New Seasons Market

April 28, 2008

PORTLAND, Ore.––This month, New Seasons Market will disburse $50,000 in Pacific Village grants to 19 local organizations. In 2007, the program’s inaugural year, New Seasons was able to fund 13 grantees (10 farmer’s markets and 3 food focused programs). Now in its second year, New Seasons Market’s Pacific Village will fund 19 local organizations (16 of which are farmer’s markets) committed to supporting regional family farms and access to regional foods. Funded by a portion of sales from New Seasons Market’s private label, Pacific Village, the grants program is dedicated to creating a marketplace for local foods, celebrating the Northwest’s bounty and connecting shoppers to regional foods and producers. All Pacific Village products––beef, buffalo, chicken, butter, milk and pork––are sourced from regional farms and feature organic high quality foods.

“They’ve been a lifesaver,” said Greg Rieben, whose family farm near Banks, Oregon, has been in operation since 1889. “Without the Pacific Village program we’d be out of business.” Rieben’s father sold the farm’s dairy cattle in the late 60s and the family has primarily been raising hogs since. Approximately 90 percent of Rieben’s hogs are sold directly to New Seasons Market for Pacific Village pork.

One of this year’s Pacific Village grant recipients is Portland Farmers Market—which will use the funds for educational outreach activities to help families and kids learn how to cook with underappreciated produce from the market. Lents International Farmers Market will use its grant to promote the use of the Oregon Trail Card at the market. When shoppers use their cards at the market during the month of July, they will receive a match (up to $5) to spend at the market.

“We have some of the lowest produce prices in town,” said Jill Kuehler, manager of the market. “The match promotion will help bring our low-income shoppers to the market. Then once they’re here, they’ll see that they can afford healthy food that’s right in their neighborhood.”

Since opening its doors in 2000, New Seasons Market has made supporting the regional food economy part of the company’s mission. This dedication can be seen in the product mix in the store, through stories posted about regional farmers on its website, through meet-the-producer events in its stores and through programs like the Pacific Village grants and Home Grown, a regional food labeling program that helps customers know which foods and products are from regional producers. New Seasons Market’s focus on the regional food economy stems from a desire to keep the Northwest’s family farms viable and to provide shoppers with the best food available produced by the most sustainable means.

“During these tumultuous economic times, eating regionally grown and produced foods is more important than ever,” said Lisa Sedlar, president of New Seasons Market. “We have to take a long term view of our food and farming systems, because if we don’t support our region’s family farmers, fishers and ranchers we will lose them to the big Ag monoculture system¬¬¬—or worse, our farmland will turn into strip-malls and condos.”

This year’s Pacific Village grantees also include the Hillsboro Tuesday Farmers Market; Sunday Orenco Station Farmers Market; Lake Oswego Farmers Market; Beaverton Farmers Market; Cedar Mill-Sunset Farmers Market; Hillsdale Farmers Market; Interstate Farmers Market; Hollywood Farmers Market; Milwaukie Sunday Farmers Market; Montavilla Farmers Market; Portland Chefs Collaborative’s “Farmer-Chef Connection” program; Oregon City Farmers Market; Tigard Area Farmers Market; Eastbank Farmers Market; Moreland Farmer’s Market, Ecotrust’s Food & Farms program; and Mercy Corps Northwest’s New American Agricultural Project which assists refugee and immigrant farmer in our community.

For more information on the Pacific Village grant program or to apply for a grant, contact Claudia Knotek, community relations director, at claudiak@newseasonsmarket.com.

Founded by three Portland area families, New Seasons Market continues to be locally owned and operated. It strives to combine the service and atmosphere of an old-fashioned neighborhood market with a selection of foods and other products for today’s lifestyle. New Seasons Market stores are located in the neighborhoods of Raleigh Hills, Sellwood, Concordia, Arbor Lodge, and Seven Corners (southeast Portland); as well as Lake Oswego’s Mountain Park, Hillsboro’s Orenco Station, Beaverton’s Cedar Hills Crossing, and Clackamas County’s Happy Valley. The company will open a store in the Progress Ridge neighborhood of Beaverton in 2009. For store locations, hours and general information, please visit www.newseasonsmarket.com.