When the foods they grew up with can’t be found, refugees in Oregon are growing their own

On a warm May morning, in a big East Portland field near a Fred Meyer grocery store, several growers were hard at work tilling the land. These plots of garden land will soon be planted with fresh potatoes, greens, beans, peppers and more. The nine growers on this land are all refugees of African descent: from Rwanda, Burundi or the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of them, Fidele Munyanganizi, was busy with a garden hoe, tilling a piece of land in the shade before the day got too hot.

Munyanganizi was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but escaped and lived for many years as a refugee in Rwanda, before migrating to Portland five and a half years ago. Among the many things to adjust to in his new home: the food.

“The first day I came here, we were scared when getting to see the food, because the food looked a little bit different,” he said through an interpreter. “Even the kids, when we went to the store to get things, [were] wondering, what kind of food is this?”

He and his family slowly grew to like American food. But some foods just don’t compare to their African counterparts.

“The African maize compared to what I get to see here … the one here, it’s too sweet,” he said. “The one from Africa is normally really hard, and that one is a better type of corn. … The one that we have here is too flimsy, and we really don’t like it. It’s not tasty.”