Our Mission Refuge Gardens works with refugee families in the Portland area who wish to improve their lives by accessing land to grow healthy, nutritious food for their families and create economic opportunity by marketing their produce in the community.

Impact Model Refuge Gardens Economic Opportunity Food Security Social Participation Skill Development Food Security

Green Yellow Red Farm Workplan Goals Increase Sales and develop marketing outlets Improve program visibility and branding Green Enhance experience for returning growers Improve data collection for community impacts Yellow Find stable funding source Eliminate chokepoints and bottlenecks that threaten long-term program health Red

We are helping families and communities find connection and purpose Strength We are helping families and communities find connection and purpose

Strength We are strong in our direct marketing and continue to see growth in sales

Challenge We are creating ways for people to connect with nutrition resources but how can we track that impact?

Challenge We are helping to build skills and confidence but how do we form connections to opportunity?

Obstacle We are struggling to find stable funding for the program and will have difficulty addressing persistent weaknesses with inadequate resources

Obstacle During the growing season when most of our improvement projects can be implemented, management time, bandwidth, and geographical spread are major chokepoints to our success.

What’s it all mean? Refuge Gardens in 2016 is a beautiful mess creating really good things in the world but struggling to address some of the persistent structural challenges that threaten it. It is not a sustainable situation but creates a lot of value.

Thanks Y’all!