ORA Spotlight: Jan Marrs

Highlighting the stories of ORA leaders

Jan was recently elected to the ORA Board at the Annual meeting in April.  She owns Almosta Farm in Cove, OR, where she lives with her wife and two children. Jan has a passion for food systems and teaching people how to grow their own food and offers a unique perspective on urban/rural life.

When did you first become interested in community organizing?  I have worked in various aspects of community organizing and citizen lobbying for over 30 years.

 What is your “why”? Why is this work important to you? 

I was born and raised in rural Oregon but spent most of my adult life in metropolitan areas in the Northwest, Midwest and Southeastern United States. My family decided to return to a rural community to enjoy our retirement and to raise our children. The disparity in the urban experience versus rural has highlighted the importance of lifting the voices of rural Oregon.

 What changes would you like to see in your local community? 

I would like to see more collaboration between all impacted parties on the critical issues facing us.  There seems to be a significant amount of polarization with a lot of people with strong opinions but not very many people who want to listen to understand the issues and then collaborate to solve them. 

 What’s something bringing you joy at the moment? 

Wow so much joy! My kids and wife bring me great joy as does the work we do on our small farm. We host guests here, both through Airbnb and through Harvest Host and I get great joy introducing guests to all aspects of our farm- milking goats, harvesting their own food, making cheese, harvesting honey. The importance of locally sourced food and food distribution systems is very important to me and every guest who is here gets to learn first hand why we think it is important!