Introducing the Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows Program

Inaugural 2025 Learning and Action Fellows meeting on Sunday June 22, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. Left to right: Tyler Yarbrough, Denisse Cordova Montes, Alison Cohen, Emily Settlecowski, Carolina Rascon, Brizai Gomez Cortes, Peyton Yourch, Erica Hall, Daniel Chian, Photini Kamvisseli Suarez. Not pictured: Karen Spiller. 

We are incredibly excited to announce the launching of our Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows Program. This inaugural cohort of Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows Program includes five local organizers from across the country who are building coalitions, organizing communities, and mobilizing advocates to develop and implement right to food policies and practices in their own communities. 

The year-long Fellows Program will facilitate shared learning and mutual support and strengthen organizing work towards a national movement for the right to food. Along the way, we will collectively identify and/or develop new and potentially replicable policy and program pathways towards progressively realizing the right to food in places close to home to ensure food is universally accessible, available, adequate, sustainable and democratically determined. Each Fellow will receive peer connection and mentorship through virtual cohort meetings, financial assistance to support their participation as a Fellow, and scholarships for travel to attend an in-person meeting of the Fellows’ cohort to help participants expand their network, deepen their connections and join a national movement for the Right to Food.

Last Sunday, the Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows met for a day of learning and community building in Portland, Oregon. The five fellows joined us from across the country and included:

• Erica Hall, St. Petersburg, Florida, representing the Florida Food Policy Council

• Carolina Rascon, Charleston, West VA, representing Voices of Hunger West Virginia

• Emily Settlecowski and Brizai Gomez, Denver, Colorado, representing MetroCaring 

• Tyler Yarbrough, Clarksdale, MS, representing the Center for Mississippi Food Systems and Partnerships for a Healthier America

• Peyton Yourch, Schenectady, NY, representing Alliance for a Hunger Free New York

At the Portland conference, the Right to Food Fellows had the opportunity to meet and talk with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri. Left to right: Daniel Chian, Carolina Rascon, Michael Fakhri, Brizai Gomez Cortes, Tyler Yarbrough, Denisse Cordova Montes, Alison Cohen, and Karen Spiller.

This meeting was followed by the Resilience and Resistance: Cross-Pollinating Food Movements conference at Portland State University, giving our Fellows the chance to engage with more than 600 advocates from around the country from a variety of food systems sectors seeking to cross-pollinate and collectively build towards a transformed food system rooted in justice.

We look forward to introducing you to the goals, hopes and dreams for local food system transformation of our five inaugural Right to Food Learning and Action Fellows in the coming weeks, as we publish individual profiles of each member of the cohort for our blog. Stay tuned!