As the founder of Rustic Roots Sanctuary and GROW Spanish Lake, Janett Lewis is constantly drawing from her eclectic past as she works for holistic healing in North County.

Janett grew up in Atlanta, but it was to her grandfather’s 163 acre plantation in rural Georgia, near Augusta, that she felt most connected. Her father had grown up on that farm, and that’s where she probably first came to love the outdoors—a love that propelled her toward a position at a Waldorf School in Georgia, “where everything revolves around nature.”
From the Waldorf school, Janett moved to California to study and practice holistic medicine. At the time, inspired by an appreciation for massage therapy, her mission was “to travel around the world and learn different cultural modalities of body work.” That mission took her from the Hawaiian islands, to Thailand, to a 35-ft sloop sailboat in Florida, and back to California, where she settled in San Diego.
All those myriad experiences compounded over a lifetime are made manifest in Janett’s two great passions today: an understanding of the healing power of nature, and a desire to do good.
When Janett first purchased property in Spanish Lake, she was working as a real estate broker in southern California. “I came here as a business decision… When I got here, there was so much more to St. Louis than I ever expected.” So she decided to “stay and make a change, because it’s too beautiful and the people are so amazing.”
One of the ways in which Janett made an immediate impact on Spanish Lake was by co-purchasing the property next to her home, which had become a problem property in the neighborhood, and converting it into a Gateway Greening Network community garden.
After cementing herself as a neighborhood leader and caretaker through her efforts with the garden, she joined the Spanish Lake Community Development Corporation, of which she was named the chair of the board for 2 years. In that capacity, she worked to revitalize the unincorporated area through redevelopment efforts such as the Bellefontaine Corridor Plan; as well as supporting the St. Louis Zoo WildCare Park, which recently acquired the Pipefitters Union in Spanish Lake and on course to open 2025.

In 2020 Janett founded and acquired non-profit status for a 6.64 acre sustainable urban farm called Rustic Roots Sanctuary, of which she is the Founder and Executive Director. Though the sanctuary was just finding its footing when COVID came around, Janett used the time to develop programs to touch on all of her passions—from sustainability to community development to youth engagement.
Rustic Roots Sanctuary grows food for the community, teaches sustainability, works with youth in agriculture, runs a senior program that helps feed people that are home-bound and hosts Restorative Nature Immersion Women retreats.
In each of her key roles Janett Lewis is drawing from her lifetime of experience in, essentially, making people feel better.
Rustic Roots Sanctuary’s mission is to create a healing space in Spanish Lake that brings the community together, revolves around holistic healing and gives access to healthy, fresh organically grown food.