In September, the Buffalo Food Equity Network (BFEN) Policy Innovation Lab team hosted a few dozen people from three communities throughout the United States for a weekend of co-learning and storytelling about issues and solutions for Black-led food systems change in Buffalo, NY.
The BFEN Policy Innovation Lab team was created in late 2021 and helps tell the story of how the relationship between the BFEN and Food for the Spirit (F4tS) began. Funded and led by the national organization, Race Forward, the national Policy Innovation Lab includes groups from Buffalo, Albuquerque, Philadelphia, and Atlanta who are working to reimagine what policy work looks like when we center people and relationships.
BFEN members Adamaah Grayse, Della Miller, Dennice Barr, Donna Latham-Edwards, Gail Wells, and Nnenna Ferguson co-hosted a two and a half-day experience here in Buffalo with our national partners and other cohort members. Several other network members and coalition partners joined us in showcasing how deep relationships built the Queen City and is the heart of building our movement around food as a collective.
Thank you to the following local partners that supported this convening: Lincoln Memorial UMC, Open Buffalo, Partnership for Public Good, UB Food Lab, Urban Fruits + Veggies, and Visit Buffalo Niagara.
The Policy Innovation Lab concludes in June 2024 after a final group convening in Philadelphia. In 2024, members of the BFEN Policy Innovation Lab hope to restore relationships and reshape what food equity looks like for Black and brown communities.
Click here to learn more about Race Forward’s Policy Innovation Lab.