table partners.

Small immigrant farmers who face language and cultural barriers find the supportive atmosphere of the congregations very encouraging. In addition, congregation members learn about different cultures. Farm families producing on a scale too small for other marketing opportunities get a new opportunity through the partnerships.

Alex Velikoretskikh (pronounced “vel-i-kor-et-ski”) is one of these farmers. Alex was born in Russia and has always been a gardener and farmer, even as a young boy in the Ukraine. He immigrated to the U.S. with his wife and children in 2007. Ten in all, the Velikoretskikh family lives in the southeast Foster Powell neighborhood of Portland. Using hand tools and simple irrigation techniques, they grow potatoes, squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans and green onions on two plots, one on Sauvie Island and the other on Southeast 39th near Holgate.

Besides supporting immigrant farmers, congregations are encouraged to increase low-income access to healthy farm grown food through donations for an extra CSA share, and by buying leftovers at farmer tables for donations to food banks or a community meal. These partnerships raise awareness in the faith community about the importance of supporting local farmers and building justice and equity in the food system. Small farmers also benefit from the new economic opportunities.

Another unique partnership exists between First Presbyterian Church, Alder House, Julia West and a local farmer. For the past four years First Presbyterian Church has had a farmer sell produce after their Sunday service. To reach out into the community and increase access to the fresh food for all, the church also uses its kitchen to teach microwave cooking classes to residents of Alder House, a low-income single-room housing complex, and to clients of Julia West, a drop-in center for homeless individuals in downtown Portland.

The classes have been well received by participants such as Janice Potter. Janice “really loved the recipes the class provided and found them to be very helpful.”

One of her favorites was the rhubarb crisp, a recipe given out as part of the IFFP program. Janice used the coupons provided by the class to connect with the farm table at the church and buy the rhubarb she needed for the recipe. The coupons have also given Janice the chance to eat fresh lemon cucumbers, tomatoes and beets.

She’s a shining example of how this class helps people to think differently about food and eat well, even without having a regular kitchen. The classes also provide a unique way to build community through sharing skills and eating together. As one participant stated, it was the people who made it worthwhile for him.

The Congregation Wellness Project, another IFFP program, is equipping congregations to do assessments of their facilities and practices to determine how they can create environments where healthy choices for food and physical activity become easy. Some congregations that have done an adaptation of the School Wellness Index have realized that their land can be used for community gardens.

The belief that everyone one should have access to healthy foods and an environment that supports health forms the foundation of all IFFP programs. IFFP is doing its small part to partner congregations with communities to support health and a sustainable food system for all.

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For more information visit www.emoregon.org/food_farms.php

Jenny Holmes is the Environmental Ministries Director at EMO and Alison Warren is a Program Associate. If you are interested in participating in their programs, contact them at jholmes@emoregon.org and awarren@emoregon.org or by calling 503-221-1054.