Rebekah Williams (she/her) is a community organizer and trainer from Western New York and Co-Founding Director at Food for the Spirit. With over twenty years working in nonprofits, Rebekah has experience encouraging youth leadership, social and racial justice, environmentalism, and the arts. Rebekah is also a co-founder of both the Good Food Buffalo Coalition and the Buffalo Food Equity Network.
From 2012-2018, prior to founding Food for the Spirit, Rebekah served as Youth Education Director at Massachusetts Avenue Project, where she worked on food justice issues, incorporating her passion for the natural environment with food systems education, and uplifting youth leadership in food policy efforts in Buffalo. In 2018, she joined a cohort of 10 individuals in the HEAL Food Alliance School of Political Leadership (SoPL). HEAL is a national alliance working to create inclusive, democratic food and farm systems.
As part of HEAL’s SoPL, Rebekah developed an intersectional understanding of the relationships between race issues, policy, food, farming, and ecological justice, which birthed her understanding of the need for Food for the Spirit.
In addition to her role at Food for the Spirit, Rebekah is a board member of Black Farmers United NYS. Rebekah has a degree in Social Structure, Theory and Change from SUNY Empire State College, and she has completed training with the Buffalo Montessori Teacher Education Program, the Center for Economic Democracy in Boston MA, Center for Story-Based Strategy and HEAL Food Alliance in Oakland CA, Leading Change Network in Cambridge MA, Movement Generation in Oakland CA, North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) in Chicago IL, Race Forward in Washington DC, and Training for Change in Philadelphia PA.
You can reach Rebekah via email at Rebekah@foodforthespirit.org or by phone at (585) 201-8190.