Wednesday, June 12th 2024
(130 New Scotland Ave, Albany, NY 12208) & Virtual
Jordan Schmidt
North East Community Center
In her role as Food Program Director at The North East Community Center, Jordan focuses on increasing access to nourishing, culturally responsive food and building connections between a sustainable regional food system and nutrition security across the population. Jordan holds a BA in Environmental Science and is pursuing a Masters in Public Health and Nutrition. She has a background in sustainable agriculture and continues to support her wife Sarah on their grass-based livestock farm in Pine Plains NY.
Speaking In:
The Food Sovereignty Fund: investing in shared abundance
Originating in a year’s worth of community conversations and resource sharing, Glynwood’s Food Sovereignty Fund has been contracting small-scale farmers from historically marginalized backgrounds to supply fresh, nutrient-dense, culturally significant food to frontline food access programs since 2020. To date, more than 230,000 pounds of vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, and poultry have been distributed, and in 2023 approximately 15,000 households received food through the program. In 2024, the Food Sovereignty Fund will support and facilitate partnerships between approximately forty farms and food access programs. Critical elements of the program that will be discussed are the process for contracting farms and reporting deliveries, building and operating refrigerated “mini-hubs” for aggregation and distribution of food, and implementing language justice practices with the program cohort. This panel features the experts on the ground (farmers, organizers, food pantry managers) who designed and implement this program. It will also preview the forthcoming Food Sovereignty Fund toolkit that summarizes challenges, lessons learned, and suggested best practices for others to adopt and replicate this program in their communities.
2:00 p.m.
Armory Main Stage
Wednesday, June 12th 2024
(130 New Scotland Ave, Albany, NY 12208) & Virtual