Panel 3
Climate Change and Food Justice
This session addresses the need to build local and equitable food systems that ensure everyone can procure and grow healthy, sustainable produced food. Panelists discuss what communities, organizations, and individuals are doing to address these issues in the Chicagoland region.
Panelists
Rodger Cooley
Executive Director, Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Rodger Cooley, executive director of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC), has worked for over 20 years in urban agriculture and sustainable, equitable food systems, helping facilitate policy and projects. Cooley previously spent nine years with Heifer International, supporting the development of urban and rural farming projects in Chicago and the Midwestern United States. CFPAC supports community partners across the food system to build trust for collaborative systems change. CFPAC's team and community partners advocated for and directly supported the implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Policy (GFPP) in the City of Chicago, Cook County, and local health care and higher educational facilities.
Cooley serves on the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation, the Chicago Food Equity Council, the Illinois Local Food Purchasing Agreement Advisory Committee, and the Illinois Agriculture Equity Commission. He has a master's degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College. He has served as adjunct faculty at DePaul University and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Alex Poltorak
Distribution Lead and Operations Lead, The Urban Canopy
Alex Poltorak is the distribution lead and operations lead with The Urban Canopy. Within these roles, he coordinates transportation logistics and distributes local and non-local organic produce to commercial customers. Founded in 2011, The Urban Canopy works to create a more sustainable and equitable food system in Chicago. The organization includes growers, distributors, composters, and community members who seek to positively impact the city’s environment, people’s health, and the local economy. The organization strives to make healthy produce accessible to all, reduce the miles fresh food travels, keep food waste out of landfills, and create and maintain local jobs.
Bweza Itaagi
Co-Owner, Sistas In The Village
Nyabweza “Bweza” Itaagi is an urban farmer, community cultivator and horticulturist. Raised in Colorado’s Denver metro area, Bweza moved to Chicago in 2015 to pursue a master’s degree in sustainable urban development at DePaul University. In both Denver and Chicago, she has worked with a range of organizations focused on urban agriculture, community empowerment, and Earth stewardship. As a first-generation Ugandan American, she seeks to incorporate traditional African diasporic farming practices in Chicago. She views farming as a spiritual practice with the ability to heal communities and grow collective power. In her work, she seeks to bridge intercontinental Black communities to build solidarity and resilience. She co-owns Sistas In The Village farm and is the steward for the Englewood Nature Trail and Agro-Eco District.
Mecca Bey
Co-Owner, Sistas In The Village
Mecca Bey’s extensive background in the medical industry and her passion for helping empower people led her to begin her journey dedicated to helping rebuild communities through a healthy lifestyle and social and economic change. She also pursued her other passion of learning how to farm organically so that she could teach our children the importance of growing their own food organically and teach communities about a sustainable life in urban farming. Mecca spends her time taking care of her family, writing, and enjoying life on her terms. Today, Mecca is living her purpose as a wellness coach, healing circle keeper, community outreach leader, urban farmer, and co-creator of Sistas in the Village farm. She is also a speaker, engaging people about health and wellness as it relates to land, farming, and community.
Ruby Ferguson
Senior Director of Strategic Relationships and Community Planning, Greater Chicago Food Depository
Ruby Ferguson, MS, MEd, RD, LDN, is the senior director of strategic relationships and community planning at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. She is also Chicago’s first food equity policy lead in the Mayor’s Office. In this role, she has stewarded the work of the Food Equity Council, where city and community partners collaborate to advance the priorities of the Food Equity Agenda to transform Chicago’s food system into one that is just and vibrant. Driven by the belief that access to good health is a fundamental human right, Ruby has committed her academic and professional career to addressing the root causes of health inequities in her community. Her experience as the director of nutrition at a Federally Qualified Community Health Care Center, where she oversaw WIC clinics, clinical dietitians, and a cooking program, showed her the transformative power of food to give communities agency over their health. Ruby holds a BA/BS from Spelman College, an MEd in exercise physiology from Auburn University, and an MS in human nutrition from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Climate Change and Food Justice
This session addresses the need to build local and equitable food systems that ensure everyone can procure and grow healthy, sustainable produced food. Panelists discuss what communities, organizations, and individuals are doing to address these issues in the Chicagoland region.
Panelists
Rodger Cooley
Executive Director, Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Rodger Cooley, executive director of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC), has worked for over 20 years in urban agriculture and sustainable, equitable food systems, helping facilitate policy and projects. Cooley previously spent nine years with Heifer International, supporting the development of urban and rural farming projects in Chicago and the Midwestern United States. CFPAC supports community partners across the food system to build trust for collaborative systems change. CFPAC's team and community partners advocated for and directly supported the implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Policy (GFPP) in the City of Chicago, Cook County, and local health care and higher educational facilities.
Cooley serves on the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation, the Chicago Food Equity Council, the Illinois Local Food Purchasing Agreement Advisory Committee, and the Illinois Agriculture Equity Commission. He has a master's degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College. He has served as adjunct faculty at DePaul University and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Alex Poltorak
Distribution Lead and Operations Lead, The Urban Canopy
Alex Poltorak is the distribution lead and operations lead with The Urban Canopy. Within these roles, he coordinates transportation logistics and distributes local and non-local organic produce to commercial customers. Founded in 2011, The Urban Canopy works to create a more sustainable and equitable food system in Chicago. The organization includes growers, distributors, composters, and community members who seek to positively impact the city’s environment, people’s health, and the local economy. The organization strives to make healthy produce accessible to all, reduce the miles fresh food travels, keep food waste out of landfills, and create and maintain local jobs.
Bweza Itaagi
Co-Owner, Sistas In The Village
Nyabweza “Bweza” Itaagi is an urban farmer, community cultivator and horticulturist. Raised in Colorado’s Denver metro area, Bweza moved to Chicago in 2015 to pursue a master’s degree in sustainable urban development at DePaul University. In both Denver and Chicago, she has worked with a range of organizations focused on urban agriculture, community empowerment, and Earth stewardship. As a first-generation Ugandan American, she seeks to incorporate traditional African diasporic farming practices in Chicago. She views farming as a spiritual practice with the ability to heal communities and grow collective power. In her work, she seeks to bridge intercontinental Black communities to build solidarity and resilience. She co-owns Sistas In The Village farm and is the steward for the Englewood Nature Trail and Agro-Eco District.
Mecca Bey
Co-Owner, Sistas In The Village
Mecca Bey’s extensive background in the medical industry and her passion for helping empower people led her to begin her journey dedicated to helping rebuild communities through a healthy lifestyle and social and economic change. She also pursued her other passion of learning how to farm organically so that she could teach our children the importance of growing their own food organically and teach communities about a sustainable life in urban farming. Mecca spends her time taking care of her family, writing, and enjoying life on her terms. Today, Mecca is living her purpose as a wellness coach, healing circle keeper, community outreach leader, urban farmer, and co-creator of Sistas in the Village farm. She is also a speaker, engaging people about health and wellness as it relates to land, farming, and community.
Ruby Ferguson
Senior Director of Strategic Relationships and Community Planning, Greater Chicago Food Depository
Ruby Ferguson, MS, MEd, RD, LDN, is the senior director of strategic relationships and community planning at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. She is also Chicago’s first food equity policy lead in the Mayor’s Office. In this role, she has stewarded the work of the Food Equity Council, where city and community partners collaborate to advance the priorities of the Food Equity Agenda to transform Chicago’s food system into one that is just and vibrant. Driven by the belief that access to good health is a fundamental human right, Ruby has committed her academic and professional career to addressing the root causes of health inequities in her community. Her experience as the director of nutrition at a Federally Qualified Community Health Care Center, where she oversaw WIC clinics, clinical dietitians, and a cooking program, showed her the transformative power of food to give communities agency over their health. Ruby holds a BA/BS from Spelman College, an MEd in exercise physiology from Auburn University, and an MS in human nutrition from the University of Illinois at Chicago.