Recap: Reimagining Food In Prisons

Posted on December 9, 2025

On December 4th, CFF partnered with the Posner Foundation, New York Health Foundation, Philanthropy New York, and Sustainable Agriculture & Food System Funders to host a briefing titled Reimagining Food in Prisons: Opportunities for funders and advocates.

Over 100 people attended the session focused on how to reshape the food landscape within carceral facilities. It featured four organizations playing different and important roles in this effort. 

Michael Capers of Sweet Freedom Farm opened the meeting with a personal story of his time on the inside. He shared about the challenges of accessing nutritious food behind bars, and the impacts on one’s physical and mental health as a result. 

Next we heard from Sumeet Sharma of Correctional Association of New York (CANY), an independent monitoring and oversight group of New York State prisons. He helped frame the issue with data his organization collected across New York, mostly pulled from a new report released just last month (see resources below).

Our perspective zoomed out even more to a national scope, with Leslie Soble of Impact Justice. Leslie shared information on the state of food in prisons across the country, and then shifted our conversation towards interventions with an example from California. She pulled information from their recently released book, Eating Behind Bars.

Britt Florio of Farm to Institution New England (FINE) continued the discussion on interventions, with her organization’s focus in New England. She shared opportunities and challenges that FINE has found through their advocacy and programmatic efforts.

Jalal Sabur and Sevaad Walker of Sweet Freedom Farm rounded out the conversation by sharing about their grassroots efforts to get farm fresh food inside prisons, and the obstacles that stand in their way.

The session closed with a Q&A segment, and parting words of advice to funders, policymakers, and advocates from all of our panelists.

For people looking to learn more, Britt and Leslie are hosting another webinar on January 14 at 12pm ET, Farm to Facility: Increasing Local Food in New England Prisons

Slides used are visible in the recodring below, but you can also download the combined presentations here. The following time markers can be used to jump to different sections of the video:

  • Start – Welcome and intro by Adam Liebowitz, CFF Director
  • 4:45 – Michael Capers, Sweet Freedom Farm
  • 9:35 – Sumeet Sharma, Correctional Association of New York
  • 22:00 – Leslie Soble, Impact Justice
  • 34:15 – Britt Florio, Farm to Institution New England
  • 46:25 – Jalal Sabur & Sevaad Walker, Sweet Freedom Farm
  • 1:02:15– Q&A

Resources shared during the session & after