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Last Visited: 2/19/2009
Victoria Jayne has sparkling, clear-blue-sky eyes, and a mission in life just as intense.
She says she knows how people can live longer.
And cure acne.
And depression.
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The answer, Jayne says, is "profoundly simple."
Stop cooking.
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But if it intrigues you, you should meet Victoria Jayne.
A slight, 5-foot-tall woman with an elfin face walked through Camp Tadmore last weekend dressed in pristine white, armed with a walkie-talkie and a bulletproof air of authority.
Victoria Jayne is 57 years old and as sweet as could be, but she's nobody's pushover.
She's the president of the International Raw & Living Foods Association.
Along with a handful of mostly Portland-based volunteer organizers, she's responsible for the world's biggest raw-foods gathering.
Photographer Stephen Voss' raw lunch of gazpacho and a stuffed leaf wrap."There are other festivals and retreats," Jayne says.
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In addition to selling real estate and fomenting global dietary rebellion, Jayne has about six other callings.
She's an Essene minister, reiki therapist, licensed social worker, counselor, et cetera.
Somehow--fueled by blueberry breakfasts, lunches flavored with uncooked tahini sauce and cherries for the afternoon munchies--she finds time to try changing the world.
Her goal, shared by other Portland organizers of the International Festival, is to make the Rose City the hub of the raw-foods movement, which is currently as trendy as an iPod in certain circles.
When the nascent festival found itself in debt a few years back, Jayne says she hit the phones to negotiate payment plans and lower balances.
This year, when tables for vendors went inexplicably missing, or the health department needed a last-minute phone call, Jayne was on the hook.
The job takes missionary zeal.
Jayne's is that of a woman who once found herself an army of one.
"In Portland 15 years ago, I was alone," she says.
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What the movement has never had, according to Jayne and Checkal-Fromm, is a unifying force.
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"We've been out on a limb each year," Jayne says.
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At least, you will if Victoria Jayne has anything to do with it.
"The people at this event are 10 years in front of mainstream America," Jayne says.