On September 20th, over 50 CFF members and invited guests gathered at New York Health Foundation for the 8th CFF Annual Gathering, and the first since 2019! Local food and drink was supplied by Bascom Catering, a catering company based out of the South Bronx. The evening featured a presentation by Columbia County Sanctuary Movement, our 2023 CFF Champions Award recipient; an update on the Seeding Power Fellowship; and a keynote presentation 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.
Tina Vasquez, principal of Emerging Equity and lead designer and facilitator of this year’s Seeding Power Fellowship, kicked off the night with a presentation about the fellowship design and introduced the new Seeding Power fellows who were also in attendance.
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM) went next and was represented by both staff and members. Their presentation can be seen in the video below, and can be downloaded here. CCSM organizes with immigrants and allies to collectively support, empower, and defend their communities. They won the Champion Award in recognition of their food justice program, Comida Para La Gente (Food for the People), which has distributed over 425,000 pounds of food to date, and delivers 225 free, fresh, and culturally relevant prepared meals per week. They are the largest mutual aid food distributor in their region outside of the Regional Foodbank.
The evening’s program wrapped up with Savi Horne, who gave a powerful talk about the need for justice and equity in our food movement, and advice to funders on how to help bring this about.
Throughout the night we also heard from CFF staff and leadership who spoke about the network and different ways to get involved.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for a special evening
You can view all photos from the event online, or check out a slideshow of selected pictures here.
Below is a video of the night’s speakers including all presentations. The following time markers can be used to find specific moments:
- Start – Welcome by Jennifer Ching, Executive Director, North Star Fund
- 2:10 – Evening overview by Bronwyn Starr, CFF co-chair
- 6:00 – Remarks on CFF’s work by Adam Liebowitz, CFF Director
- 11:40 – Seeding Power presentation by Tina Vasquez, Seeding Power designer and facilitator
- 25:50 – Introduction of CFF Champion Award recipient by Gabriela Quintanilla, North Star Fund
- 29:10 – Columbia County Sanctuary Movement presentation
- 52:20 – Intro of Savi Horne by Kellie Terry, North Star Fund
- 58:35 – Presentation by Savi Horne
- 1:42:45 – Closing