On May 28th, CFF partnered with the Syracuse-Onondaga Food System Alliance (SOFSA) to host a briefing titled Regranting as Relationship: How Storytelling and Shared Resources Drive Food Justice in Central New York. As this year's "Champions Briefing", the event was designed and presented by SOFSA, the 2025 CFF Champions Award recipient, and was co-sponsored by Food Policy Networks.
SOFSA staff provided an overview of the organization and the different buckets of work they engage in. The majority of the meeting was focused on their Food Justice Fund, and what lessons can be gained from their process for both grantmakers and grant-seekers alike.
Maura Ackerman, Executive Director, started things off with an introduction of the presenters, and passed it to Amy Tao Woodley. Amy has held many positions with the Food Justice Fund, starting with grantee and graduating on to leadership council member and currently the co-facilitator. Amy told the story of the Haven Community Garden that she manages, and what impact the Food Justice Fund has had on her work and organization.
Maura continued with he history of the Fund's creation, which first launched in 2024. It began years prior with an early commitment to regrant 15% of SOFSA's budget each year, and then including learning more about the practice of philanthropy and specifically participatory grantmaking. For SOFSA, they want prospectice grantees to learn from the process itself not only benefit based on whether or not they get a grant.
Then, Micah Orieta, Movement-Building Organizer, went into detail on how the fund operates in practice. He shared the inteionality of every step including designing the application process, forming a governance body, and facilitating the participatory model. Maura returned at the end to show the back end of the voting platform and how it works.
After that, Amy came back to share reflections on what being a part of the Fund process made possible and the personal and organizational growth it allowed for.
Finally, Maura offered some final thoughts about how being a regrantor fits into the larger mission and goals of SOFSA. She shared advice for more traditional funders, and encouraged other nonprofits to think about how they can blend the roles of doing the work and also resourcing the work. We then ended with questions from the audience.
Parts of the session were designed to mimic elements of their participatory grantmaking process, including audience participation and voting.
During the session, we were joined by visual notetaker Reb Garofano of Veggie Doodle Soup. Visual notetaking is one creative way SOFSA helps translate ideas across sectors and communities so people can see connections and move work forward together. Reb is a dietician and visual communicator who shares her work under the handle @veggiedoodlesoup. See SOFSA's Art as Organizing [PDF] for more info. Click on the image below to see what she produced for this meeting.
Slides used are visible in the recording below.
The following time markers can be used to jump to different sections of the video:
- Start – Welcome and intro by Adam Liebowitz, CFF Director
- 3:45 - Maura Ackerman, Executive Director, SOFSA
- 5:25 - Amy Tao Woodley, Food Justice Fund Leadership Council Co-Facilitator, and Garden Coordinator for Haven Community Garden
- 9:40 - Maura shares the Fund's history
- 18:55 - First interactive portion using Mentimeter
- 20:20 - Micah Orieta, Movement-Building Organizer, SOFSA, on how the Fund works
- 49:40 - Maura shows the back end of the voting platform
- 51:30 - Amy shares reflections on the impact of the Fund
- 56:25 - Maura concludes the presentation
- 1:05:30 - Another Mentimeter survey
- 1:06:50 - Q&A
Resources shared during the session
- 2026 Food Justice Fund Application
- Food Justice Fund 2026 FAQs
- Link for the voting demo used during the presentation
- SOFSA's annual campaign
More about SOFSA
Syracuse-Onondaga Food System Alliance (SOFSA) was the 2025 winner of the Community Food Funders Champion Award. One of the perks of the award is to host a briefing with CFF on content of the awardee’s choosing. This event is the CFF “Champions Briefing” for this year. You can also read their spring update newsletter.
Established in 2019, the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance (SOFSA) is an independent food council in Central New York serving the City of Syracuse, Onondaga Nation, and the surrounding Onondaga County.
SOFSA is a network of changemakers working to reshape the food system in Central NY. Grounded in transformative justice, reciprocity, and collective impact, SOFSA brings people together across sectors to build community power and advance solutions rooted in lived experience. From participatory grantmaking through the Food Justice Fund to policy advocacy, civic engagement, and its annual Food Justice Gathering, SOFSA mobilizes relationships, resources, and shared leadership to build a just and thriving regional food future.