Wednesday, June 12th 2024
(130 New Scotland Ave, Albany, NY 12208) & Virtual
Co-Presented By Our Hunger Prevention Champions:
Michelle Hughes
Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming
Michelle Hughes has 20 years of experience building programs to support more just and resilient food systems by working at the intersection of agriculture and racial, economic, and health justice. As Director of Regional Food Programs at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in the Hudson Valley, her work focuses on building multidisciplinary coalitions that center regional farms to address food insecurity and food apartheid, and to improve the health of both urban and rural communities. Previously, Michelle was the Co-Director and Head Buyer for Rolling Grocer 19, a food justice project anchored by a full-line grocery store with a tiered pricing system designed to prioritize members of the community experiencing food insecurity; she was the Director of Investments and Partnerships for the National Young Farmers Coalition; and for ten years led GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development Project and FARMRoots programs, where she helped 20 immigrant families establish independent farm businesses on a combined 400 acres. Michelle holds a BS in Conservation Ecology and Agroecology from Rutgers University. She also farms and co-owns Reclamation Herb Farm with her husband in Germantown, NY, a medicinal herb farm focused on producing bulk herbs for the Hudson Valley community.
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
Co-Presented By Our Hunger Prevention Champions:
Our Supporters:
