Philip Yates connected his community through food, helping them acquire, distribute, prepare and enjoy it together
Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune Philip Yates tends plants in the garden at his home in Talent.
Editor’s note: Community Builder is a regular Q&A series featuring perspectives from local people who have been involved in meaningful change in Southern Oregon. Today’s conversation is with Rogue Valley Farm to School Board Member Philip Yates.
Q: For many years you worked at ACCESS to secure food for families in the Rogue Valley. How did you end up getting involved in food provision and food insecurity issues?
Philip: I had a couple of careers before going into social services. I was an electronics technician in England and then in Australia. While traveling in New Zealand, I met a beautiful American woman. Nancy was from Ashland; we hit it off We were together for a while when she suddenly had to leave to go back to Oregon because her father was very ill. I had fallen in love and had to decide about the future. I called and asked Nancy to marry me over the phone. She said, ‘Yes, I will marry you, but you must come here. I’ve been to Australia before. I want you to come here. It took me a while to get the right visa. I came in 1980.
Q: So you came to a new county for a new life?
Philip: We were both looking for a new career and Waldorf Education took us. We felt that this is what we should do. We returned to England for our training. I became a Waldorf teacher and taught for seven years. It was the hardest job I’ve ever done. I have a lot of respect for people who teach, but it hasn’t been me. Once again, I was left to figure out what to do.
There was a book called “What Color Is My Parachute?” I started going through this and thinking about what I should do. It seemed to point me in the direction of social services. One of the exercises was to talk to someone from social services you know. Ben Benjamin was the director of the ACCESS nutrition program. I called Ben and he said, “Well, why don’t you come down and look at the warehouse? I’m transitioning within the agency and my job is available. It happened quickly, but I had experience in program administration .I went to an interview and Patty Claeys, the executive director, hired me.
Q: What was your first impression of hunger in the Rogue Valley?
Philip: I found myself at work three days before Thanksgiving in 1991. I knew a little because I saw what Ben had been up to. I couldn’t understand at the time why there was hunger in America. He had traveled to other places, like Asia. I saw poverty firsthand with people begging on the streets, and there was nothing like it here.
Q: How did your perception change?
Philip: I had a gradual understanding, through some painful moments, of what we were dealing with. Finally, I realized that we were dealing with malnutrition and not specifically with hunger. In the 1990s, after we started with ACCESS, the economy started to improve. There was less unemployment and suddenly in 1996 many government programs were cut. It was assumed that people had jobs and could make ends meet. But the reality was that for most people on low incomes, even if they had a job, they didn’t make enough money to pay all their bills. If you pay more than 30% of your income on housing, there is very little left for nutritious food. And many people were paying 50% of their income for housing. The burden then shifted to nonprofits because government food programs had been cut.
Q: So nonprofits took over from government food programs?
Philip: 2001 was the peak year for food assistance. Americans in poverty grew by 8 million, support for school meals was cut, and food stamps were cut by $23 million. Food banks had to find additional resources. Increasingly, the burden fell on nonprofit organizations. Rogue Valley Food Programs is asking for support from local foundations to purchase food. We all knew we had to find out what the root causes are. This was the real transition. We began the journey of trying to figure out where we would get the most food and the most nutritious food.
Q: Where did your search for more nutritious foods take you?
Philip: We know that the most important time for nutrition is from birth to 3 years. If federal WIC (Women Infants and Children) food programs were cut, we needed to provide nutritious food to young families. ACCESS built a kitchen called the Olsrud Family Nutrition Center in 2000. This gave us the opportunity to expand meals for seniors throughout Jackson County, in partnership with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, and create new program opportunities.
Through Leightman Maxey and other foundations, the food community began looking at building a stronger food system. Not just people delivering food, but local farmers who produce food and transport it to the centers. We needed a new generation of farmers. The average age of the farmers had reached 60 years. Younger people did not enter the business. In 2012, all partner agencies decided to do a Jackson County food assessment. It took a year to gather groups, interview farmers and everyone involved in the food system. Kathy Bryon of the Gordon Elwood Foundation helped guide us in creating the Rogue Valley Food System Network. The food system web is growing. Are we there yet? No. But they have made a lot of progress.
For ACCESS, for me, it was about how do we bring more nutrition to our programs? How do we collaborate with healthcare providers? People struggled with diabetes and gluten intolerance. We established Food Share Gardens. People in Gold Hill, Rogue River, Medford and the VA Dom grew food to distribute through ACCESS to food pantries. Those gardens were producing, at their peak, about 50,000 pounds of organic vegetables a year. In partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, we launched a new food recovery program called Fresh Alliance. This brought in major grocers such as Fred Meyer, Walmart and Safeway as major donors of frozen and perishable foods. The program grew and grew and grew.
With some federal money, we were able to purchase a refrigerated truck to use as a food pantry to distribute fresh fruits and vegetables. We were changing the paradigm of providing nutritious food to the community.
Q: What achievements at ACCESS are you most proud of?
Philip: I am very proud to work alongside the Rogue Valley Food System Network. We were working for a better community with better nutrition for everyone, not just low-income people. Sherm and Wanda Olsrud have been incredible donors to ACCESS. I met them personally and felt very, very proud to know their example of giving. The Olsruds never wanted anything in return. They always gave because there was a need. Any chance to talk with them were precious moments for me.
Q: You retired from ACCESS, but recently joined the Rogue Valley Farm to School board of directors. What does Rogue Valley Farm to School do that makes a difference?
Philip: We have several programs focused on building gardens in schools and nutrition education. Primary schools have lessons centered around their gardens: composting, growing plants, nutrition lessons and maths. The responses from the teachers and administration have been inspiring, not only changing the lives of the children, but changing the lives of the teachers and administrators. We are only reaching 25% of the schools in the area; we could get to more.
Q: What about nutritious food sampling programs for kids?
Philip: We have ‘Harvest of the Month’ tasting tables. It is usually a fruit or vegetable for children. They can vote on it. We have our shopping program to get more fresh fruit and vegetables into school lunches. We work with local farmers and are the Oregon Farm to School Regional Center. During the pandemic and the fire, we were able to access and distribute over $1 million worth of fresh food to local families.
Q: You have lived in several places around the world. Why is this your house?
Philip: I lived in Manchester, England, then moved to Australia and lived in Sydney, another big city. I was suffering from a kind of blues in the city, where you go on the bus and nobody recognizes anybody else. When I first came to Southern Oregon, walking down the streets people would say, “Hi.” I immediately felt connected to the community. Working in food programs was the job I always looked for because it was about community. I have always been a team player, regardless of the sport. I want to make things better, but I can’t change them individually. Time after time at ACCESS, we asked for help and people stepped up. It was really the part of the community that I liked. It’s about working together.
Q: What would you like to see that would improve life here?
Philip: I want to see children who thrive, start life with proper nutrition. It’s a personal choice in the future, but for young children, we have to find ways to help them early.
Q: What does someone from England think about life here?
Philip: I have friends who come from other countries and visit; they leave with a great impression of this area. Being able to go rafting, go to redwoods and, a special gem, to have the Oregon Shakespeare festival here is so unusual. Having a smaller community that also has culture is so special.
Q: What has been reinforced that you now know for sure?
Philip: I have learned the importance of nutrition and how it affects people’s lives. I’ve learned that good food makes all the difference, not just preparing and enjoying it, but also the experience of eating it together. I come from England and am the only one in my family who has traveled further than 50 miles from Manchester. It took me this distance to gain perspective. Nutrition has spoken to me personally and it became a passion to help the community.
Steve Boyarsky is a retired educator and longtime Rogue Valley resident. He remains involved in educational and youth programs.
Biography: Rogue Valley Farm to School
Rogue Valley Farm to School educates children about our food system through hands-on farm and garden programs and by adding local foods to school meals. We inspire an appreciation of local agriculture that improves our community’s economy and environment and the health of its members.
RVF2S works in partnership with schools to build a culture of health. Students participate in lessons about growing food, agriculture, nutrition, food preparation, and the environment. Programs include farm field trips, school garden activities, cafeteria programs, and teacher professional development. The monthly tastings expose students to foods such as vegetables, soups or salads that students may not be familiar with.
Farm to School also helps school nutrition programs to acquire local, fresh and healthy food. Dietitians and a professional chef work with schools and more than 20 local farms to provide healthy meals. For more information or to get involved with Rogue Valley Farm to School, visit rvfarm2school.org.
