Jane Evans is just ecstatic to be here. Really.

“Every day I am so happy to come to work here,” she says with a wide smile and sparkling eyes. “It is just wonderful.”

“This” is her new position as assistant director for Common Earth Gardens, and it is wonderful because it puts so many of Jane’s passions into one outlet: the earth, growing one’s own food, and, most of all, refugees.

“I’m back working with refugees and immigrants, and that, well, I love that.”

Jane first worked with refugees as an intern with Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) while she completed her master’s degree in social work from the University of Louisville. She “fell in love” with the work to the point that it seemed like “more of a calling,” and says she was always moved when “helping people feel at home, helping them establish a new home.”

After the internship Jane moved around a bit, but returned to Louisville to take a new position with KRM and Catholic Charities providing mental health casework for immigrants and refugees. She worked primarily with refugees and newer arrivals to address any mental health concerns, but also doing basic casework on things like connecting clients to resources like food stamps and helping them pursue citizenship. Many of her clients were from Cuba as parolees or those seeking asylum. Surprisingly, some of her clients had “been here as long as I had” because “when word gets out that someone can help, people come.” Jane says she never provided therapy but did offer substance abuse education, cultural adjustment groups, and men’s non-violence work.

When she was in her 20s, Jane was refining skills that will serve her well at Common Earth Gardens while homesteading in a small community of friends for about six years. She raised chickens and grew vegetables and bartered with others in the group for meats, eggs, bread, etc. “I canned non-stop,” she laughs, “and had several years when I never ate a store-bought tomato.”

Years later she lived in Wrangell, Alaska, for a year in the heart of the Inside Passage. She says at first she thought Wrangell might be her forever home because of its beauty and mountains but, in the end, “it just rained so much.” Many people don’t realize Alaska is a rain forest, Jane notes.

These days Jane lives in the suburbs where she has a garden and a few fruit producing fig trees, six chickens (“with no rooster!”), and four dogs, one of whom, Barney, has only three legs and has recently lost his sight. The beagle-Chihuahua mix gets around great, though, she says.  She also has two teen-aged nephews living with her right now and says she is adjusting to the fine art of following through with consequences. “I’ve never been a spoiler, but I have always been the fun aunt,” she says. “Now I have to actually do something when homework doesn’t get done.”

For fun Jane likes to hike and camp and travel anywhere with mountains. She traveled to the Canadian Rockies two years ago, Colorado this year, and hopes to travel internationally again soon.

And, yes, for fun, she likes to work with refugees. On the earth. Growing food.

“I love the mission of Common Earth Gardens, working with people who come here and maybe they don’t have money to get healthy food and they don’t know where to get the food that they eat in their home country. We help them access a garden plot or even a business opportunity where they can provide for their families and friends healthy, nutritious food that is low cost. To be able to do that? I just love it.”