JILL KUEHLER
Urban Markets and Fieldtrips to the Field

“We’re looking to get that initial spark of interest in the kids who come here,” Jill Kuehler says as she tromps past muddy rows of lettuces at Sauvie Island Center, a nonprofit farm education program that partners with Sauvie Island Organics. Kuehler was recently hired as director of a new project that brings kids from primarily North Portland schools to the working farm for fieldtrips. “We hope after their visit to the farm they begin to think about where food comes from and the labor that goes into growing the food we eat.”

Kuehler, the daughter of Texans, who both grew up on farms, knows a thing or two about how hard farming can be. “My mother doesn’t understand why I’m going towards farming when she and my dad worked so hard to get away from it,” she says, laughing. “It’s in my blood, I guess.”

After getting an undergraduate degree in Health Education, Kuehler volunteered for the Peace Corps and taught in Guatemala. What impacted her the most, she says, was the community garden she helped institute in her assigned village. “Growing a garden has such a positive impact on kids’ health. If they plant, tend, and harvest salad greens, they will eat them. They may not remember what I taught them about brushing their teeth twice a day, but the garden is still there.”

After a year working on a farm in Washington, Kuehler sought to combine her background in health education with agriculture. PSU’s PIIECL program was the perfect fit. Kuehler’s thesis project focused on Abernethy Elementary, Portland Public School’s only scratch kitchen, where she later found a position as Wellness Coordinator. Kuehler also helped with programming in the on-site Garden of Wonders, where students learn a variety of food-and-agriculture-oriented lessons.

In addition to the Sauvie Island Center, Kuehler directs the Lents International Farmer’s Market, a joint project of Zenger Farm and the Lents Food Group that strives to provide healthy food for low-income, ethnically diverse populations in southeast Portland. The market provides vendor space for immigrant farmers and emerging small farms by keeping vendor prices low, and it accepts WIC, food stamps and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition coupons as well. “We strive to provide fresh, local food that is affordable for lower-income people,” Kuehler says proudly.

In the future, Kuehler hopes to expand operations at the Sauvie Island Center, adding a grow-lunch garden, where children would harvest vegetables and make lunch at the farm so they can taste first-hand how good fresh produce can be. Kuehler is also looking at ways of instituting week-long summer camps and cooking classes. “It’s exciting to be part of projects that are new and young. Whether it’s apprenticeship programs on farms or garden-based learning, there are great things happening to positively impact the health of the community in Portland.”