Corenna Khieu

Corenna joined as a Community Council member in the summer of 2022!Her project was the youth focused Aiming Higher that hopes to help youth make connections with working professionals to gain inspiration and reach their dreams!As a convener her work focuses on running the Community Support Fund with fellow Conveners Adriane and Glenda, and as a fund developer in the Network Sustainability program.

Adriane Wilson

Adriane Wilson joined the JHFS as a part time Coordinator in the Winter of 2017.She is an independent consultant specializing in equity and community engagement. Particularly focusing on communities of color and low-income communities that are typically underrepresented in the policies, programs and services that seek to serve them.As a woman who identifies from the African Diaspora that has deep ties in Tacoma has herself overcome personal and professional challenges. She is extremely skilled at connecting with people where they are and listening and motivating their engagement to bring about real change.Her current role at JHFS is as a special events Coordinator, manager of the Barrier Relief Fund, team member for the Community Support Fund, Network Sustainability, and organizational history consultant for her fellow Conveners.

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Corwin Scott

Corwin joined the JHFS as part of the Community Council in 2018. He was part of the first team to develop our Barrier Relief Fund! Since then he has progressed into a Convener role, learning to facilitate and convene community members to create their own projects or events that work toward a solution for issues they previously or currently face.

Glenda Duldulao

Glenda joined the JHFs as a member of the Asia Pacific Islander Affinity Dinner Team.Since then, she participated in a Facilitation Training program created by two previous youth members of the network. From there, she focused her work on supporting more Affinity spaces, the Community Support Fund, and Network Sustainability to help create alternative methods of funding community members.

Brandi Yañez-Riddle (disconnected hñähñu)

Brandi Yanez-Riddle joined the JHFS in Summer 2015, as a full time Coordinator. Their work consists of supporting members to build out their ideas, get ‘em down on paper and seek sources to get their work off the ground.For the more recent work they serve in a remote consulting capacity to help with backend tasks like agenda creation and note taking, communication or other administrative needs, and help provide organizational history perspective for fellow Conveners.

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Adriane Wilson

Adriane Wilson joined the JHFS as a part time Coordinator in the Winter of 2017.She is an independent consultant specializing in equity and community engagement. Particularly focusing on communities of color and low-income communities that are typically underrepresented in the policies, programs and services that seek to serve them.As a woman who identifies from the African Diaspora that has deep ties in Tacoma has herself overcome personal and professional challenges. She is extremely skilled at connecting with people where they are and listening and motivating their engagement to bring about real change.

• Venmo
• PayPal
• Cash App
• Email

• Truth Teller Consulting

Brandi Yañez-Riddle (disconnected hñähñu)

Brandi Yanez-Riddle joined the JHFS in Summer 2015, as a full time Coordinator. Their work consists of supporting members to build out their ideas, get ‘em down on paper and seek sources to get their work off the ground.Brandi is also a visual practitioner & illustrator with a passion for Indigenous food sovereignty, community development and racial justice. Brandi enjoys helping community members build sustainable anti-oppressive projects, programming & businesses. They also create visual concept breakdowns of racism and oppression as it relates to various topics.

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Purpose:A collective of individuals, organizations and other institutions currently working on food justice, or work related to food justice, moving forward together and building from a base that prioritizes increasing racial equity and anti-racist actions within and beyond the food system.

Values:**Equity & Decision Making Power: **
Where we concentrate on supporting actions and projects that address racial inequity and then socioeconomic equity. Under the premise that addressing race, which is usually an underlying (or often unseen) factor for disparities in power or other inequities, will also positively impact people who experience other inequities without their race being a factor.**Healthy People & Healthy Communities: **
Where we support work that positively increases health and life outcomes. Where healthy means more than just physical health, but spiritual, mental, emotional, environmental, and even social health.** And, Revaluing Food and Agriculture: **
Which means we support actions that help people see beyond the monetary value of food. So they can reconnect to knowledge that’s been lost, see the benefits of working in the soil, recognize and support the people growing their food, and learn, or remember that food is medicine.

Our Structure is flatWith an all consensus based decision making process. Because we are flat, no one team is responsible for bringing decisions and ideas forward. Anyone can at anytime.Our consensus model works so that meetings continue, regardless of how many people are present.It provides the perfect flow of action versus momentum loss which can happen when people feel like no one is showing up. So if we have only 1 or 2 people in a meeting, the “show goes on” so to speak, and their decisions become what goes out to the people who could not make it.From there, we provide a timeframe for the people who were not physically present, to give their input or change the decision, and also provide debriefs through a variety of communication methods (facebook, text, phone, in-person, Zoom etc.) for them to catch up on what was missed. If they still do not vote, they get an extra 24 or 48 hour window where the Coordinator reaches out individually to remind them the decisions can move forward without them.In this way, we are always moving forward, and people know that, down the line - once we see how new policies or decisions affect things - there is always a chance for people to make decisions to change things again. Nothing is set in stone.Though, Conveners do have to be sure the decisions are staying within our values. As it is our job to initiate pieces of The Pledge when triggered.

Long term Outcome:Support programs or work that increases capacity for Resilience, Self-Reliance and Interdependence as opposed to temporary fixes without full follow through. (alternatively explained as, communities have self-sufficient systems in place that supplement needs, but serve to build community resilience in times of great need.)Indicators that show this is working:
Increased local neighborhood production (hyper-local)- Reduced need for emergency food services through increasing community or personal food preservation or increasing capture/gleaning/recovery of food from private land to support people and neighborhoods- Increased sharing and bartering spaces and education.- Sustainable sources of income or sustained funds for support for community members while they build out ideas.Supporting projects and activities like the following will get us closer to these goals:
- Project North Star (& other housing/food/land related work we support such as Land & Housing Liberation - a Hilltop Urban Gardens Team)
- Native Sharing Garden
- Equity Facilitation Startup
- Humble Financial Beginnings
- Community Council
- Barrier Relief Funds

Short-Term or Intermediate Outcomes:Anti-displacement and anti-gentrificationIncreasing local, sustainable production and obtainabilitySustainably Built Environment where food is a consideration in all aspects of city planning, community development, public land, and private land development for multi-family housing etc**Self-sufficiency ** the ability to see connections between food and other topics of interest helps to make space for community created ideas that may not fit neatly into the topic of “food” in conventional ways, and helps us be flexible to community needs while showing the connections between those ideas and food, racism and other issues throughout the watershed.Indicators that show this is working:For Anti-displacement/anti-gentrification:
When people can afford to stay in place (keep their home, or maintain rent) and can eat despite upgraded amenities in the area (has the means or support to eat nutritious, culturally appropriate food, and enjoy commerce within the neighborhood)
Increased number of community led developments, and cooperatives (and putting a plan in place, in case this is not accepted at the institutional level)For Increasing Local Production:
Land zoning is edited to include urban agriculture and support food centered development incorporated into city codes and planning decisions.Policy changes or additions
Sustainably Built Environments
Increased urban land use (both public and private) for producing food for the community
Increase gardens and publically grown foodFor Self-Sufficiency:
- community members have access to funds to try ideas
- community members have access to people with resources, or people that can direct them to resources and help them navigate
- community members are supported through stipends and emergency funds to help maintain some capacity if there projects are not a source of income.
- community members are supported to build ideas that generate income for themselves and plans for how to give back to the group or communitySupporting projects and activities like the following will get us closer to these goals:
- Land & Housing Liberation
- Canning & Preservation For PoC (now a program of Rose Island Farm)
- Native Sharing Garden
- Emergency Preparedeness

April Updates

• Network Sustainability

• Affinity Groups

This program is composed of members that have received funding from the Community of Interest (or other partners) for work directly or indirectly related to the root causes of an unjust & unhealthy food system.
All projects must have an anti-racist or anti-oppressive actions component.

• Community Council

This program is composed of members that have lived experience dealing with food system related issues or are apart of communities that have historically felt a disproportionate impacts of things like housing, displacement, food insecurity etc.Their current efforts are focused on self-sufficiency and community support. They are tasked with developing their own ideas/projects/businesses that can build security for themselves while supporting the community in direct or indirect ways.This group is currently closed to new members until the current cohort successfully reaches their goals for individual or collaborative projects.

• General Members

These members do not currently serve on any teams. They opt to help at higher levels such as volunteering, disseminating information, making connections or collaborations, and attend the larger gatherings. They also vote on project funding.