Each fellowship cohort engages in a co-design process - their collective project - that seeks to document leaders’ collective wisdom and co-designs together what an equitable future in the food system might look like. Through a series of virtual and in-person design lab sessions, fellows explore two key guiding questions.
Each fellowship cohort engages in a co-design process - their collective project - that seeks to document leaders’ collective wisdom and co-designs together what an equitable future in the food system might look like. Through a series of virtual and in-person design lab sessions, fellows explore two key guiding questions:
We are excited to share the stories, wisdom, and offers designed by 2025 fellows, recently featured in their June 10, 2026 End of Fellowship virtual showcase and celebration. This year’s cohort developed a two-part project:
Cards to Freedom Deck
Building on an oral storytelling circle during the second Fall 2025 fellowship retreat, fellows worked to design a card deck to offer other leaders and advocates a tangible guide towards revolution – gamifying freedom in a sense. Fellows collaborated on design, color, branding and ethos, with the hope that the cards serve as a guide to communities around the world on how we achieve resistance as both an individual and as a collective.
Fellows also developed a virtual map to accompany the Card to Freedom deck featuring multimedia spotlights of fellows, including video, images, and narratives, that explored the question: What does food justice look like to you?
Vital Village Networks is thrilled to announce eleven dynamic local leaders that have been selected to participate in the 2025 Community Food Systems Fellowship program. 2025 fellows include:
Jammella Anderson (they/them)
Free Food Fridge Albany
Albany, NY
Tyeena Carter (she/her)
Cultivating Culture
Slidell, LA
Dr. Truphena Choti (she/her)
AfriThrive
Silver Spring, MD
Ellie Cordero (she/her)
Everett Community Growers
Everett, MA
Heather Evoy (she/her)
Juneau, Alaska
British Griffis (she/her)
Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Chicago, IL
Chantel Kemp (she/her)
GrowNYC
New York, NY
Lauren McCalister (they/them)
People’s’ Cooperative Market
Bloomington, IN
Nekia McDonald (he/him)
The Lighthouse | Black Girls Project
Jackson, MS
Emmanuel Avila Morales (he/him)
Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona
Tucson, AZ
Jordan Smith (she/her)
Hawai’i Good Food Alliance
Honolulu, HI
For questions, please contact jlaura@vitalvillage.org.
This program is supported by a grant through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Click on the links to access each year's Community Food System Fellows or go back to the main project page.
