CFPAC Welcomes 16th Annual Chicago Food Policy Summit Leaders!
Our 16th annual Chicago Food Justice Summit is just around the corner, and for the first time ever, we’re hosting it virtually! As virtual gatherings are becoming more and more common, all event organizers are realizing there are some significant pros and cons:
Pros: Without needing to travel to a specific location, virtual summits can attract a much broader audience. This holds true for not only attendees, but also speakers and partners. We’re no longer limited by geography, traffic, tight schedules, etc. We can invite anyone and everyone to join the conversation of how to foster a more equitable food system in Chicago. It’s also become customary to record virtual events, so people don’t necessarily have to be available during the event to learn and partake.
Cons: Just because there fewer physical barriers to people’s participation, doesn’t mean there aren’t virtual barriers. Components like live language translation, ASL signers, and resources for visually impared folks are tricky to navigate. CFPAC is well versed on how to provide these resources for in person events, but less so in a virtual environment. Additionally, our summits in the past have been magical spaces where people laughed, danced, and broke bread. How can we ensure people feel the same excitement and inspiration, while sitting in front of their computer screens?
In our decision to move forward with the summit virtually, we decided to establish four working groups to support our Summit Support Stewards in navigating all of the opportunities and obstacles that come with hosting online events. The four working groups are:
Strategies for Accessibility - How can we make this virtual event accessible to all who wish to attend? How can we structure programming in a way that offers every single attendee the same knowledge and benefits?
Programming and Logistics - What types of sessions do we host? How do we structure this year’s content?
Flavor and (Re)Imagination - How do we integrate the arts into our virtual summit? Music? Cooking demos? Maybe even more?
Communications and Engagement - How do we spread the word? How do we make this virtual event as engaging as an in person event?
We are so excited to welcome these talented and unique individuals to our planning team. We know that their involvement will lead to a more rich and fruitful summit. None of us individually know everything, but together, we know a lot! Keep reading to learn more about the individuals who make up our Summit Leaders team!
Summit Support Stewards
Candace Clark is an entrepreneur, writer, podcast host, and advocate for social equity based in Chicago. Candace works with non-profit advocacy organizations providing digital services and IT Consulting. She is passionate about the food access and security in underserved communities, serving as a founding board member of Produce in Protest and Leadership Circle member of the North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN). She is a lifelong techie with an interest in IP and Global Trade, with plans to attend law school in 2022. She also enjoys reading and nature walks with her husband/business partner and their three children. Candace is CFPAC’s virtual event planner.
Rosie Fitz comes from a lineage of landworkers and dreams of radically building a better food system. Her advocacy has taken many forms leading event production and development for: Logan Square Farmers Market, Chicago Food Policy Action Council, Chillinois Young Farmers Coalition, Gardeneers, and more. When not producing an event, Rosie has her hands weaving between the strings of a loom, color-coding her planner, or working with clay. Her flower ally is toloache and she's based in Chicago. Rosie was the 15th annual summit event planner and has returned this year to offer her guidance and support.
Yescenia Mota joined the Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (formally the Mayor’s Office of Special Events) in 2003 as a Special Events Coordinator in the Programming Division. Shortly after joining the Department she began managing the Chicago City Markets program and partnered with Green City Market founder Abbey Mandel to hire the City of Chicago’s first Farm Forager. While working with the Farm Forager, she revamped the Chicago City Markets vendor application and market regulations that required farmers joining the program to meet criteria to ensure high quality local produce would be offered. She also works closely with several other City departments to ensure that the Chicago City Markets are up to code on city regulations. In 2011, she began working closely with the Mayor’s Office to address access to fresh produce in low food access areas and food security in Chicago. She established eight markets in underserved neighborhoods and in 2014 was able to secure the USDA Farmers Market Promotional Program Grant for the City to subsidize vendors at the markets. Over the last three years she has served on the City of Chicago’s Good Food Purchasing Policy Task Force, as well as coordinating the curation of workshops and programs for the Annual Chicago Food Summit with the CFPAC. She is on the board of the Illinois Farmers Market Association and the Farmers Market Coalition.
Programming and Logistics
Jazmin Martinez is currently the Outreach Manager at Advocates for Urban Agriculture and is an urban farmer from La Villita/Little Village neighborhood in Chicago who uses They/Them pronouns. They are a owner-worker of Catatumbo Cooperative Farm currently located in South Chicago. They have previous experience working in social services providing crisis and trauma-informed support and connecting individuals and families to resources. Additionally, their background involves organizing within the immigrant rights movement. Through their work, they saw a need to create economic opportunities for historically excluded communities and was drawn to urban farming, particularly within an worker-cooperative model. Their work is grounded in reverence for the land and hands that feed and nourish us. They are committed to connecting urban agriculture with broader social justice movements to envision and create other possible worlds.
Orrin Williams is the Food Systems Coordinator for the Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion a program of the Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Partnerships at UIC. As the Food Systems Coordinator Orrin will be seeking partnerships with various segments of the food system such as community gardens and urban farms to promote CPHP program interventions to increase food access, security and sovereignty. He has been an advocate for urban agriculture, food security, and food access and food sovereignty for over 30 years and is the executive director of the Center for Urban Transformation. The new CUT website is currently under development and will be launched soon.
Flavor and Re-Imagination
Michelle Li is a born and bred Chicagoan and a proud daughter of first generation Chinese immigrants. Food runs deep in her family history and genes. She is a granddaughter to a fortune cookie maker and one of Chicago Chinatown’s greatest butchers and a child to a Asian grocery wholesale manager and multi-talented chef. Continuing the family tradition of food-centered careers, she went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for her BS in Food Science and Human Nutrition and received her MS in Clinical Nutrition at Rush University Medical Center. She is a registered dietitian who is passionate about culturally competent community nutrition education and teaching youth the importance of where good food comes from. She is currently working on a NIH-funded research study on promoting healthy lifestyle changes to families with young children in Chicago. On her off time, you’ll either find her volunteering at an urban garden, working with the high school youth ministry at her church, or making her own yogurt.
Wendy Zeldin has been managing the 61st Street Farmers Market in Woodlawn for over 3 years, in addition to leading the food and garden education programming at Experimental Station. When the pandemic forced the farmers market to close down, she co-founded Market Box, a mutual aid emergency response program to help feed South Side neighbors while supporting local small farmers. Born and raised in Ohio, she received a BA from Antioch College in 2007, focusing her studies on reinterpreting cooking literature through the lens of queer theory. Prior to her role at 61st Street, she was the lead garden/food educator at Sugar Beet Schoolhouse and managed a rooftop farm for the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Additionally, she has cooked and baked in various vegan cafes throughout the city. Recently she joined the leadership team of the Chicago Farmers Market Collective and served on the Environment Transition Committee for then Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot. In her spare time, Wendy enjoys drumming, mushroom foraging, reading, and playing mahjongg.
Strategies for Accessibility
Trix Kirkpatrick is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) born in Washington D.C. and raised in Saint Louis, MO. Trix received their A.A.S. in Deaf Communication Studies from Saint Louis Community College - Florissant Valley, and their B.A. in Theatre from Loyola University. Since 2014 they've worked with several non-profit and for-profit organizations with various missions focused on LGBTQ+ advocacy, Deaf advocacy, housing advocacy and Zero Waste Initiatives. From 2016 to 2019 they traveled with Cirque Du Soleil as the Assistant to the Purchasing Coordinator During their travels across 10 major US cities, they supported several folks as a professional mover and relocation coordinator through emergency moves that arose out of unfair evictions, domestic violence and housing discrimination. Since the spring of 2020, Trix has become the owner of A Move To Remember, a queer-centric professional moving company with a social justice initiative. They've partnered with several housing programs over the summer to support the relocation of those confronting homelessness into stable temporary or permanent housing. Their passion towards food equity is linked to the experiences they've had from working within displaced communities.
Tafadzwa (Taffy) Gwitira is a farmer, chef and policy consultant. She is a Certified Public Manager in Non-Profit, Federal and State. Her work is focused on community engagement, human rights, sustainable development, and placemaking. An immigrant from Zimbabwe, and Tanzania, she speaks five languages, and after almost two decades of advocacy in Baltimore, Maryland, is thrilled to call Chicago home. She is currently a network advisor for the Farm Based Education Network. Her favorite things include food and fishing, and her eternal favorite people are her nieces, followed by her six sisters.
Communications and Engagement
Ashia Aubourg is from Cambridge, MA, and identifies as a Haitian-Caribbean. Ashia is currently serving as the Food Justice fellow for the Food Tank and is passionate about amplifying BIPOC narratives in the food system. Before that, Ashia worked for a variety of non-profits in the food system and education sector. Ashia is a graduate of Syracuse University's Food Studies & Policy Studies program, where she focused her studies on fostering resilient community food systems.
Eleanore Bryne is a 2021 Chicago Food Policy Summit Leader for the Communications + Engagement working group. Eleanore is a transracial adoptee who grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She is a former barista, houseplant enthusiast and avid cyclist. Eleanore has a Master's degree in Sustainable Urban Development with a Certificate in Metropolitan Planning from DePaul University. She is passionate about intersecting food justice, collective systems and community-driven policy.