Please join Community Food Funders in welcoming…
The 2025-2026 Seeding Power Cohort
We’re about to embark on another year of the Seeding Power Fellowship with our third cohort of regional food justice leaders! These twelve individuals were carefully chosen by a selection committee comprised of Seeding Power alumni and other leaders in the philanthropic and leadership development sectors.
The Seeding Power Fellowship brings together experienced leaders working across sectors to build equitable food systems in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Our nine-month curriculum designed by Emerging Equity includes three in-person retreats and 13 virtual sessions focused on collective learning, movement building, leadership development, and collaboration.
You can read more about the fellows below, and meet them on September 17th at the 2025 CFF Annual Gathering (a funder-only event). We’re grateful to all the advocates who applied, we have no shortage of talented people doing vital work in our region.
Congratulations to the newest fellows!
Follow Seeding Power and the fellows on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter!
More about the fellows
Isaiah Blake is a Brooklyn-born community gardener from Brownsville with deep roots in the Lower East Side. He tends Cooper Street Garden and is an ever-learning organizer passionate about food justice and community power. Isaiah studied Political Science at SUNY Albany and now serves as an Engagement Associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, where he connects national policy efforts with local partners to advance meaningful food legislation.
Bridging land, plants, and poetry, Mandana Boushee’s work weaves together the wisdom of ecology, community organizing, and the power of storytelling, drawing on two decades of experience as a earth worker, writer, educator, and community herbalist. Whether through her care work as an herbalist, her advocacy for farmers through the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, or her poetry, the heart-mycelium feeding Mandana’s work remains clear: to connect, heal, and protect through the land and the stories that shape it.
After working for the Lawson Valentine Foundation (LVF) for 15 years, Beth Corsa elevated two existing positions into the Executive Director role, which she has held since April 2020. The Foundation has been funding sustainable agriculture and food justice at the grassroots level long before it was cool to do so. Beth and the LVF trustees recently transitioned the investment portfolio from a more traditional firm to one focused on impact investing. In addition to her work with the foundation, Beth enjoys volunteering with theater groups, time with her grown children and her dog Tito (the office security guard), and spending time in nature – whether it be in the beautiful Berkshires where she lives or off on an adventure during her travels.
Emith Escobar is a Mexican American organizer with Brandworkers, a worker center supporting food manufacturing workers in NYC and NJ organize into strong worker led unions. He lives in the heart of Queens, Elmhurst, serves on the board of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, and believes change isn’t one big action, but a million little actions.
Jacob Gigler-Caro is the Executive Director of Salt City Harvest Farm, where he supports a diverse network of farmers in cultivating culturally important foods and building deeper connections to the land. He also runs Gregarious Gardens, a small garden-based business rooted in ecological care and community connection. He is on a continuous quest to share what he has learned with others; with the intention of breaking down stereotypes, bringing people together, and deepening our relationship with the cosmos.
Jessica Gilbert-Overland is the Director and Co-Founder of the Good Food Buffalo Coalition, which focuses on implementing values-based food purchasing practices in public institutions to foster racial justice. Prior to this position, Jess worked as an Assistant Professor at SUNY Geneseo, conducting community-based research to advance the Coalition’s goals. Outside of work, Jess is a proud pup-parent, spouse, gardener, climber, and pottery novice.
Renee Keitt is a grower, seed saver, and master composter whose work bridges food sovereignty and housing justice. As Garden Manager at Kelly Street Garden, she leads seed-saving initiatives, a community apothecary, and culturally rooted growing practices. She serves on the Board of the NYC Community Garden Coalition, advocating for the protection of urban green spaces. Renee is also the Resident Association President of Elliott-Chelsea Houses. She advocated for the preservation of public housing under Section 9. Her work is rooted in the belief that community health begins with how we care for the land, our homes, and one another.
Monti Lawson is the Founder and Lead Steward of Catalyst Collaborative Farm and Site Steward of WILDSEED Community Farm & Healing Village, a Black and Gay beginning farmer with over a decade of experience in community gardening and urban farming in NYC. A graduate of Farm School NYC, he actively serves the farming community through memberships in Black Farmer’s United of NYS, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, and NYS BIPOC Grower Support Network, and served as the inaugural representative for Manhattan and Staten Island on the USDA Farm Service Urban County Committee for New York City in 2023. Through Catalyst Collaborative Farm, a BIPOC and Queer-owned initiative, he is committed to transforming agriculture by fostering inclusivity and sustainability while developing an equitable food system that nourishes and empowers diverse communities.
Sonja Lockhart is the Community Engagement Manager at Black Farmer Fund, where she leads programming that builds connection and shared knowledge among Black farmers and food actors across the Northeast. Her work is grounded in a commitment to community health, food sovereignty, and resource redistribution. Outside of work, Sonja lives in Kingston, NY with her dog, where she tends to her houseplants and can often be found doing yoga, running, or knitting.
Dr. Gaby Pereyra (Farmer Gaby) practices sustainable agriculture on 27 acres of forest and arable land at Yara Farm, together with her wife Dawn, in Middletown, NY. Through Yara Farm and her work in the nonprofit sector, Gaby has co-created and co-organized mutual aid programs and farmer-to-farmer initiatives in food production, aggregation, and distribution. She is the co-founder and co-director at Tierra Viva Collective, a nonprofit focused on services for farmers and farmworkers, and Director of Operations at Chester Agricultural Center, which is dedicated to helping grow an equitable and inclusive regional food system.
Maya Marie S. is a Black urban farmer and foodways educator from Baltimore, MD (Piscataway, Cherokee, and Lumbee lands) who’s called Brooklyn, NY (Canarsee, Lenni Lenape lands) her home for over 10 years, with her family’s roots in the DMV, Mississippi, and Carolinas. With education and community being principal elements of her upbringing and lineage, Maya is deeply invested in creating accessible spaces for Black and Indigenous people to learn about land stewardship/agriculture and foodways that center their personal stories and food traditions. She believes that land stewardship and foodways education are holistic means for communities of color to (re)engage with their history and health while tapping into their power for social change. Maya is the founder and lead collaborator of Deep Routes in NYC.
Aliffer Zamira Sabek is an artist, community organizer, and the founder of Seeds of Liberation—a grassroots organization dedicated to empowering underserved communities through educational programming, direct action, and tools for self-liberation. Originally from Venezuela, she brings 16 years of experience in food justice, rooted in a deep commitment to equity, resilience, and collective transformation.
The original 2019 Seeding Power Fellowship was designed in partnership between the CFF steering committee and Noor Consulting. The 2023 redesign was led by Emerging Equity, who also facilitates the implementation of each cohort.