CFF Annual Gathering 2026

Grinding Stone Collective Inc. (GSC) is a grassroots non-profit dedicated to revitalizing traditional foodways and ecological knowledge through community-driven education, mutual aid, and land stewardship programs. They strengthen Indigenous Food Sovereignty by reconnecting urban and rural Native people to ancestral food systems, land-based practices, and one another. GSC strives to create new opportunities for Indigenous people to share their stories, values, and history with the larger inter-tribal community and allies. Grinding Stone Collective will be represented by Brooke Rodriguez (founder) and Priscilla Bell Lamberty (Board Secretary).

Jamie Horton is the Executive Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Business Operations, overseeing the Strategy and N.Y.C. Groceries departments. He has been with the organization for more than seven years and began in the Real Estate Transaction Services division. Jamie’s portfolio covers organizational strategy and operations and high priority cross-departmental projects across three key portfolios: initiatives that sit at the intersection of real estate and innovation industries development including BATWorks and the Greenlight Innovation Fund; business operations including board management and long-term financial planning; and new business-line development and implementation including N.Y.C. Groceries. 

Scott French has been the Administrator at the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) since Octber, 2023. French oversees HRA and leads the administration’s work strengthening the city’s social safety net for New Yorkers in need. As part of DSS, HRA assists more than 3 million low‐income and vulnerable New Yorkers annually through more than 14 major public benefits programs including SNAP.

Qiana Mickie is the inaugural Executive Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture. Under Qiana’s leadership, the office aims to advance urban agriculture and equity to actively address climate, health, and food disparities in the city’s natural and built environment. By collaborating with interagency leaders as well as the breadth of urban agriculture stakeholders, Qiana has developed innovative and nature-based solutions to foster healthy, culturally relevant food production, cultivate economic justice opportunities for small businesses, increase agriculture education to students, and bolster growing green spaces for all in the city. The Office of Urban Agriculture recently kicked off the capital phase of the city’s first food forest on NYC public school grounds. Qiana is also the Founding Principal of QJM Multiprise and the former Executive Director of Just Food.

Siddhartha Sanchez is the new Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Food Policy for the Mamdani administration. Siddhartha is a lifelong advocate for food justice whose work over the past 20 years has centered racial, environmental and economic justice. He has dedicated his career to serving low-income communities of color across New York City, developing deep expertise at the intersection of food systems, economic development, climate justice and community-driven policy. Most recently, Sanchez served as Executive Director of the Bronx River Alliance, where he oversaw stewardship of a 23-mile urban watershed and more than 100 acres of public land while advancing environmental restoration, public access and community engagement