The Westside Foodshed Hub Initiative aims to develop a Farm-to-Food-Assistance (F2FA) supplier-side aggregation plan for the westside Portland Metro area. The aggregation hub will serve to lower financial, logistical, regulatory, and labor-sourcing barriers facing small and beginning local farmers interested in supplying food assistance initatives, and will complement LiftUP's role as a distribution hub that helps connect food assistance nonprofits to sustainable, ethically-sourced and culturally-relevant fresh food.

Founded in 1980 by a group of church and synagogue members under the name "Northwest Portland Ministries," Lift Urban Portland (LiftUP) is a nonprofit organization in Northwest Portland whose mission is to reduce hunger and improve the lives of low-income residents in Northwest and Downtown Portland. 

Soil for Roses' efforts to create an equitable and sustainable F2FA Hub centers the core LiftUP tenets of dignity, accessibility, cultural relevance and nutrition. 

Soil for Roses is,

Jordan Rasmussen

Andrew Bugh 

Kenton Marquigny

James Shelstad and

Reed Johnson