Monthly Food Council Connection Calls - 1st Tuesdays, 2:30 - 4:00pm

Our team will be co-facilitating monthly, topic-based calls as a space to learn together and build connections. Below are the topics we’ll cover from March through July. We’ll skip August, and have another set of dynamic conversations planned for the 2nd half of 2021. 

Please join us! 

• Mar 2: *Taking Action for Racial Equity Principles – How they are showing up in our daily work and Regional Breakouts. We encouraged councils to shift their assessment of their work by looking at how their work aligns with principles associated with racial equity; intentionally naming actions that relate to these principles as a way to shift the organizational culture. Councils broke out by region and discussed collectively these intentional actions.
  • Shared tools:
    • CORE Level I Online Toolkit (includes Three Expressions tool)
    • dR Works Online Workbook Action Tools page (includes expanded Taking Action Principles – scroll to mid-page)
    • We shared Share examples from our Comm Food Strat Retreat of practical ways we are incorporating the Taking Action Principles in our work 

• Apr 6: Power Analysis: Why is it important for food councils to assess power — power dynamics between members, with the community, with other organizations?
  • How to Understand Power, TED-Ed video – Every day, we move and operate within systems of power that other people have constructed. But we’re often uncomfortable talking about power. Why? Eric Liu describes the six sources of power and explains how understanding them is key to being an effective citizen.
  • Power Flower tool – visualizing how our identities give us unearned privilege and which do not
• May 4: Centering Justice: Justice-centered approaches are those that address systemic causes of oppression and center frontline communities. In order to focus on justice-centered approaches, we must be accountable to both principles and people. Using “organizing mind” is one principle that we can use to explore and implement justice-centered practice and approaches. 
• Jun 1: *Regional Breakouts & 2021 Shared Gifting: The June Food Council Connections Call will serve as our quarterly regional network call.  We’ll use much of our time in breakouts with others in your region.  We’ll also share a quick status update of 2021 Shared Gifting and hear your feedback on an idea for coordinating a Food Council Event series in the fall.
• Jul 6: Youth Leaders: Learning from the Brilliance and Energy of Youth Food Councils Across NC 
• Aug: NO MEETING
• Sep: *Show Up Series and general council updates + REGIONAL Connections
• Oct: Explicit Goal Setting + Power of Food Conference Share-Out
• Nov: County Commissioner Food System Resiliency Report 
• Dec: *Statewide Gathering + REGIONAL connections

*REGIONAL Connections: In March, June, September, and December, these calls will serve as our usual quarterly Regional Networking Calls. We will convene as a full network, and will spend much of our time in breakouts connecting by region.