Faces of Food Systems: Tia Schwab

Tia Schwab is Policy Advisor for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy (MOFP). She received her Masters of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy in 2022. Tia conducts food policy research and analysis, and her portfolio includes the NYC Good Food Purchasing program, climate and environment, and food education.

What’s your favorite food?

Fried avocado tacos and chips and queso—or really any Tex-Mex. (I grew up in Austin!)

What do you enjoy about your work?

I love how interdisciplinary it is – food systems work touches health, education, sustainability, climate, equity, and city/regional planning. I get to work with and learn from people across different government agencies and community organizations. I also get to work on food in a variety of settings, like schools, hospitals, shelters, food pantries, older adult centers, detention centers, community centers, and more.

What do you find challenging about your work?

Changing the status quo can be challenging. Improving the food system requires shifting how we grow, package, store, buy, distribute, and discard food, and inertia is powerful–it’s easier to continue doing what we’re doing than to try something new. However, there are talented and passionate people and organizations driving systems-level change forward.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

Each year, NYC spends over $300M on food and meals served at the city’s schools, older adult centers, shelters, hospitals, pantries, detention facilities, and more. I implement NYC’s Good Food Purchasing framework, which aims to align the city’s food purchases with the values of nutrition, environmental sustainability, local economies, animal welfare, and a valued workforce. I coordinate across city agencies to ensure that meal programs offer choices that are healthy, delicious, culturally relevant, and good for the planet, and this all starts with the food we buy.

Good Food Purchasing intersects with my other portfolio areas of climate and environment, food education, and business and labor. With our food purchasing data, our goal is to decrease the CO2-equivalent emissions of our food purchases by 33% by 2030 and (year over year) increase the dollar spend going to New York State businesses and to minority- and women-owned businesses. I also work on expanding culinary training and nutrition education in a variety of settings across the city. Increasing the preparation and consumption of healthy, delicious meals requires an investment in the city’s culinary workforce and in food education.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? 

Yes—at MOFP, I work with a variety of stakeholders to plan and create a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable food system in NYC.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

Like in many other cities, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a dramatic increase in food insecurity in New York City. However, the city mobilized quickly to support vulnerable New Yorkers. It expanded the school meal program to serve three free meals per weekday to all children and adults in need, provided pantries with staffing support and $50 million in funding, implemented an emergency home-delivered meals program for seniors and other at-risk groups, connected large food businesses with PPE manufacturers and donated PPE to smaller grocery stores in highly-impacted areas, provided free childcare for grocery workers and other essential employees, and much more. The city’s response to COVID-19 addressed immediate food needs while creating a plan for improving food system resilience in the longer term.

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

When I first entered the planning field, my thinking on food systems planning was informed by the importance of addressing immediate needs with advancing upstream strategies for the future, such as investing in food pantries while building regional food hubs. My work in local government has taught me the importance of implementing realistic or pragmatic solutions (under legal or economic realities, for example) while pushing for idealistic, ‘game-changing’ solutions. Neither should be ignored in creating a better food system.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

My professor and mentor in college, Dara Olmsted Silverstein, has had the most influence on my path as a food systems planner. My senior year, I took a year-long class with Dara called “Designing Your Pathway to Impact in the Food System,” where we got to explore different career paths, conduct informational interviews with people we admired, and go on field trips to see food systems work in action. There’s not always space in degree programs for self-guided study or exploration, but Dara championed it and encouraged me to test drive different career paths after graduation. Since then, she has continued to support me with advice about navigating job changes, new degrees, and moves to new cities. (And as a bonus, Dara was my manager for my on-campus job in the dining hall food gardens and microgreens greenhouse, so she also inspired an appreciation for the power of growing your own food!)

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning-related work?

The skills I use the most (and that make me the most successful) are communication, relationship building, and project management. My work requires coordinating across people and teams, in and out of government, to advance projects and track progress. I have always learned the most relevant ‘topical’ knowledge on the job, so supplement your food systems expertise with transferrable skills like writing, public speaking, and problem solving.

What did you study and what do you wish you would have known before starting your work in food systems?

I studied human biology with a focus on food systems and public health as an undergraduate, and I completed my master’s degree in food and agriculture law and policy. Looking back, I would tell myself that you don’t need to have your whole career path figured out; just follow the opportunities that excite you along the way. You will be most effective in driving food systems transformation by working on topics that interest you with people that inspire you.

Faces of Food Systems: Hunter Heaivilin

Job: Hunter Heaivilin is a Food Systems Planner with fifteen years of experience working with community, non-profit, and government clients. Hunter specializes in data driven policy and planning and consults through his firm Supersistence. His education and work has grown from ecosystem management (AS) to sustainable community development (BA) and urban planning (MURP). As a Phd Candidate in the Department of Geography & Environment at UH Manoa he researches disruptions and resilience in Hawaii’s food system over the 20th century.

1. What’s your favorite food?

Most anything with coconut milk. Fat from a tree is pretty hard to beat.

2. What do you enjoy about your work?

In my work I engage with multiple networks, I relish the opportunity to understand food system issues from various lenses frames like that of producers, aggregators, advocates, and politicians.

3. Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

Relatedly, straddling between these different perspectives and translating across stakeholder groups is a unique but engaging challenge.

4. What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

One thread of my work focuses on data analysis and visualization for stakeholder decision support, another thread focused on local policy. These both fit into my overall interest in progressing towards a more deliberative democracy. Increasingly I approach community planning and agrofood systems work as opportunities for stakeholder driven process determination, embracing radically democratic approaches to normalize public-government interaction beyond just token input or reductive voting. As hope in this is that as civil society pursues more democratic processes that the same will be demanded of our legal governance systems.

5. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not?

Yes! I work across the value chain, from agricultural land planning to market analysis to community food access.

6. What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

Addressing household food insecurity resulting from COVID-19 has been a major focus across the state. I’ve been fortunate to work with the food banks and Food Access Coordinators in each county to support their analysis and planning efforts.

7. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

I think my perspective has shifted from working in the food system to working on the food system.

8. Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

Over the years I’ve lucked into working with John Whalen, FAICP here in Hawaii. His deliberative and considered approach to wrangling wicked problems has inspired me to seek understanding before resolution.

9. Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field?

Facilitation and network weaving skills are ones that I did not pick up in graduate school, but I have found invaluable in navigating the complexities of community facing food systems work. Contrastingly, having a facility with quantitative data has often been an entry point into various projects that is more readily understood by funders or associated with concrete deliverables. Filling your toolbox with soft skills and technical capacities, I find, helps to keep from getting too lost in the clouds or the details.

10. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

I wish I had known that food systems planning was a distinct area of study and practice. While my planning program was a great experience and I learned a lot, none of the professors were focused on the food systems planning field at the time. This made it crucial to seek out mentors and networks within the planning community that touch on food systems.

11. How do you think COVID 19 will shape/change your job/food systems?

The pandemic highlighted existing vulnerabilities and inequities within the food system, such as supply chain disruptions and unequal access to healthy food. As a result, there has been increased attention and resources devoted to strengthening resilience and addressing equity. Additionally, the pandemic led to changes in the ways that food is distributed and consumed, such as an increased reliance on online ordering and home delivery. While the pandemic presented significant challenges to the food system, it also created opportunities to address long-standing issues and pursue positive change. As the pandemic and associated funded ebb however, we will have to work to ensure that we did not just have change within the food system, but can achieve food systems change.

Join Us for the APA NPC23 Multi-Division Reception in Philadelphia!

Please join APA FOOD for a multi-divisional cocktail hour and celebration at NPC23!

Event Hosts:

• APA Food Systems Division
• APA Sustainable Communities Division
• APA New Urbanism Division
• APA Housing & Community Development Division

The APA Food Systems, Sustainable Communities, New Urbanism, and Housing & Community Development Divisions, invite you to a Multi-Division Reception.

The event will be held during NPC 23 at AIA Philadelphia (Center for Architecture and Design), across the street from the National Planning Conference at the convention center.

Please join us for drinks and hors d’oeuvres, meet members from other Divisions, celebrate the announcement of the winners of SCD’s Awards for Excellence in Sustainability, and enjoy each other’s company in a casual atmosphere.

Date and Time
Sunday, April 2, 2022
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET

Location

AIA Philadelphia 1218 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107

Ticket Price
Members of hosting divisions (including Food Systems Division members): $12.51
($10 Reception Fee + 2.51 EventBrite fee)
Non-members: $17.85
($15 Reception Fee + 2.85 EventBrite fee)

Register Here

Faces of Food Systems: Arielle Lofton

Current Job: Master of Sustainable Urban Planning at George Washington University Planner at Stantec, and Associate Consultant at Karen Karp & Partners

1. What’s your favorite food?

This is a hard question to answer because I LOVE so many different cuisines, but right now I’m really into Filipino food! This summer, I went to a local Filipino restaurant “Purple Patch” where I had a coconut-braised short rib adobo dish, and I’m still thinking about it.

2. What do you enjoy about your work?

I  enjoy continuing to learn about urban planning and how it affects our lives daily. When you think about it, it affects where we live, our local transit, what we have access to, how our local and regional economies are run, etc… As a philomath, I love to learn and I’m thankful to have had great experiences working in the food industry and going to the Culinary Institute of America which has uniquely shaped my view of food systems.. I hope to continue to advocate for more sustainable development and healthier food systems, especially in underserved communities. Everyone should have access to fresh healthy food!

3. Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

For me, the most challenging thing is working in a bureaucratic structure. Sometimes it’s extremely hard to get things done in local government because you have to have support and people have to value and understand your vision. It takes time but it’s not impossible!

4. What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

In my current role as Associate Consultant at KK&P, I’m working on various food system-related projects focusing on local food procurement and food, and agriculture education for institutions. The world of urban planning is so vast and as a student, I’m building on every experience to help me figure out my strengths and further discover what I’m passionate about. 

5. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not?

At this point in my career not yet, I work on food system-related projects but I wouldn’t say I’m a “food-sytems” planner.

6. What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

When I worked for a community garden program in southern Maryland our biggest problem was capacity. We didn’t have enough community gardens and staff to meet the needs of food insecurity in the county. By partnering with other local community-based organizations we were able to have a broader reach and get fresh produce to people who needed it most. 

7. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

Since starting planning school I’ve come to realize the intersections between food systems, public health, transportation, and overall regional development. We cannot fix our problems by only looking at things as isolated issues. Reaching across industries is vital in creating a healthy and equitable food system, especially for our under-represented and low-income communities.

8. Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field?

Put yourself out there and get involved in your local community! You will always meet passionate people doing food systems work, building relationships and developing a network is very important in finding opportunities in this work.

9. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

I came into planning with no prior experience in the industry and I figured it out along the way with support from my network, faculty, and student body. If you are passionate about something go for it even though it may be daunting or intimidating! 

Faces of Food Systems: Matthew Gabb

Job: Program & Social Science Research Coordinator at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment

1. What’s your favorite food?

Fresh-made sourdough bread with butter.

2. What do you enjoy about your work?

Being at a university, I love getting to work with students every day. I’ve only been out of grad school for a little over a year, but I still learn so much from folks even a few years younger than me.

3. Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

Not being able to please everybody. At IonE, we do research on many multi-million dollar research grants at a time, mostly related to the social science of climate change and sustainability, including a lot of work on industrial ag emissions. As in planning, there are going to be times when people don’t like or want to hear what you have to say. So we do our best to handle that criticism head-on and address folks’ concerns, but all while remembering that what we do and research is important.

4. What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

In addition to my role as a program coordinator and general cat-herder, I help with some of IonE’s research on state-level climate policy. This includes understanding what state- and county/city-level policies exist that tackle food systems and work to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Outside of work, my interests in food systems are largely in two areas: policy and community-building, which I’ll talk more about below.

5. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not?

Yes and no. In my current role at the university, I am definitely not a food systems planner. But a major project I led in grad school and still work on some is Olmsted County, Minnesota’s first-ever food security assessment. Working with a coalition of community partners, we did a deep-dive — including GIS analysis, statistical regressions, and literature reviews — on the state of food security in Olmsted County, including how it is impacted by race, class, transportation, zoning, health, and a number of other factors. It included a list of 34 policy and program recommendations pulled from communities around the US, and helped launch the new Olmsted County Food Security Coalition that is working to implement the recommendations of the assessment. That kind of community-driven work (that also let me dig into Census data, a guilty pleasure of mine) is what I love doing and hope to work on in the future.

6. What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

I moved to Minneapolis in 2019 for planning school, and lived a few blocks from the MPD 3rd Precinct during the uprisings after the murder of George Floyd. Almost all of the national chain grocery stores in the surrounding neighborhoods were inoperable for many months in the summer and fall of 2020, with the remaining options being gas station convenience stores, an overpriced organic co-op, or driving/bussing to the suburbs or St. Paul. None of those are great options, so many of my neighbors tapped into existing mutual aid networks and set up new ones to make sure everyone’s needs were met. Armed with some Google spreadsheets, viral Instagram stories, and word of mouth, South Minneapolis came together to get people diapers, bus passes, food, water, hand sanitizer, rent money, garden seedlings, baby formula, face masks, you name it. When national and international media left Minneapolis, my neighbors were still out in the streets taking care of each other.

7. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

I thought more grocery stores and supermarkets were the answer to “food deserts.” Now I know that they are just a band-aid. Obviously grocery stores and necessary, but if we just slap a supermarket down in a so-called food desert (a term I take a lot of issue with now) it will not work unless we tackle more deep-rooted issues like wages that are too low, bus routes that don’t go to stores, the systemic racism poisoning every aspect of the food system — heck, even something as “simple” as making sure there are adequate, well-maintained sidewalks around a grocery store so folks with mobility aids and strollers can actually get into the store. The “food system” does not exist in the policy vacuum I once thought it did.

8. Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

Two people: Charlotte Rodina, my AmeriCorps supervisor when I served at Beardsley Community Farm in Knoxville, Tennessee. The work she does at Beardsley opened my eyes to the notion that all food, transportation, wage, poverty, etc. policies are choices. And if we want people to have access to safe, culturally relevant, affordable food that they enjoy, we have to start making different choices as a community, a society, and a field. Most importantly, she taught me to remember to focus on the joy that can come from a good meal shared with your neighbors.

The second is my grad school advisor, Dr. Fayola Jacobs, who pushed me to think more critically about why I wanted to go into food systems planning and the policies I wanted to push for. She challenged me throughout my studies to make sure my thinking around food systems was actively anti-racist, non-paternalistic, considered the environment, and centered public health. I can never thank Fayola enough for helping show me a better world is possible when we envision everyone, not just ourselves, in the future.

9. Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field?

Sit down, shut up, and listen to what any communities you work in actually want and need. Because even with all our expensive, fancy training and all the acronyms after our names, we will never be as knowledgeable as community members. Do everything you can to make the futures they envision a reality, no matter what you think is “best” for them.

10. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

Public speaking and non-academic writing skills, which not enough planners are trained in. Planners’ most important job is to be communicators, and we often are not taught how to do that effectively.

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Kajsa Beatty

 

Job: Hubert H Humphrey Masters of Urban and Regional Planning Student and Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of Agriculture at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture

1. What’s your favorite food?

Anything with pesto on it!

2. What do you enjoy about your work?

I love getting to meet all the people who work in agriculture in Minnesota through my work with the department of Agriculture. I have learned so much about the food system that I wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise.  For school, I love getting to learn more about the theories of public engagement and planning with the public. 

3. Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

Sometimes it is fast paced and I have to be ready to scrap something that was being worked on that is no longer happening. For school, It’s challenging to learn about the breadth of planning after learning about the breadth of food systems. It makes it hard to focus on one part when you know all the systems connect and affect each other.

4. What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

At MDA we are focused on regulation, promotion and supporting of agriculture in the state of Minnesota. The work we do impacts all Minnesotans, and I try to keep that in mind everyday. I am going back to school for my planning degree to learn how to incorporate food systems into planning processes. My hope is to regionalize our food system and to get more people growing food.

5. Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not?

In the making! My undergrad degree is in food systems and I am going back to school to get my masters in planning. In two years I will!

6. What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

The meat processing issues that were caused by Covid-19 has sparked a major reinvestment in local, small and mid-sized meat processors in the state of Minnesota. This will allow smaller farmers to produce meat for their communities at an affordable price and lessen our reliance on industrial meat processors.

7. How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

After learning more about planning this semester, food systems planning is one tiny piece of the planning puzzle. It is not normally thought of as planning and I feel like a bit of an odd duck at school, but hopefully that changes more in the future! 

8. Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

Not a professional answer, but my mom! I didn’t realize it at the time, but my mom instilled and exposed me to so many things that shaped how I view the world. Currently I am learning so many new things that are easier to understand because of the context I can put them in. Also my professor Rob King who included Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows in his course and it helped me think about systems problems in a whole new way.

9. Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field?

Don’t limit yourself to learning about only certain parts of the food system. We know some parts of it are harmful to the environment and people, but it should still be understood so you can be a part of the solution. And its all connected!

10. What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? 

GIS! The learning curve is steep. 

Faces of Food System Planning: Ellie Bomstein

Current Position: Project manager, Wallace Center at Winrock International

What’s your favorite food? How many kinds of cheese do you have in your fridge?

I have 14 kinds of cheese, probably. We’re members of 4PFoods, which aggregates from many producers in the mid-Atlantic region, including small scale cheese producers. This time of year, though, watermelon and tomatoes are my favorite. I’ve been known to eat a tomato like it’s an apple.

What do you enjoy about your work?

At the Wallace Center I help manage the Food Systems Leadership Network, building capacity and connection for people doing community-based food systems work. What that means in practice is that I get to talk to a lot of practitioners who are doing the most amazing, cutting-edge food systems work in the country. I love the chance to connect with people and learn, see the whole food system, and notice the trends that are popping up all over the place.

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

Funnily enough, it’s the other side of the coin of the best part of my work. Because the Wallace Center is a national organization, I don’t have direct community connection or as much of a sense of place in our work as I did when I was working at a statewide organization. We help folks with their work at those levels, but don’t always have the sense of the impact of our capacity building work—we don’t get to see them applying what they’ve learned in practice and track that impact. As a result, the way we work, through a million light touches all the time, can be challenging. We hear feedback from network members that they really get a lot out of what we offer, but I don’t get to actually witness it all that often. More broadly, the food system is so vast and such a wicked problem that we’re learning the complexities of it every day, as well as how it is tied into other complex and entrenched systems (e.g., environmental degradation, racism, capitalism)—and that can make it hard to find concrete solutions.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

We look at the food system from the systems level, zooming in and out between the forest and the trees. We work across the entire food value chain: with food hubs, with community-based organizations, with USDA, with academics researching the food system. The center of gravity for the work is whatever makes the food system more resilient, more equitable, and brings people more food sovereignty and self-determination. But the specific part of the system we work in to help push those changes varies.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? 

I wouldn’t say that I do. When I think of a food systems planner, I definitely think of someone more place-based having an impact on a particular regional food system. Because we [the Wallace Center] have a national vantage point, we see ourselves as connectors and intermediaries; we don’t have that same physical boundary that I think food systems planners have. Also in my work I do a lot of “sensing” rather than planning. We’re opportunistic, so we very much are constantly searching for the innovation and the need—we’re reactive and responsive to signals in the network, whereas I think of a planner as a more proactive role.

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

Something that the Wallace Center really had to grapple with and push ourselves on over the past 5-6 years was understanding how essential addressing race and racism is to any systems-level solution in the food system. We can’t get to the type of transformational change that the food system needs without addressing that. What is the role for a primarily white-led/staffed organization in this work? How can we position ourselves as a conduit, a platform, and an accomplice for the people who are dealing with the most harmful impacts of inequities in the food system? This has been a huge area of growth for me personally, but also for the organization. Trying to both embody that change and authentically tell the story of our process, while recognizing that there’s no end point to that work, it’s been a big area of growth for us, and will be for a long time!

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

When I went to grad school in 2011, I knew I wanted to do food systems work, but there weren’t many places to study how to do it. When I was in college, taking an introduction to planning class, I had a graduate student teaching assistant (Dierdre Stockmann) who was doing work on food systems then. When I decided to go to planning school, I reached out to her to ask where I could go to combine the study of food systems with planning. Since then, I think my understanding of the field and how vital it is to planning has grown a lot. I’ve honed my understanding of why the food system is so exciting to me—it’s both a Trojan horse that allows entry into every other social problem and a tangible way of solving some of our most entrenched social problems.

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

When I was in planning school at Cornell, in the introduction to planning class, Professor John Forester said, “pretty much everywhere you go in the world, places look the way they do because people decided they should look that way.” That, in some ways, is overwhelming to contemplate, but we all have a measure of power to influence those things. It helps me feel like there’s a way out. As a food systems planner, Tom Lyson, who had been at Cornell and died a few years before I arrived as a graduate student, wrote a book called Civic Agriculture that had a huge influence on me in terms of understanding how planning and food systems were interconnected.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? 

Having some experience on the production and supply chain side of food systems is important, to understand the pressure and dynamism of that work and how exhausting and unpredictable it can be. Or, try and work in a small community-based organization. I spent time working in a food hub so I know, for example, how a late delivery of eggs can foul up an entire day—that experience keeps me grounded in the work that I do now. I recommend that anyone wanting to do food systems work spend some time on a farm, in a food hub, doing community organizing, generally being close to the ground, and do it with a lot of humility, before moving into any kind of service delivery or planning role. 

What makes you successful in your work? 

Asking lots of questions and then doing a good job listening is essential. As a person in a role with a big audience, it’s really important to be super conscious of whose voices we’re amplifying—who’s in the room, what are their interests and priorities? How are they reflected, or not reflected, in the services we deliver, and the stories we tell? The people who have the answers are most always the ones closest to the problems, so if you have a seat at the table and are able to open up access for those people, that’s a great role for a planner or someone in a higher capacity organization.

What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning-related work? 

Relationship building, trust building, and seeing people’s humanity are important. Those may not be considered traditional planning skills, but they make a huge difference to the work, especially in a community-based context.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school? 

I took one year off between undergrad and grad school. I didn’t really gain any professional experience to speak of in that year. I noticed that other students in my program who had so much to offer and were the most engaged in the classes were oftentimes the ones who had been in the workforce for a few years before coming to grad school. The stakes are so much higher for people who leave their lives to go back to school, and they put so much more into it and as a result get so much out of it, because they feel like they have more to learn and something is missing from their lives. A hallmark of their approach was taking advantage of things outside the classroom as well, such as volunteering and putting skin in the game in other ways. So, I think I would have taken more advantage of the opportunity if I had a little professional ability under my belt first.

How do you think COVID 19 will shape/change your job/food systems? 

That’s the big question right now, isn’t it? It feels like there’s a renewed attention and understanding of how resilient and redundant food systems and supply chains need to be – which, of course, food systems planners have known for a long time. It’s a great moment to capitalize on this opportunity. There are just so many new resources in the system now, especially from the federal government. The Wallace Center has been doing a lot of work to try and influence some decision making at USDA, helping people access the expanded funding opportunities and seeing how to amend programs to better serve the needs of people who use them. So, we’re hoping that USDA will make some smart decisions about what to do with that money now to catalyze long term change, and also update how they operate beyond this current money to keep throwing their weight around for resiliency in the local food system. The local food “movement” has the attention of some big players right now and hopefully that results in some new opportunities, short and long term. 

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Erica Hall

Name: Erica Hall, M.S. CED, MBA, ARM

Current Position: Board Chair/Exec Dir., Florida Food Policy Council, Exec Committee Vice Chair, Suncoast Sierra Club

What’s your favorite food?

Tie between BBQ and Italian Food

What do you enjoy about your work?

Meeting new people and learning about the interesting projects they are working on. Creating linkages and partnerships.

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

Fighting to implement Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) principles in Food System work, especially now. 

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

Food Justice, food insecurity, nutrition insecurity, racial, social, climate and environmental justice. All areas fit together because they are interconnected. 

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner?

No, because I am not a planner by profession. I am a Community Development Professional, with a legal background. My planning experience comes from my work in the fields of the built environment, urban planning, sustainability, and resiliency. 

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

As a BIPOC leader in this space, Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) is the biggest hurdle. This current system creates a racialized landscape in which people of color tend to experience worse health outcomes than white people. Black, Latinx and Native American communities face some of the steepest environmental barriers to socioeconomic well-being. These barriers include but are not limited to: segregated communities with substandard healthy food options, hazardous housing conditions, and unwalkable neighborhoods that are systematically polluted. It has not been dealt with as evidenced by the recent turn of events, politically, economically and racially.  However, in light of a new Administration, there is hope these hurdles will begin to be addressed. 

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

My perception of food systems planning hasn’t changed since I was first introduced to this work. In cities across the United States, racism still exists in built form. There’s a long history of intentionally racist policies such as race-restricted covenants preventing minority groups from moving to certain areas, redlining that limited access to housing finance, which concentrated nonwhite residents in neighborhoods that were then systematically underserved. These policies have had long-term negative impacts on access to healthy foods, jobs, wealth creation, health, and countless other socioeconomic factors. As previously stated, I am hopeful that with a new Administration that is focusing on environmental justice, climate change, and food justice, we will change the dynamics of years of systemic and structural racism. 

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner?

As a BIPOC leader, my influences historically were people like W.E.B. DuBois and Dorothy Mae Richardson, a community activist who fought against redlining. Her efforts led to the founding of Pittsburgh-based Neighborhood Housing Services, along with the national group now known as NeighborWorks America, one of the leading community development institutions. I worked for NeighborWorks America for seven years in the General Counsel’s office.

As a food systems planner? Currently, one of my influences is Julian Agyeman, Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University, who is an urban planning academic who teaches a course on food justice. I am also a fan of BlackSpace, a collective of 200 Black designers, architects, artists, and urban planners, committed to Black-centered planning and design. The organization works through community workshops, planning exercises, and cooperative design efforts to proactively bring Black voices and concerns into a development process that has long ignored them.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field?

Be flexible and open in your work, which may lead you to unexpected but surprisingly fulfilled places. What makes you successful in your work? My flexibility, adaptability, listening ability, collaboration, partnership, and network building.   What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning-related work? GIS Mapping Data, research, zoning and comprehensive codes, policies, land laws. 

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

Again, my education is in Community Economic Development and a Global MBA so not applicable. However, had I known what I know now, I may have gone to planning school.

How do you think COVID 19 will shape/change your job/food systems?

COVID has already changed the way we do our work. Meetings, convenings and discussions have gone virtual, with very little in person meetings. Due to racial and social injustice, food systems planning is being revisited using a JEDI intersectional lens.

*Some portions edited for length.

Sept. 23rd Membership Meeting – register today!

We’re excited to resume our 4th Thursday Membership Meetings on September 23rd 3pm/4pm/5pm/6pm start time from West-East. We have a new registration link, so please sign up here. We have lots to discuss, and lots of opportunities to get engaged and help grow our Division. 

See you on the 23rd!

APA FOOD Executive Committee

Faces of Food Systems Planning: Janice Hill

Name: Janice Hill, AICP

Current Position: Executive Planner and Farmland Protection Manager; Owner, Acreage43560, LLC – A Local Food and Farmland Consulting Firm. Janice Hill, AICP, has worked in the planning field for 37 years. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where she envisioned local food production in North Philadelphia in the early 1980s, Janice works as executive planner for Kane County, IL. She is also the owner of Acreage43560 LLC, a farmland consultancy.

What do you currently enjoy about your work?

I enjoy the mix of computer and field work.  Taking a trip “into the field” is usually the best part of my week, camera in hand always. I cannot understand why some planners only use google maps; there is no substitute for eyeing your subject area in person. 

Similarly, what do you find challenging about your work?

In the past as a municipal planner, it was the planning commission night meetings, and then the long drive home.  At the same time, plan commissioners are some of my favorite people, dedicated to making their communities the best, volunteering their time.  I’ve learned a lot from the municipal and county commissioners I’ve worked with during my 37 years in planning.

What areas of the food system do you focus on in your work, and where does that fit in with the rest of the work that you do?

It’s hard to separate a portion of the food system out from the rest, but I am first a land use planner, it’s the first lens I use in all my work. We need the land base to produce food (even food grown in the built environment) and I believe all planners should first be well-schooled in land use.

Do you consider yourself a food systems planner? Why or why not? 

I’m a land use planner first, systems thinker second, farmland protection specialist third and local food planner and advocate, not only as a professional but as a farm family granddaughter.  I don’t take it for granted and I believe all people deserve fresh and local food, and menu items cooked from scratch. 

What is the biggest food systems planning-related hurdle your community/organization faced in recent years and how was it dealt with?

The greatest challenge was overcoming a disappointment when a multi-year project failed when handed over to a private operator after being in the public/community hands for years. I still have faith in public/private partnerships, but in the food and farm sector we still have a lot to learn about making the relationship work successfully.  It has been done more in other sectors like transportation; growing local foods isn’t the same as building local roads. 

How has your perception of food systems planning changed since you first entered the planning field?

Many of us feel that the pandemic pushed the average shopper into awareness of the local food system by showing the weaknesses of our current centralized system.  Also the results of the highly processed foods are showing in our health. 

Who has had the most influence on you as a planner? As a food systems planner?

My first mentor and influencer is my dear friend since undergrad days, Barry Miller, a planner extraordinaire from Berkeley, CA. We’ve been friends since age 18, and I remember I suggested first, after seeing his hand-drawn maps, that he should be a planner; and two years later, when I was dissatisfied with clinical psych classes, he suggested I take a social planning class. We both have extremely successful careers and I can’t imagine either of us taking different career paths.

Do you have any advice for someone entering the food systems planning field? What makes you successful in your work? What skills do you use the most in your food systems planning-related work?

I believe all planners should be trained in land use and zoning first and should spend time in public sector planning working “at the counter” at some planning office.  And field work is essential. I worry that too many planners rely on the screen instead of their own field work.  Push away from the screen: aerial photography doesn’t begin to show everything.  Also talk to people, find out what their ideas and thoughts are about their environment, neighborhood, gardens, farms, tabletops, shops, etc. 

I strongly believe that planners should build their design skillset: photography, film, map-making. I believe policy comes second to design and spatial skills.  Training planners to understand fundamentals of land use, design, geography, soils, and water resources must come before learning about change.

What do you wish you would have known before going to planning school?

Nothing, it was perfect for me.  I was ready but I had already taken a few courses as an undergraduate in an undergraduate planning program, which there aren’t that many of. If I was starting now without undergraduate coursework, I’d become familiar with map-making, basic hand-drawing, photography, videography, public speaking, and work on my social skills to be comfortable engaging with all kinds of people.

How do you think COVID 19 will shape/change your job/food systems?

I’m hopeful that in the future every school has large garden, greenhouse and chef and that kids don’t start to study local foods in grad school; they start in kindergarten!

*Some portions edited for length.