Dear Slow Food leaders and members, 

When I joined the Slow Food team in 2016, staff commuted to an office in Brooklyn and ate lunch around a big wooden table. We were launching a new strategic plan that focused on a big national festival, Slow Food Nations. A few years later, Richard McCarthy stepped down and the board invited me into the executive director position. Not long after, COVID hit and the world turned upside down. Now, I write to you from my home office, with a small but brilliant staff across the country, the festival long retired, and a new strategic plan recently launched. 

A lot has changed in eight years! Change is healthy for movements. And now it’s time for me to change as well. I am stepping away from my role as Slow Food USA’s executive director in early April. It’s time for new energy and new leadership to lead this vast network. I won’t be far in the good food movement; I will be joining Farm Aid as their director of business and marketing and look forward to staying in touch.

As I reflect over eight years, I wanted to share my top three lessons learned:

1. A social change network is not your typical nonprofit organization. Maybe this should have been obvious? It took me a good four years to really understand what a network is, what a network means and what a network does. Networks are all about relationships and decentralized power. Relationships are built at the speed of trust; sometimes that trust is built in quiet, nitty gritty logistics, and sometimes it’s built by being bold and standing up for your values. Decentralized power means that we are more like a starfish than a spider — if we lose a limb, we regenerate. I am confident that you, Slow Food leaders and members, are the core energy and there is no stopping your momentum.

    

2. Building an inclusive and diverse network takes intentionality and focus at three levels — personal learning, internal systems and external impact. I’ve done a lot of personal learning and unlearning, and am grateful to the people who challenged my assumptions. I’ve also reworked our internal policies so we minimize gatekeeping and power hoarding, cultivate horizontal leadership and create welcoming environments. And I learned to focus our external impact less on individual consumer change and more on policy advocacy in the food system.

    

3. Lastly, I’ve learned that volunteers are an incredible force for change! I am constantly blown away with the volunteer leaders at all levels of Slow Food. You dedicate hours and hours of your time and pour your hearts and souls into this movement. I am deeply grateful and humbled by your commitment to good, clean and fair food for all. It has been such an honor to serve you in this network.

The Slow Food USA board of directors is working on a transition plan and would like to invite you to our monthly roundtable call on March 26 for a little send-off celebration, to introduce the incoming interim executive director, and to field any questions or suggestions you may have.

Lots of love and stay in touch!

Yours,