Community Food Systems Fellowship

2025 Fellowship Applications Are Now Open

 

About the Fellowship

The Community Food Systems Fellowship is an 18-month leadership program that aims to increase opportunities for diverse local food system leaders to build their skills, capacity, and networks through a series of community design labs on participatory engagement and human centered design approaches, monthly learning sessions with other food systems leaders, and individualized technical assistance. 

Through these opportunities, the fellowship hopes to strengthen community engagement and leadership of caregivers/families, uplift strengths-based narratives, and foster collaborative leadership that scales community identified solutions and cross sector partnerships.  

Emerging leaders who are committed to food justice and equity should consider applying to the Community Food Systems Fellowship. Selected fellows will receive a stipend and can also apply for project innovation grants that can total up to $5,000.

The Fellowship is a good fit for those who are committed to:

Who Can Apply?

Selected fellows must be based in the United States or one of the US territories and have an established partnership with a nonprofit organization, coalition, network, group, cooperative, business, or institution that has a strategic focus on local food systems.

How to Apply

Applicants can submit their applications through this portal. All applications and recommendations are due by November 8th, 2024 at 11:59 PM ET.  As a part of your application, you must provide at least one letter of recommendation. Up to three letters of recommendation may be submitted.

If written applications are not accessible for you, you can submit pre-recorded video or audio responses through the online application portal, or you can schedule an oral intake application session (available through November 3, 2024). Please contact VillageFood@bmc.org if you have any questions regarding submission.

For questions about the application or fellowship, please contact VillageFood@bmc.org. 

You can read more about the 2025 Fellowship Application process by checking out the Request for Applications and FAQ. In addition, we encourage you to help spread the word about the application by using language from our outreach toolkit for the fellowship application.

Apply Here    Request for Applications   View FAQ

 

Nominate a Fellow

While nominations are not required, if you know of anyone that sounds like a good fit for the fellowship, you can nominate them here.

 

Key Dates and Deadlines

Up to 10 community leaders will be selected by December 2024 and invited to participate in the 2025 Fellowship program.

 

Community Food Systems Fellowship Food Sovereignty Zine

How can we build a community-powered food system that centers healing, resiliency, and parent and caregiver leadership? Throughout the year, ten local food systems leaders from across the country connected through the 2023 Fellowship explored this question and engaged in a co-design process to develop a zine sharing ancestral stories of food resiliency and liberation in BIPOC communities . We’re excited to share this new resource, Stories of Food Resiliency and Liberation, that offers wisdom, resources, and reflections on their experiences advocating for food sovereignty.

Click the link below to read the full zine:

Read the Zine   Learn about 2023 Fellows

 

2024 Community Food Systems Fellows

Vital Village Networks is thrilled to announce the ten emerging local leaders that have been selected to participate in the 2024 Community Food Systems Fellowship program! This year’s fellows include: 


Isha Aran (she/her)
Three Sisters Kitchen
Albuquerque, NM

tara rodriguez besosa (they/them)
El Departamento de La Comida de Puerto Rico
Cauguas, PR

Carmen Alcantara Gonzalez (she/her)
Fresh Food Connect
Denver, CO

K. Melchor Hall (she/her)
Global Village Farms
Auburn, MA

Roberto Nutlouis (he/him)
Nihikeya
Pinon, AZ 

Nia Nyamweya (she/her)
Beauty Blooms Farms
Silver Spring, MD

Cecilia Polanco (they/them)
Pupusas for Education
Durham, NC

Amara Ullauri (they/them)
Ayni Herb Farm
Millerton, NY

Bilal Walker (he/him)
Al-Munir's Farms
Newark, NJ

rivianna zeller (he/they)
dream of wild health
Hugo, MN

 

Previous Fellowship Cohorts  

Congratulations to our 2022 and 2023 fellows for completing an incredible year of learning and growth! Learn more about previous cohorts here:

2022 Fellows   2023 Fellows

 

Advisory Partners 

Thank you to our advisory partners for their continued guidance and support of this program:

 

For questions, please contact Jei.Laura@bmc.org. This program is supported by a grant through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.