CFF Annual Gathering 2023
Wednesday September 20, 2023
5 – 8pm
New York Health Foundation
1385 Broadway, 23rd Floor
NYC
Register Here by 9/18 (*required)
Co-sponsored by Philanthropy NY
This is a funder-only event
CFF is excited to be back hosting our 8th Annual Gathering, returning after a four-year hiatus! Please join us to meet new colleagues, learn about CFF programs, and be inspired by those changing our regional food system.
As part of the evening, we will hear from Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, the recipient of the 2023 CFF Champions Award. You will also have a chance to meet the new cohort of Seeding Power fellows and hear an update from the fellowship.
The keynote presentation will be given by Savi Horne, Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers’ Land Loss Prevention Project, as well as member of the Agriculture Subcommittee of the USDA Equity Commission, and 2023 recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award.
All interested funders are welcome to attend! Whether your focus is on nutrition or hunger, food chain workers or farmland preservation, emergency food or food waste, we all have a part to play in creating the just food system that everyone deserves. We encourage your attendance whether you’re a long-time CFF member, just entering the field of food systems change, or a curious bystander.
Join us at the CFF Annual Gathering for an evening of locally sourced food and drink, networking, and updates from the field.
More about the presentations
Savi Horne is Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers’ Land Loss Prevention Project. LLPP is a non-profit public interest organization that is celebrating 40 years of providing legal services and technical support to North Carolina’s financially distressed Black, Indigenous, People of Color and limited resource farmers, ranchers and landowners to preserve their farms, homes, land and rural livelihoods. Savi is currently a member of the Agriculture Subcommittee of the United State Department of Agriculture Equity Commission, which is charged with making recommendations for systemic equity changes in the delivery of programs and services to historically underserved farmers, ranchers and forest owners. She is a member of the Leadership Team of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance/Black Land and Power Coalition and a member of the boards of National Family Farm Coalition and the Rural Coalition. Savi has been widely honored for her work in the Black land commons, food justice and environmental justice. This includes the 2020 American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy and Resources Stewardship. In September 2022, she was awarded the Spirit of Farm Aid Award: Lifetime All Access Pass, signed by Willie Nelson, in recognition of her “tireless contribution to Farm Aid’s mission to cultivate a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America.” In June 2023, she was awarded the Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. She is a graduate of the Rutgers University School of Law-Newark (JD) and the City College of New York (BA).
The newly redesigned Seeding Power Fellowship is a nine-month cohort-based food justice fellowship program for experienced leaders in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Seeding Power is unique in both the region it serves and the focus on effective collaborations and equitable relationships, while including fellows from the philanthropic sector. Racial equity, social justice, active communication, and collaboration form the core of a tested yet tailored curriculum designed by Emerging Equity. By creating a community of practice that develops a shared analysis of the issues plaguing our food system, this Seeding Power cohort will graduate with strengthened cross-sector relationships and skills, and the opportunity to develop projects together.
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM) will be represented by staff from the organization. CCSM organizes with immigrants and allies to collectively support, empower, and defend their communities, and they won the Champions Award in recognition of their food justice program, Comida Para la Gente (Food for the People).