When Maximina Hernández Reyes emigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, to Oregon in 2001, she was nonetheless studying English, had no concept the place the meals pantries had been, and knew only a few individuals. She struggled to discover a help system in Gresham, the suburb of Portland the place she settled, till 2012, when she occurred upon a neighborhood backyard within the metropolis’s Vance Park.
Hernández Reyes grew up subsistence farming along with her dad and mom in Oaxaca, and the backyard spoke to her. She referred to as a quantity posted close by and reached Adam Kohl, the chief director of Outgrowing Hunger, a corporation that rents unused land at accessible prices to assist immigrants and refugees develop their very own meals. Hernández Reyes was in a position to safe a small plot locally backyard and began rising meals for her household. This was only the start.
Over the following decade, gardening developed from a pastime to a ardour for Hernández Reyes, nevertheless it wasn’t how she earned her revenue. Whereas she labored her means up at McDonald’s, ultimately changing into a supervisor, she gardened on the facet as a means to supply her household and neighbors with recent produce. Ultimately, she grew to become a neighborhood chief by way of her work within the backyard; her unique plot is now an academic web site the place she teaches gardening to different Latinas.
Maximina Hernández Reyes grows a variety of produce, together with many forms of greens and herbs present in her residence state of Oaxaca, Mexico. (Picture credit score: Elizabeth Doerr)
Two years in the past, Hernández Reyes had the chance to scale up her personal rising operation and switch it right into a supply of revenue. She is now in her second season of managing a 1-acre farm that Outgrowing Starvation leases within the close by city of Boring, Oregon. Whereas she named the operation MR. Farms after her initials, she has leaned into individuals misreading it as “Mister.” The enterprise has been so profitable that she was in a position to give up her job at McDonald’s final 12 months and has transitioned from feeding her household to feeding—and mentoring—her entire neighborhood.
Hernández Reyes attributes her success at this meals sovereignty endeavor to the help of a community referred to as Rockwood Food Systems Collaborative (RFSC), half of a bigger group referred to as Rockwood Community Development Corporation, which focuses on underserved areas of East Portland and Gresham. RFSC is comprised of practically 30 organizations, together with social companies, meals justice initiatives, and well being and academic establishments.
Historically, meals safety organizations obtain meals from wherever they’ll get it, and since donations are hardly ever from native growers, the system usually leads to processed meals and a reliance on the precarious world meals system. The collaborative mannequin, somewhat than offering one-way charity, is concentrated on mutualism and neighborhood care. Partnerships with native growers create a market that helps farmer entrepreneurship; neighborhood members obtain recent produce; and the system is extra resilient to world meals shortages.
“When individuals see these greens within the farmers’ market, they get actually excited. They are saying, ‘I haven’t seen these in a few years!’ or ‘I’ve been searching for these.’”
At Rockwood, when somebody reveals a knack for farming, particularly when it advantages their neighborhood, somebody from the collaborative connects them with numerous member organizations that may assist them entry sources and connections to construct a profitable farm enterprise. When Hernández Reyes bought concerned, Outgrowing Starvation offered her with land and put her in contact with the Oregon Meals Financial institution, which buys her greens for his or her pantries, and Rockwood People’s Market, a BIPOC-led farmers market in Gresham, the place she sells produce each Sunday. She and different growers are additionally in a position to promote produce to area people members, who pay with tokens offered by meals techniques companions, the native low-cost well being clinic Wallace Medical Concern, and the youth companies group Play Grow Learn.
The Rockwood Meals Techniques Collaborative is one in every of tons of of comparable networks throughout the U.S. which are serving as a mannequin for a extra resilient meals and well being system. Others embody Hawai’i Food Hub Hui, Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive, and the Mississippi Farm to School Network. Leveraging social capital between and amongst establishments, these networks, together with neighborhood members themselves, create an alternative local food system. This may be significantly highly effective for immigrants and U.S. noncitizens, who’re twice as likely to be among the many 44 million individuals within the U.S. dealing with meals insecurity.
Civil Eats not too long ago spoke to Hernández Reyes about her journey towards this collaborative mannequin, the organizations that supported her new enterprise, and the way rising meals presents freedom to immigrant households.
What do you miss most about your property in Oaxaca?
What I miss are the straightforward issues like traditions, household, and my tradition. That was earlier than. However now we’ve constructed the identical neighborhood right here and introduced our traditions right here. My greens are a part of these traditions.
At first, they solely grew slightly bit as a result of I solely had one plant from the seeds I introduced with me. However we saved the seeds and acclimatized them and now we’ve got extra of our conventional greens to share with my neighborhood: tomatillos and Roma tomatoes (however not like those you get from the grocery retailer; they’re higher), inexperienced beans from my state, forms of Mexican corn, and pipicha, pápalo, and epazote [herbs used in traditional dishes in central and southern Mexico]. When individuals see these greens within the farmers’ market, they get actually excited. They are saying, “I haven’t seen these in a few years!” or “I’ve been searching for these.”
What’s your position within the Rockwood Meals Techniques Collaborative and the way have these connections helped you?
I used to be volunteering in the course of the pandemic with Outgrowing Starvation to distribute meals packing containers to households. Via that, I met individuals from Rockwood CDC, Play Grow Learn, Metropolitan Family Service, and loads of different organizations. Then I bought concerned with Guerreras Latinas [an empowerment program for Spanish-speaking Latinas] the place I taught gardening by way of a program referred to as Sembradoras, which was supported by funding from the Oregon Meals Financial institution.
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