Food and agriculture are at the foundation of our cultures, economy, health, and our relationship with the earth. This means that transforming our food system is one of the most powerful ways we can change the world.
In order to get there, we help organizations aiming to transform the food system be:
more effective,
more connected,
better funded,
and working in a way that is sustainable, strategic, and brings out the best in them.
We do this by designing and implementing impactful strategies, finding the resources needed to achieve your vision, shifting workplace culture, all while building impactful, collaborative relationships between values-aligned organizations. We also try to have some fun along the way, aiming to bring more joy, ease, and connectedness to everything we do.
Our Approach
We help you build trusting relationships and operationalize collaboration.
Our power to shift systems multiplies exponentially when we build deep, trusting relationships with one another. But collaborating well isn’t always easy. It takes time, intention, and support. Our goal is to equip you with the tools, practices and facilitation you need to develop strong, networks built on trust, transparency, and shared values.
We believe that how you do what you do is as important as what you do.
Systems change starts with each of us showing up in our work in a way that reflects our values. We’re never going to realize the future we want to create on a societal level unless we can first create it within our own organizations and relationships. We work with clients to manifest their values in their day-to-day practices, by examining and shifting organizational culture toward joy, abundance, and collaboration and away from burnout, scarcity and competition.
We center anti-racism and equity in our approach.
Dehumanizing systems of racism underpin the U.S. food system. We can’t create something meaningfully different without addressing the ways that interpersonal, organizational, and institutional systems of oppression impact our world and our work. We approach our work with an explicit commitment to dismantling white supremacy and shifting power to BIPOC communities.
We work from an ethic of love.
Love for the earth, love for community, love for people is at the core of the movement to build resilient and equitable regional food systems. Respect, reciprocity, equity, sustainability – all of the other values we strive for in our work share the same taproot. We strive to bring an ethic of love into every relationship we hold and every piece of work we steward.
We focus on both the forest and the trees.
Local and regional food systems are by definition… local and regional. This means that every place has its own set of unique assets, challenges, histories, people. But while we’re all operating in our own context, there is still so much we can learn from one another. We bring together years of experience collaborating with and learning from people working in local and regional food systems across the U.S. We use this to help clients fit their piece of the puzzle into the bigger picture of food systems change and connect with other great people and ideas.
We start with deep listening.
We believe that the answers to the problems we’re trying to solve have to come from those most impacted. This means that in all of our work we start by taking the time to have thoughtful conversations, ask great questions, and listen deeply. From this we discover themes, patterns, and opportunities for positive change. Working this way requires going slower at first, but we find that it pays off in the long run.
Why joy, ease and connectedness?
“Our revolutionary potential as a species lands in a reorientation towards work.” - adrienne maree brown
The call of our time is to create a liberated, just, and beautiful future. The work of collectively imagining this future, of trying things out, learning, creating, collaborating is the one of the coolest, most badass, gorgeous human projects that we as a society have ever tried.
But we also know how exhausting it can be. Working to gain an inch against some of the largest, most powerful people and corporations in the world is a long-game, intergenerational kind of fight. Our work culture today – particularly within nonprofits and social enterprises – can lead to burnout, feelings of isolation, and the perception that we’re competing for limited resources. We know. We’ve been there too.
After witnessing the pervasiveness of white supremacy culture and burnout in our sector, we know just how much it is holding us back as individuals and as a collective. Unlearning these behaviors, patterns, and cultural norms requires active, intentional work. We want to help you accomplish your goals, but we also want to help you hang in there for the long haul, and to be energized and inspired by your work. We believe it starts by finding and creating joy, ease, and connectedness across all facets of our work. That can mean making time at the start of each meeting to connect as people, or interrogating what factors are creating a culture of burnout within an organization. It also means celebrating the wins - big and small, enjoying a good meal together whenever we can, and the occasional spontaneous dance party.