Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance on LinkedIn: I’m so grateful to have such a fabulous team supporting and inspiring me… (2024)

Terrlicia Shipe is a community member and employee of the Onondaga County Health Department, where she works as a Public Health Educator with the Creating Healthy Schools and Communities program. There, she works to promote and advocate for healthy food choices at work and community sites. "I want to be part of helping people in Syracuse and Onondaga County reshape the food system so all community members are able to benefit from, and have access to healthful foods. This is important to me because it can help families and individuals live a happy and productive life in society."Terrlicia was born and raised in Syracuse. She enjoys the diversity the city is home to: meeting and knowing people from many different backgrounds and cultures, who have even become great friends. For more information on the work Terrlicia does with the health department, you can visit, healthyliving.ongov.net.

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This week we held our annual Memorial Tree Planting, in collaboration with Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project, Onondaga Earth Corps, and the Kwanza Garden! We planted three serviceberries and 100 native shrubs and edible plants. Over time, the lot at 920 Midland Ave will become a rich food forest with various levels of understory, vast shade, and a treasure trove of edible goodies. While holding the memory of those who came before and laid the groundwork for us to be here, we work together to build a future that is abundant, resilient, and diverse. Thank you to all who turned out!

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Shout out to Laura Jayne, our Health Justice & Evaluation Intern, who just finished her Food Studies Practicum and her time with us at SOFSA. Over the past few months, Laura has brought her infectious energy to the team to propel our Food as Medicine program and help us get our data and informatics up to speed. Laura's contributions have ensured that we have a more streamlined process for tracking member participation, which will expedite our ability to carry out outreach for upcoming big events like the Food Justice Gathering.Having Laura on the team has been a joy- the questions she's asked of our work have allowed us to understand our impact better, and her way of relating to folks on the team has made every meeting feel like a hang-out. Thank you, Laura, for the ways in which you have left your mark on this work! We wish you the best as you continue on your path to be a great food systems changemaker!

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CONGRATULATIONS AVALON! 🥳💥🎉Avalon, SOFSA's Equity, Inclusion & Engagement Coordinator, was recently selected to join the Food Systems Leadership Network's (FSLN) Community Food Systems Mentorship Program, 2024 Cohort! As part of the program, Avalon will work with Bevelyn Afor Ukah, Director of the Committee on Racial Equity at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, an Artist, and Justice Educator. As a mentee, Avalon will be supported in developing her skills as a food systems organizer, deepening her knowledge of food policy councils, land and justice, creativity in the face of climate change, and more. This opportunity is so well deserved! Avalon has been instrumental in the development of SOFSA, ensuring that we are consistently working towards our goal of engaging, activating and empowering the diverse communities across our region. Within her role, Avalon has coordinated communications and outreach efforts, led our youth engagement program, interfaced directly with community, partners and other stakeholders, participated in advocacy efforts, co-coordinated our flagship Food Justice Gathering, and more.Avalon, we are so grateful to all you do for our team, and so excited to see you continue to develop your skills as a forger of the future we want to see.

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Congratulations to all of the winners for this year's Food Justice Fund! We received so many great applications, and are so proud of how the community activated around this community grantmaking project. Over 700 people submitted their votes, and now we get to push forward those projects y'all were most excited about. 2024 recipients for track 1:🫛 Eat Well Age Well – InterFaith Works of CNY, The Greater Syracuse Aging Service Coalition ($2,297.50)🍎 Urban Harvest: Cultivating Equity through Food Justice – The Joe Family Foundation ($2,297.50)🍈 Culturally Significant Produce Donations (Farmer Reimbursem*nt Fund) – Refugee and Self-Empowerment (RISE) ($4,000)🥦 FAHNN's 2024 3rd Annual Summer Farmers Market – Food Access Healthy Neighborhoods Now! ($5,000)🥬 Advancing our Asha Laaya Farm – Deaf New Americans Advocacy, Inc ($5,000)🌽Feeding Families: A Partnership Between Delaney Farms and PEACE, Inc ($2,455)2024 recipient for track 2:🍅 Haven Community Garden ($950)Stay tuned, in the coming weeks, to learn more about these projects and the people behind them. We are so excited to see these projects soar, and to inspire a whole new round of dreamers and doers to apply for next year's fund!

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One week until we get to celebrate the winners of the 2024 Food Justice Fund! Join us Thursday, April 18 from 5:30-7:30pm for Gather & Grant. The celebration is the last chance to vote on which projects get funding. Voting assistance will be provided in Spanish, Nepali, Arabic and ASL. Polls will close at 6:30.There will be small bites, mocktails, and lively company-- join for as little or as long as you want! Funded projects will be announced at 7:15.Attendees are invited to mask. Air filtration will be in use. The ceremony will be live-streamed.

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Do you care about food? Identify as BIPOC? If you answered yes to both of these questions, join us this Friday, April 12, for our BIPOC Coffee Hour ☕We are meeting at Hope Cafe in downtown Syracuse from 10am-12pm. Coffee hour is an informal networking time for folks in Onondaga County to gather and chat about what drives our work, community-building efforts, and more!Want to participate in Coffee Hour but don't identify as BIPOC? We'll have our general Coffee Hour on Friday, April 26.

Join us on Thursday, April 25, 10:30am-12pm for our April Open Meeting! This month our featured guest is C. Madlock of Nourish Syracuse and Golden carat Farms, who will be speaking on “Cultivating Community Wellness: Nourish Syracuse’s Vision for a healthier Future.”Our quarterly Open Meetings are open to anyone who wants to stay up to date and connected with SOFSA— we will have a brief presentation, informal networking, organizational updates, and more! If you eat, grow, or just love food in Syracuse, Onondaga County, or Onondaga Nation, you are welcome to be a part of SOFSA!If you are unfamiliar with SOFSA’s mission or work, join us for the special welcome for first-time attendees, from 10-10:30am. at the same link. No registration required, just join via the zoom link in our bio!

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We are SO excited to announce that voting is NOW OPEN for the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Justice Fund. For several months, the Food Justice Fund Leadership Council at SOFSA developed and reviewed applications for the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Justice Fund. Applications closed on March 15th, and the Council began selecting applicants for the community voting stage. Now, it is up to YOU and your neighbors to decide which projects will be funded from the total pot of $22,000. Check out the applicants and cast your vote at the link below. All residents ages 14+ residing in Syracuse, Onondaga County, and Onondaga Nation each get one vote. Voting will be open from 9:00am on April 4th through 6:30pm on April 18th.Voting will be available in the following locations:🌱In-person at any Onondaga County Public Library location during their open hours. Visit https://lnkd.in/gChaGtx to find a location near you. Please visit the circulation desk to receive instructions to access the ballot.🌱Remotely from your phone or personal computer using SMS verification.🌱In-person at the Gather & Grant Celebration (Salt City Market Community Room) – Thursday, April 18th from 5:30-6:30pm.Your last chance to vote will be at the Gather & Grant Celebration on 4/18 from 5:30-6:30; voting assistance (English, Nepali, Spanish, Arabic, ASL) will be available at this event. Stop by, cast your vote, have some snacks, and say hello. Funded projects will be announced at 7:15pm. Please share this widely with your community!https://lnkd.in/g6gykWPp

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