Category: Events

Announcing Our Guest Speaker for August 15th…

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Events
Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin, Food System Equity Organizer at Community Farm Alliance!

Food for the Spirit, Black Farmers United NYS, and Equity Advocates are hosting monthly “Y’All Come Meetings” to invite everyone to get involved with our 2023 Farm Bill Campaign.

Each month, we will have a special guest speaker for our Y’All Come Meeting for Farm Bill Advocacy. On August 15, from 5-6:15 PM our guest speaker will be…

Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin, Food System Equity Organizer at Community Farm Alliance!

Click here to register for our fourth meeting on August 15, 2023 at 5 PM!

Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin was raised in rural Madison Co, Kentucky. She grew up tobacco farming with her grandparents and lived a homestead life. She began community organizing in 2013 around education and food access. She is a doula and her focus has always been children and families. She received her Associates in Science in 2015 and began working with Community Farm Alliance in 2017. She came on to CFA as a Farm to Table Coordinator in the Northeast region of the state. This work grew into her current role as Food System Equity Organizer. She is a steward of her generational land and a conservationist. She shares these roles with her 17 year old daughter Makayla and her partners Wali and Ashley El-Amin.

Click here to learn more about our Y’All Come Meetings.

Announcing Our Guest Speaker for July 18th…

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Events
Jose Oliva, Campaigns Director at HEAL Food Alliance!

Food for the Spirit, Black Farmers United NYS, and Equity Advocates are hosting monthly “Y’All Come Meetings” to invite everyone to get involved with our 2023 Farm Bill Campaign.

Each month, we will have a special guest speaker for our Y’All Come Meeting for Farm Bill Advocacy. On July 18, from 5-6:15 PM our guest speaker will be…

Jose Oliva, Campaigns Director at HEAL Food Alliance!

Click here to register for our third meeting on July 18, 2023 at 5 PM!

With a long history in labor organizing, Jose (he/him) has served in several leadership positions at Casa Guatemala, Chicago Interfaith Workers’ Center, Interfaith Worker Justice’s National Workers’ Centers Network, Center for Community Change, and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – the national organization of restaurant workers. Jose was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance a national coalition of food-worker organizations that collectively represents over 350,000 workers. Jose is also a 2017 James Beard Award recipient and a 2018 American Food Hero Awardee.

Click here to learn more about our Y’All Come Meetings.

Announcing Our Guest Speaker for June 20th…

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Events
Kelsey Watson, Grassroots Co-Director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

Food for the Spirit, Black Farmers United NYS, and Equity Advocates are hosting monthly “Y’All Come Meetings” to invite everyone to get involved with our 2023 Farm Bill Campaign.

Each month, we will have a special guest speaker for our Y’All Come Meeting for Farm Bill Advocacy. On June 20, from 5-6:15 PM our guest speaker will be…

Kelsey Watson, Grassroots Co-Director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)!

Click here to register for our second meeting on June 20, 2023 at 5 PM!

Kelsey (she/her) has spent more than a decade doing work rooted in food and agriculture. She has worked with National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) in the realm of federal food and agricultural policy, national grassroots organizing, and coalition building since 2018. Much of her work is centered around racial equity and justice in multi-racial coalitions and supporting incoming coalition members.

Click here to learn more about our Y’All Come Meetings.

Farm to School Workshop Update

by Food for the Spirit, posted in Events, Farm to School, Food Justice

On March 25, the Buffalo Food Equity Network (BFEN) Farm to School team hosted a wonderful workshop with 27 adults interested in serving as adult mentors for youth in Buffalo schools. The workshop took place at public school number 309, East Community High School, located at 820 Northampton Street.

The BFEN Farm to School team hosted the workshop in partnership with Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) Child Nutrition Services as part of their Celebrating Cultural Diversity through Buffalo Farm to School, Erie County SNAP-Ed, and Say Yes Buffalo. By partnering with Say Yes Buffalo we were able to host our workshop as part of the school’s Saturday Academy, wherein the high-level of community engagement and phenomenal foot traffic ensured that we got to interact with many people.

As a part of our workshop, we offered a hands-on cooking demonstration, conducted by SNAP-Ed educator, Unique Brown. By using the school kitchen for the cooking demonstration, we got to know the food service staff who run that school kitchen.

During the workshop, we shared personal narratives and experiences with food and agriculture, and we led several interactive, popular education based activities, including: a “What is Food?” word web, a “Farm to Cafeteria” food system brainstorm, and a conversation on how to support positive youth development. We also handed out free crock pots to each workshop participant.

For many of our BFEN team members, hosting the workshop at a public school in Buffalo was a return to childhood. A couple of us were so excited when we even recognized one of the food service staff from our own school days; seeing her for the first time in many years brought up great memories!

At the end of the day, our team left the workshop with a feeling of excitement for many future possibilities.

The BFEN Farm to School Team Members who designed and facilitated the workshop were:

  • Allison DeHonney
  • Bryana Hassan James
  • Dennice Barr
  • Donna Latham-Edwards
  • Gwen Baxley
  • Hope Isom
  • Neena Hussey
  • Nnenna Ferguson
  • Pamela James
  • Rebekah Williams
  • Sheila A. Bass
  • Sherman Webb-Middlebrooks

Click here to learn about the Buffalo Public Schools Celebrating Cultural Diversity initiative.

Click here to learn about Erie County SNAP-Ed New York programming.

Click here to learn about Say Yes Buffalo’s Community Schools Programming.