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Our Initiatives

Community Listening

Everything we do starts with Listening

Community members at our 2025 Elected Officials Listening Session. A UN-style model, each speaker had 2 minutes to offer testimony, and elected officials had time for clarifying questions.

Community members at our 2025 Elected Officials Listening Session. A UN-style model, each speaker had 2 minutes to offer testimony, and elected officials had time for clarifying questions.

SOFSA builds trust through real conversations. Whether through listening sessions, neighborhood outreach, or shared decision-making, we ensure that those most affected by food system challenges shape the solutions.

 

Our Community Listening Sessions happen in partnership with organizations doing different kinds of food system work. Partner organizations and the participants for each session are compensated. SOFSA facilitates a conversation that seeks to understand the opportunities and challenges of the hosts, and then works with the partner organization to determine next steps and accountability measures as necessary. â€‹â€‹

Listening  Sessions
Broad Themes from 2022-2025

Farmer & Producer Support

  • Challenges with aggregation, distribution, cold storage, and procurement

  • Need for support with navigating bidding/markets, marketing, and infrastructure

  • Emphasis on climate adaptation and sustainability

Community Building & Engagement

  • Cooking and gardening as tools for connection

  • Importance of dignity, inclusion, and volunteer sustainability

  • Desire for spaces to gather, share, and learn

Infrastructure Needs

  • Cold storage, community kitchens, processing facilities, and garden accessibility

  • Stable land access and long-term leases for farmers

  • Funding for capital projects and equipment

Climate Change & Sustainability

  • Impacts on farming (shorter seasons, pests, weather shifts)

  • Interest in perennial crops, permaculture, and wetlands preservation

  • Questions about balancing yield, viability, and affordability

Food Access & Affordability

  • Need for grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods

  • Barriers to pantry access (hours, quality, dignity)

  • Desire for affordable, healthy, culturally relevant foods

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Policy & Advocacy

  • Farm-to-school expansion, fair food procurement, zoning/code reform

  • Incentives for local business development

  • Addressing corporate control and inequities in the food system

Education & Food Literacy

  • Interest in cooking classes, nutrition education, gardening skills, food preservation

  • Desire for culturally relevant food education and intergenerational learning

Transportation Barriers

  • Bus system is too slow/limited, especially to grocery stores and farmers markets

  • Desire for shuttles or improved routes connecting low-access areas to markets and food sites

Equity, Justice & Workforce Development

  • Focus on labor equity, fair wages, and career pathways in food systems

  • Prioritizing marginalized groups (Black, Brown, Deaf, disabled farmers and workers)

  • Concerns about tokenism and the need for authentic participation

Cultural Relevance & Inclusion

  • Ethnic crops and groceries are valued, but still unmet needs

  • Accessibility for people with disabilities, older adults, and multilingual communities

  • Importance of food and farming tied to cultural identity and heritage

Broad Themes Bar Graph 2022-2025

19 listening sessions   |   20 community partnerships   |   335 participants

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