Vital Village Networks Selects 14 Emerging Leaders for Inaugural Community Food Systems Fellowship

BOSTON - Dec. 22, 2021 - PRLog -- Vital Village Networks is thrilled to announce the fourteen emerging local leaders that have been selected to participate in the 2022 Community Food Systems Fellowship Program!

This year-long leadership program serves to increase opportunities for diverse leaders to build skills, capacity, and networks to strengthen efforts to build equitable and resilient local food systems – with a focus on strengthening community engagement and leadership of caregivers, parents and families, uplifting strengths-based narratives, and fostering collaborative leadership to scale community identified solutions and cross sector partnerships.

Over the next year, fellows will participate in a series of interactive community design labs and peer learning sessions, as well as work collaboratively as a cohort to develop a shared blueprint and capacity building roadmap to advance community-powered food systems. Stay tuned to learn more about their stories and collective work in the coming months, including at next year's annual 2022 National Community Leadership Summit.

Please join us in congratulating this year's fellows:

2022 Fellows include:

Yasmine Anderson

Black Women in Charge, Inc.,

Indianapolis, IN

Mary Ann Buggs

Faith Food Fridays

Vallejo, CA

Tailor Coble

FRESHFARM Markets,

Washington, DC

Pampi D, Neighborhood Grow Plan

Holyoke/Boston, MA

Pantaleon Florez III

Maseualkualli Farms

Lawrence, KS

Julie Garreau / Wičhaȟpi Epatȟaŋ Wiŋ

Cheyenne River Youth Project

Eagle Butte, SD

Tevin Gray

Keepers Of The Garden CCTX

Corpus Christi, TX

Erica Hall

Florida Food Policy Council/Suncoast Sierra Club

St. Petersburg, FL

Jackie Leung

Micronesian Islander Community

Salem, OR

Steph Niaupari

Plantita Power,

Washington, DC

Ashley Rouse

Captain Planet Foundation

Atlanta, GA

Nakia Sims

Taylor Street Farm

Houston, TX

Kaitlyn Walsh

Land Access Alliance

Cloquet, MN

Michelle Week

Gx̌ast sq̓it (Good Rain) Farm

Portland, OR

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About Vital Village Networks

Vital Village Networks is a national collective of diverse change-makers and organizations committed to pioneering sustainable approaches to transforming child, family, and community well-being. Since 2010, Vital Village has fostered partnerships between residents and organizations aimed at improving the capacity of communities to optimize child wellbeing, prevent early life adversities, and advance equity through coalition building, leadership development, participatory research, data-sharing, and advocacy. Through our grassroots local network in Boston, our national network of peer communities, Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW), and CRADLE, our participatory research and evaluation lab, we cultivate stronger connections between residents and community-based organizations to co-design community systems-improvement efforts and address structural inequities.

For more information about Vital Village Networks, visit http://www.vitalvillage.org.