Food Policy Council News

Special Announcement, March 2022

Full Council Meeting

We invite you to join us for a special IN PERSON, masked-up Full Council Meeting this month from 2:30-4:30 at the Civic Garden Center. We are also offering our usual on-line option.

Our current Director, Michaela Oldfield, is leaving Green Umbrella on March 10th.

Michaela has been the Director for over five years and the Council has made incredible strides in this time. We will be doing a collaborative timeline activity of important events, projects, and accomplishments. This retrospective has two objectives: 1) to capture our collective knowledge and story of the past so that everyone, and especially the new leadership team, has a record of what has happened; and 2) to capture lessons learned that we will use in our strategic planning process to guide prioritizing our work for the next several years.

For our online partners, we will have an on-line facilitated activity for adding your knowledge to the timeline. After the meeting, the knowledge captured on line and in person will be shared back out in a digital format.

In-person attendees are invited to mingle afterwards and enjoy some light refreshments.

What happens next?

Maddie Chera, who some of you have had the pleasure of working with, is stepping into directing GU’s food systems work. Her food systems knowledge, storytelling and data analysis skills (did you see the 2021 impact report? All her doing!), and ability to gracefully engage diverse partners will be an incredible asset to the food systems work.

GU is also moving forward with hiring a strategic planner to support Maddie and the Council’s members in defining goals and action steps for the next few years that will help the Council evolve into its next phase of impact. Once it is clear what additional capacity and skills are needed to advance the work of the Council, GU will start the process of hiring additional appropriate staff to support future work.

Michaela, meanwhile, is moving on to a new position as the grant writer and events manager with Gorman Heritage Farm. This fulfills a life dream of hers: being able to hang out with a donkey every day.

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