by Adam Liebowitz | Mar 25, 2019 | News
This year CFF is excited to be hosting our 7th Annual Gathering! Please join us to celebrate accomplishments from the past year and hear from your colleagues about different strategies being used to impact our regional food system, as well as celebrate the launch of our Seeding Power Fellowship and this year’s CFF Champions Award recipient! Whether your focus is on nutrition or hunger, food chain workers or farmland preservation, emergency food or food waste, we all have a part to play in creating the just food system that everyone deserves.
by Adam Liebowitz | Mar 21, 2019 | News
These twelve individuals will participate in the first Seeding Power Fellowship, launching this month and concluding in August, 2020. They will embark on an emergent learning journey, designed and facilitated by Simran Noor of Noor Consulting, consisting of five in-person retreats, monthly peer coaching calls, site visits and more!
by Adam Liebowitz | Mar 19, 2019 | News
For 20 years, East New York Farms! has offered an intensive Youth Internship to build the skills, knowledge, and confidence of youth in East New York. As part of the mission, they have made intentional opportunities to hire and retain youth alumni on staff, creating pathways to positions of power. Join us for a conversation with current staff of ENYF! to learn about how they transitioned from youth participants to program leaders. Funders will learn how they can support organizations to create these pathways and build a movement of leaders who come from the communities they serve.
by Adam Liebowitz | Mar 7, 2019 | News
Narrative change has taken a central role in the organizing around food, agriculture and climate justice in United States. Join us in this conversation with grassroots leaders who are finding inspiring and effective new ways to “change the narrative” and build power. Food First’s intensive WriteShop method brings together frontline leaders from the food, farm and climate justice movements to produce a compelling book and generate shared strategies for community action. This broad-based initiative aims to turn the growing momentum behind the Green New Deal into an opportunity for community organizing and national movement-building to transform the food system—and our society.
The Closing the Hunger Gap Network – a coordinated space for food banks and pantries moving beyond food distribution towards strategies that address the root causes of hunger – is undergoing a national story-based narrative change process to challenge the dominate narrative of hunger in U.S. and redefine the role of food emergency organizations in building a more just food system. This ongoing initiative is helping to organize, build power and ultimately change the story of hunger in the U.S.
by Adam Liebowitz | Dec 12, 2018 | Films & Video, News
On December 4th, CFF partnered with Philanthropy New York, Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders, and Surdna Foundation to host a briefing on three new leadership development programs in the food and farming sector. Navina Khanna, Director of the HEAL Food Alliance, spoke about their School of Political Leadership that supports 10 food and farm justice leaders with the tools, knowledge, and skills they need to run for office, work on campaigns, and drive political change. Next, Farzana Serang, Executive Director of the Castanea Fellowship, described how Castanea will provide a diverse cohort of leaders with the time, space, and resources they need to connect and innovate on long-term solutions that can foster vibrant communities and the creation of a more equitable, sustainable, and healthy food system. Lastly, Adam Liebowitz, Director of Community Food Funders, outlined the new Seeding Power Fellowship for experienced food justice leaders working across sectors to build equitable food systems in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island.
by Adam Liebowitz | Dec 11, 2018 | Films & Video, News
On November 1st, CFF partnered with The Marcus Foundation and SAFSF to host a briefing about the living and working conditions faced by most farmworkers in the US, and food certification programs that are trying to address and ameliorate these issues. Jessica Culley described the work of the Farmworkers Support Committee (CATA), a grassroots member-led organization. CATA was also a founding member of the Agricultural Justice Project that issues the “Food Justice Certified” label. Peter O’Driscoll talked about the Equitable Food Initiative and all it has accomplished in the past five years with its “Responsibly Grown, Farmworker Assured” label that comes only as the result of multi-stakeholder engagement and agreements across the supply chain. And Michael Rozyne talked about his years in the farming and food distribution business with Red Tomato, what it will take to maintain farms in our region, and a pilot project he is engaging in with EFI in Connecticut to explore the model on smaller farms.
