2023 was marked by our significant efforts to ground in our values and build out internal organizational systems to ensure the sustainability of this work. We started the year off with a facilitated strategic planning retreat which allowed us to understand what has been working well and what requires improvement. This led to a cascade of improvements in our internal systems such as fine-tuning our decision making process, carving out time each week to focus on the big picture, and restructuring our team to increase capacity

One of the biggest changes was adding a new full time staff to the team! To our great luck, we hired Bear to fill our Youth Program Manager role. Bear has experience working with underserved youth on the streets of Vermont and in rural Oregon, serving as a crisis worker in alternative systems to police responses, and engaging in the cultivation of native plants and regenerative gardening. Their wisdom, care, culinary skills, and dedication to the growth of this organization has been indispensable.

In addition to the ten new youth employees we hired for our summer crew, we also implemented our first Farm Operations team. These were roles for folks who particularly thrived as budding farmers and were eager to take on more responsibility. We employed five older youth and, through the Rogue Farm Corps farmer training program, our first seasonal adult intern.

Because of the improvements we were able to make this year, we grew more produce than we ever have, reaching a whopping 30,000 pounds of beautiful organic vegetables! 

This would not be possible if it weren’t for the funds we have received from a USDA grant to expand our production into the winter months, the implementation of our ops crew, and all the many hands that work the land. 2023 has been an incredible year for growth and learning and we are so excited for what is to come.

2022 was a year of many firsts! Along with launching our first CSA program, we continued to transition away from tillage and toward improved soil health by adding compost, cardboard, and bark chips to establish over 150 nutrient-dense planting beds. A big thank you to all the volunteers who made this enormous endeavor possible! Check us out in the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District’s beautiful video below, highlighting the impact of the Conservation Education Grant that funded this project.

Alongside employing 10 youth this summer as part of our second annual Summer Cohort, we also hired alumni from our 2021 Summer Cohort to begin our Crew Leadership program to teach new youth employees and deepen their farming knowledge and skills. One of the great joys of this season is watching our Crew Leaders grow into skilled farmers who are assets to our team and cultivate not only food but also community in their work with volunteers, customers, and new youth.

2022 has been a beautiful year of growth and learning and we are looking forward to all that is in store for these coming years. Looking ahead to 2023, we’re planning to hire a Youth Program Manager to steward our growing mentoring and workforce development programs and are also excited to hire several part-time farm staff to support an increase in winter production, storage, and distribution through a four-year USDA Community Food Project we received in collaboration with our partners at Centro Cultural.

What a year it’s been on the 24 acres we call WTF! We weathered historic heat waves (116 degrees!), chicken predation, ill-timed irrigation disasters, and the second year of a global pandemic to grow boatloads of organic fruits and vegetables. We spent the year building deep relationships with the young people we support, and we made some big changes to our program along the way.Our biggest growth was the launch of an initiative to employ and support young people impacted by the juvenile justice system, homelessness, or housing instability. Through our inaugural Summer Harvest Crew we employed eight youth as an intensive cohort in July and August, switching to weekend work days and mentorship during September and October to support these youth as they transitioned into the academic year. We've downshifted over the winter to one farm work day per month, but we look forward to starting weekly work days again in March of 2022. We function as both employer and social services organization and we collaborate with counselors, families, and our partners at HomePlate Youth Services to help youth access medical care, to find them beds in shelters, to support their families through evictions, and to respond to any other needs they express.

We have had a host of other highlights from the year and will share a few glimpses here:

We donated more than 10,000 pounds to people experiencing food insecurity through our friends at Centro Cultural and other partner organizations;

We transitioned to no-till agriculture to regenerate soil health and increase organic matter content;

We established our first Board of Directors.

Looking ahead to 2022, we’re excited to build on these successes and continue improving these systems. We will launch a CSA to help cover the costs of the food we donate and the work that we do with youth. We will continue to work with our 2021 Summer Harvest Crew weekly from March through June, building toward a program that supports summer participants throughout the following academic year. We are excited to hire 2021 youth employees as Crew Leaders to teach and mentor our 2022 Summer Harvest Crew and deepen their own knowledge. We've posted openings for a Community Engagement Manager and a Development Director and are excited to grow our team. Take a look here and spread the word!