CFPAC Welcomes 17th Annual Food Justice Summit Leaders!
CFPAC is excited to welcome the 17th Annual Food Justice Summit Leaders. This team comes from a wide range of backgrounds and lived experiences. Over the next few months, this team will be working to plan and develop an inclusive, intentional, and unique virtual summit. The Summit Leaders will support in all of the opportunities and obstacles that come with hosting online events. Each Summit Leader will support a key working group. The 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!
The 17th Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit is organized in partnership with Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE) and the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH).
Summit Support Stewards
Enrique Orosco (he, him) is a Bolivian immigrant, activator, and organizer. He earned his degree in Database Administration and joined AmeriCorps to the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County in ESOL programming. After moving to Chicago, he supported collective impact initiatives and volunteer-led rapid response projects with Chicago Cares aimed at challenging narratives centered on white volunteerism . He returned to Bolivia in 2021 to support indigenous-led WASH projects in rural Amazonian communities, and now returns to CFPAC as a co-organizer of the 2022 17th Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit. He urges you to call your elected officials and the aging folx in your life.
Keith Winn, M.S. is currently a Public Health Educator in the Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Unit with CCDPH (Cook County Department of Public Health). Keith’s assist the Director of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control with implementation of program activities associated with CCDPH ISPAN (Illinois State Physical Activity and Nutrition Program) grant. ISPAN focuses on promoting the adoption and of food service guidelines and improved physical activity by connecting everyday destinations with active-friendly routes through built environment.
Keith is responsible for preparation and submission of ISPAN quarterly reports. He also routinely meets with key representatives various Cook County governmental departments, the Chicago Food Action Council, Illinois Public Health Institute, South Mayors and Managers Association and South Metropolitan Higher Education Consortium to collaborate on implementation strategies related to the Good Food Purchasing Policy, Food Service Guidelines and the active friendly routes/ built environment within Cook County government and municipalities throughout suburban Cook County.
Stef Funk is a multi-racial Chicagoan who has worked with various institutions and non profits to support Chicago's local food system. While earning her degree in Environmental Science from Clark University, she completed her thesis on the effect functional diversity has on carbon sequestration to inform climate mitigation policy in Costa Rica. After returning to Chicago, she went on to work with several organizations to improve their STEM curriculum, manage Plant Chicago’s and McKinley Park’s farmers markets, became one of the leaders of the Chicago Farmers Market Collective, and now sits on the board of the Illinois Farmers Market Association. She is passionate about educating all Chicagoans about the importance of local food and advocating for justice and equity for our growers, producers, and consumers. She is an avid plant lover (ask her about her varigated monstera) and designed, constructed, and cares for her own small scale aquaponic system.
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. 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, serving 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.
Programming and Logistics
Jade M. Algarín (they/she) is an queer afro-indigenous climate and food justice organizer from Vieques, Puerto Rico. They have served as a Soil Conservationist with the USDA- Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), co-founder and training coordinator of Somos Sunrise, the Latine-wing of the Sunrise Movement, and a former board member of the Common Group Food Cooperative. They earned their M.S. in Soil Ecology from the University of Puerto Rico and their B.S. in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University. In pursuit of their degrees, Jade had the privilege to work with indigenous farming communities in Mexico, Kenya, and Myanmar. While formally a soil scientist and agronomist, Jade derives purpose from demanding justice for their native island, a colonized territory of the U.S. that endured 70 years of occupation and bombing by the U.S. Navy. Jade’s identity, cultural background, experiences abroad, and national organizing experiences have guided and cemented her commitment to collective liberation. Their work aims to uplift and center the experiences of frontline, marginalized, and agricultural communities in our collective understanding of the climate crisis and the fight for a Green New Deal.
Sydney Coyle is from a small town in rural New Hampshire that sparked her passion for local agriculture and food systems. The food movements of Chicago taught her the power of food systems as spaces for radical listening, community building, and collective healing. A recent graduate of DePaul University’s Graduate program in Sustainable Urban Development, Sydney focused her studies on Food Justice and Sovereignty. Sydney has four years of experience in developing community building service events and educational curriculum addressing systemic inequities for Chicago youth and families. As a research assistant, Sydney collected data and contributed to the creation of a map of Chicago’s 300-mile radius foodshed; a resource intended to support the implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Policy. She’s also excited to have farmed for her first season as an intern at Gary Comer Youth Center’s Youth Education Garden. Sydney hopes to continue to learn and grow in food justice spaces. She’s excited to collaborate to create a space of communal knowledge sharing, celebration, and healing at the 2022 Food Justice Summit.
Communications and Engagement
Makala Bach is an aspiring journalist with a passion for improving our food system with words. After her first time milking a cow on her grandparents' dairy farm, she became fascinated with food and has fearlessly explored it since. She graduated with a degree in Food Science from UW-Madison, has eaten cheese for quality control, and researched candy at one of the largest candy companies in the world. She has also chopped down a banana tree with a machete. Makala has written as a freelancer, an elected board member, and on behalf of one of the most well-respected food banks in the country. She is currently a Nutrition Access Program Coordinator at the Greater Chicago Food Depository and a contributor to Slow Food USA’s blog. In her free time, Makala likes to ferment, grow stuff on her balcony, backpack, and explore the people and the world around her.
Rachel Lechuga is an Illinois native. She received her B.S. from Northern Illinois University in Environmental Studies with a focus in Sustainable and Local Food Systems. Having close ties to food all her life, she comes from a family of farmworkers and green thumbs. She has worked as an organic vegetable farmer and has worked as a program coordinator and in the non-profit sector with food banks. Her passion lies not only in food production and growing, but in relationship building that is centered around food, human-centered design, and in supporting the larger food justice movement, specifically supporting farmers of color and young farmers. Her vision is a bridge connecting rural, suburban, and urban BIPOC farmers in Illinois. In her spare time, she experiments in her garden, spends time alone, dances, reads, and participates in different learning courses.
Flavor and (Re)Imagination
Alex Knapik is a Chicago-based emerging arts administrator with over 6 years of experience working in the arts sector. She currently holds an AA with Honors from College of DuPage in Business, a BA Magna Cum Laude from Columbia College Chicago in Visual Arts Management, and is finishing up an MS from Northwestern University in Leadership for Creative Enterprises. Alex is passionate about sustainability in human, civil, and equitable rights; corporate ethics & social responsibility; environmental justice; and the arts. Her focus is in non-profit leadership and she looks to expand her network of like-minded individuals and one day lead an arts organization that would serve the Chicagoland community. She is currently working and learning from her Rogers Park home with her obscene number of plants and maybe a foster cat.
Grace Novacek (they/she) is a writer and illustrator interested in playful comfort + fantasy. Grace currently serves as the Art Director for Off Menu Press, and their work has been published in Human Condition Magazine, Variant Lit, and Moonchild Mag. More at gnovs.com.
Strategies for Accessibility
Nora Bryne is a Korean adoptee who grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She lives in Chicago with her partner, two tuxedo cats and an assortment of houseplants. Nora has a master's degree in sustainable urban development with a certificate in metropolitan planning from DePaul University. Her previous work includes restaurants, coffee shops and a preschool. Currently she works in quality and reporting at a nonprofit health center. Nora is passionate about intersecting food justice, collective systems and community-led policy making. She seeks out spaces that embrace the fullness and fluidity of interweaving identities.
Sajani Neeraja is an interdisciplinary water resources scientist, engineer, community advocate, and musician born and raised in Chicagoland. She currently works as Project Manager of Water & Climate Resilience at the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago. Sajani’s passion for food security was first cultivated from her research on water security, as she studied how intertwined these two systems are from local to global scales. Since then, she has absolutely loved being involved in local Chicago food justice efforts and has met many amazing people along the way. When Sajani is not volunteering or working for climate justice, her neurodivergent mind keeps her busy with reading, playing her violin, cooking, baking, and geeking out over Indian cinema.