Small group, small seeds, large impact

By CJ Mead
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Frank Rodzwic (left) and Frankie Leigh (middle) in the ACS bus used for the “Garden Stimulus Tour” in 2009 to distribute over 60,000 plant starts to community gardens around Oregon.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

–Margaret Mead

Last month a U.S. Department of Agriculture study reported Oregon second on the list of hungriest states in the nation, claiming that 13 per cent of its families struggle to put food on the table. Certainly there is work to be done to help feed the state’s hungry, and we are in need of more than a band-aid on this problem.

The American Center for Sustainability (ACS), led by Ken Burrow and Frankie Leigh, has an answer.

ACS believes in developing a more sustainable local food web across Oregon by mobilizing communities to produce local and healthy food. In 2007 ACS began its Plant Project, a garden plant distribution program that donates edible plant starts to help battle hunger in communities from Portland to Pendleton.

Katherine Loeck of Utopia Community Garden says about ACS, “because the majority of our gardeners are low-income community members, this project allowed them to access plant starts that they would not have been able to afford otherwise.”

ACS distributes traditional edible starts such as lettuce, tomatoes, onions, melons, and peppers; fruits like watermelon and strawberry; as well as herbs such as oregano, basil, and sage. ACS also donates starts that serve as beneficial insect attractants to promote successful fruition.

Sheryl Casteen from Planting Seeds of Change in Lebanon, Oregon, celebrates the locally-based humanitarian mission.

“[ACS] gave us the opportunity to offer plants to people that would not have otherwise been able to afford them, feed their families, and teach the children in several schools about vegetables,” she says.

Since its inception ACS has distributed over 115,000 plant starts, helping community gardens, food pantries, and demonstration gardens overcome obstacles and dwindling resources to start thriving garden spaces. By collaborating with local nonprofit educational garden projects, ACS is able to spur local food webs rooted in volunteerism.

ACS meets its altruistic goals entirely by volunteer hands. In the spring of 2009, 12 volunteers sowed over 75,000 seeds and produced an estimated 60,000 plants to be donated to feed local communities. Those 12 individuals benefited more than 35 different plant recipients all over Oregon, including the Oregon Food Bank Learning Gardens in Portland, Dalles Imagination Garden and Utopia Community Garden in The Dalles, Bunker Hill School in Coos Bay, Plant a Row for the Hungry in Benton County, and Planting Seeds of Change in Lebanon.

By engaging in annual planting projects or helping distribute plants, this people-powered agency gives local citizens a chance to become involved in moving Oregon from the top of the list of hungriest states.

Recently members of the Portland community came out to support ACS at the Abundant Harvest Celebration held at the EastBurn restaurant, where members of the community learned about ACS plant projects and sustainable practices, and enjoyed music from the local bands Tapwater and Cow Paddy Stompers. The fundraiser enabled ACS to begin propagating thousands more plants for this coming spring in order to continue providing Oregonians access to their own local food web.

While ACS is indubitably a small group of thoughtful committed citizens, its work is changing the lives of hungry Oregonians.

Charlotte Link of Dalles Imagination Garden sums it up, “because of ACS, more Oregonians had food on the table for themselves and their family.”

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For more info, visit http://sustainableshift.org, call 503-460-7136 or email plants@sustainableshift.org


CJ Mead believes when surrounded by positive people amazing things happen, seeing this firsthand in his youth-development work for Portland nonprofits. He is currently working on a Masters in Education at Lewis and Clark College.