The 2024 Annual Gathering is coming!
When: Wednesday, November 6 from 9 AM - 4 PM
Where: Desert Botanical Garden (1201 N Galvin Pkwy, Phoenix, AZ 85008)
We're thrilled to gather with longtime friends and new collaborators at the 2024 Arizona Food Systems Network Annual Gathering! This year's gathering will be hosted at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix on November 6, 2024 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. We encourage AZFSN members, partners, and others working to create a more vibrant local food system to come connect, learn, and co-create the 2025 - 2030 Arizona Statewide Food Action Plan.
The AZFSN Annual Gathering is a free event, and we're happy to provide guests with locally sourced breakfast and lunch. In an effort to reduce food and other waste, it's important to have an accurate guest count ahead of the event. Please only RSVP if you plan to attend. With that said, things happen! If something changes and you're no longer able to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly.
AGENDA:
8 – 9 AM: Registration & breakfast
8:15 – 8:45 AM: New member orientation (optional)
9 – 9:30 AM: Welcome & introductions
9:30 – 10:15 AM: Panel: Sowing trust: Engaging farmers in food systems planning initiatives
10:15 AM – 12 PM: Breakout: Developing the 2025-2030 Statewide Food Action Plan (Part One)
12 – 1:15 PM: Locally catered lunch & garden exploration
1:15 – 2:45 PM: Breakout: Developing the 2025-2030 Statewide Food Action Plan (Part Two)
2:45 – 3:45 PM: Workshop: Joy as Resistance: Nurturing resilience in ourselves and our communities
3:45 – 4 PM: Raffle & Closing
For additional information regarding the venue, hotels, restaurants and transport recommendations please click here. Find a map for the venue below.
When: Wednesday, November 6 from 9 AM - 4 PM
Where: Desert Botanical Garden (1201 N Galvin Pkwy, Phoenix, AZ 85008)
We're thrilled to gather with longtime friends and new collaborators at the 2024 Arizona Food Systems Network Annual Gathering! This year's gathering will be hosted at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix on November 6, 2024 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. We encourage AZFSN members, partners, and others working to create a more vibrant local food system to come connect, learn, and co-create the 2025 - 2030 Arizona Statewide Food Action Plan.
The AZFSN Annual Gathering is a free event, and we're happy to provide guests with locally sourced breakfast and lunch. In an effort to reduce food and other waste, it's important to have an accurate guest count ahead of the event. Please only RSVP if you plan to attend. With that said, things happen! If something changes and you're no longer able to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly.
AGENDA:
8 – 9 AM: Registration & breakfast
8:15 – 8:45 AM: New member orientation (optional)
9 – 9:30 AM: Welcome & introductions
9:30 – 10:15 AM: Panel: Sowing trust: Engaging farmers in food systems planning initiatives
10:15 AM – 12 PM: Breakout: Developing the 2025-2030 Statewide Food Action Plan (Part One)
12 – 1:15 PM: Locally catered lunch & garden exploration
1:15 – 2:45 PM: Breakout: Developing the 2025-2030 Statewide Food Action Plan (Part Two)
2:45 – 3:45 PM: Workshop: Joy as Resistance: Nurturing resilience in ourselves and our communities
3:45 – 4 PM: Raffle & Closing
For additional information regarding the venue, hotels, restaurants and transport recommendations please click here. Find a map for the venue below.
Panel: Sowing Trust
Ciara Minjarez is a forager, grower, knowledge seeker and wisdom keeper coming from the White Mountains of Arizona, residing on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. Ciara is Local First Arizona's Indigenous Foodways program Manager, helping Indigenous Farmers, Growers and Producers build capacity and grow their businesses. She has involved herself in Food Sovereignty movements surrounding the conservation of Wild foods and preservation of the traditional native practices surrounding them. Her path has guided her to uplift the tribal nations in hopes of solidifying the union and passing of ancestral knowledge to the next generation. She is a part of multiple tribal community committees and start up nonprofits to help address food insecurity not just at home but everywhere she can help.
Sara Sprague works within the realms of agriculture and the local food system in northern Arizona. Her experience is in gardening and small-scale farming, such as with Superyard Farms and at the Colton Garden. Sara co-founded Just Cultivation Coalition (JCC) which is a network of people working together to grow food, share knowledge and crops, and practice cultivating a more community-oriented food system. She has an MA in Applied Sociology, with a focus on environmental injustice, and her interests pertain to collective action, food justice, and education. She is currently the Food Systems Coordinator for Flagstaff Foodlink and is a farmer at Forestdale Farm. Sara is passionate about collaborative work which engages in a discourse of ameliorating disparities through access and equity in the local food system, focusing on empowering and uplifting one another and our community.
Mozette Humphreys and her sons live in Laveen, AZ, a suburb of South Phoenix, a USDA-designated "food desert". She and her sons used simple pick axes, shovels, and rakes to transform their desert scape into an edible landscaping demonstration project with beautiful garden areas that provide food for themselves, their family, and their friends. Soon after, they began selling their bounty at farmer's markets and just a few short years later they received a small "seeds-to-Grow" grant from Pinnacle Prevention to create a production area to grow on a much larger scale. Now they are a USDA-designated farm, Residential GRuB (Garden Raised Urban Bounty), which grows food at larger marketing levels and sells to food pantries. Her sons are now in college and their family uses the proceeds of their farm business to help with the boys' college expenses. They've come a long way in a short time, and are looking forward to continuing to grow their operation into the future (pun intended).
Kelley Villa (she/her) is Pinnacle Prevention’s Farm to Fork Programs Director. She leads Arizona’s SNAP incentive program (Double Up Food Bucks) at farmers markets, CSAs, farm stands, mobile markets, and corner stores. Her team also oversees the Arizona Farmers Market Nutrition Program (AZFMNP) for WIC and Seniors, the Local Food Movers program, and the Seeds to Grow grant program. She is continually inspired by the depth and diversity of peoples and landscapes of Arizona.
Sara Sprague works within the realms of agriculture and the local food system in northern Arizona. Her experience is in gardening and small-scale farming, such as with Superyard Farms and at the Colton Garden. Sara co-founded Just Cultivation Coalition (JCC) which is a network of people working together to grow food, share knowledge and crops, and practice cultivating a more community-oriented food system. She has an MA in Applied Sociology, with a focus on environmental injustice, and her interests pertain to collective action, food justice, and education. She is currently the Food Systems Coordinator for Flagstaff Foodlink and is a farmer at Forestdale Farm. Sara is passionate about collaborative work which engages in a discourse of ameliorating disparities through access and equity in the local food system, focusing on empowering and uplifting one another and our community.
Mozette Humphreys and her sons live in Laveen, AZ, a suburb of South Phoenix, a USDA-designated "food desert". She and her sons used simple pick axes, shovels, and rakes to transform their desert scape into an edible landscaping demonstration project with beautiful garden areas that provide food for themselves, their family, and their friends. Soon after, they began selling their bounty at farmer's markets and just a few short years later they received a small "seeds-to-Grow" grant from Pinnacle Prevention to create a production area to grow on a much larger scale. Now they are a USDA-designated farm, Residential GRuB (Garden Raised Urban Bounty), which grows food at larger marketing levels and sells to food pantries. Her sons are now in college and their family uses the proceeds of their farm business to help with the boys' college expenses. They've come a long way in a short time, and are looking forward to continuing to grow their operation into the future (pun intended).
Kelley Villa (she/her) is Pinnacle Prevention’s Farm to Fork Programs Director. She leads Arizona’s SNAP incentive program (Double Up Food Bucks) at farmers markets, CSAs, farm stands, mobile markets, and corner stores. Her team also oversees the Arizona Farmers Market Nutrition Program (AZFMNP) for WIC and Seniors, the Local Food Movers program, and the Seeds to Grow grant program. She is continually inspired by the depth and diversity of peoples and landscapes of Arizona.
Map for the venue
If you need to change your RSVP please contact Shelby Thompson (AZFSN Coalition Manager).