CULTURAL AGREEMENTS

How We Show Up For Each Other 

We lead with local leadership and real constraints.

We respect the expertise in communities, farms, kitchens, and procurement offices. We design around what is operationally possible, not what sounds ideal on paper.

We practice transparency.

We communicate clearly about timelines, requirements, decision-making, and what is still uncertain. We share what we learn, including what does not work.

We support co-learning.

We build shared understanding across partners through practical learning, feedback loops, and continuous improvement.

We focus on long-term viability.

We prioritize approaches that strengthen local markets and institutions over one-time wins or short-term visibility.

We widen access and representation.

We design programs, outreach, and decision-making so people who have been excluded from opportunity have a real pathway to participate and lead.

What we expect from partners:

  • Communicate early when conditions change

  • Share constraints honestly so planning is realistic

  • Keep commitments or renegotiate them promptly

  • Treat partners with respect, even when priorities differ

  • Contribute to shared learning so the model can improve and scale

  • “There is much good work to be done by every one of us and we must begin to do it.”

    —Wendell Berry

  • “To grow your own food gives you power and dignity.”

    —Karen Washington

  • “To tend the Earth is always then to tend our destiny, our freedom and our hope.”

    —Leah Penniman

  • “I want people to start looking at our state with a sense of possibility.”

    —Crystal Good

  • “I have no fear here, in this world of trees, weeds, and growing things.”

    —Bell Hooks

  • “When we control our food, we control our destiny—economically and socially.”

    —Jason Tartt